Mackenzie Shirilla shares expert testimony from dismissed appeal which 'proves she had medical episode'
Despite having been convicted on two counts of murder, with her attempt to appeal this rejected, Mackenzie Shirilla and her family maintain that she is innocent.
Shirilla is currently serving two concurrent sentences of between 15 years and life after she was found guilty of killing both Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan in a 100 mph crash where she was the only survivor.
Netflix’s The Crash has seen a renewed interest in her case, and has even led to her dad Steve Shirilla being suspended for his interview in the doc.
Now though it appears that Mackenzie’s family are hitting out at her conviction, posting to her Instagram story with text messages between her and Dominic as well screenshots of her appeal against her conviction which features a medical expert seeming to prove her ongoing theory that she had some kind of medical episode which caused her to pass out.
Mackenzie shares part of her appeal which sees a doctor conclude that she likely had a POTS incident which led to crash
Mackenzie’s Instagram account has posted multiple pictures of text messages, memes that imply her love for Dominic, and screenshots of court documents that testify towards her innocence.
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One of these is a circled section where some sort of expert appears to state that ‘based on their review of materials’ she suffered a medical incident which led to the 100-mph crash.
This was taken from her post-conviction relief paperwork, a failed attempt to overturn her conviction which was rejected as it was submitted one day after the 365-day deadline.
The document argued that her defence was ‘ineffective’ due to it not putting forward an expert opinion to back up the claim that her POTS caused her to pass out.
She shared a portion of this from Kamal Chemali MD, a Professor of Neurology from Cleveland who examined her medical records and claimed that the evidence is ‘consistent with Ms. Shirilla having a medical episode’ to a ‘reasonable degree of scientific and medical certainty’.
He pointed to her lack of concussion or head trauma, combined with her lack of memory of the crash, alongside other factors such as her lactate levels and low blood oxygen as signs that he believes she likely had a ‘seizure episode with a loss of consciousness.’
In Netflix’s The Crash she maintained in her first ever interview that the most likely cause was a medical expert and that she had ‘no intent’. This was ultimately disproven in court by the prosecution who found out that she had driven the route days prior, and pointed to text messages between her and Dominic they claimed displayed that they were in a ‘toxic relationship’ and she crashed the car to end that relationship.
Mackenzie also shared text messages between her and Dom which appeared to disagree with the narrative presented in The Crash
In The Crash video footage is shown of Mackenzie being verbally abusive to Dom as well as numerous texts that showed their toxic relationship, with it showing Mackenzie often being the one prompting this toxicity.
She shared text messages between her and Dominic that seemed to go against this narrative however, showing her texting his family asking to keep an eye on him as she claimed he was acting ‘crazy’ and multiple texts of her claiming he was ‘mean’ to her.
In court during the trial however this relationship drama was pointed to as key proof that Mackenzie crashed the car intentionally.
Tim Troup, the lead prosecutor on the case, said in court: “There is no doubt that this happened because of the relationship with Dominic and the defendant’s intent was clearly to end that, and she took everybody that was in the car with her.
“This was not reckless driving. This was murder.”
After requesting a bench trial, where a judge makes the final verdict as opposed to a jury, Mackenzie was found guilty on two counts of murder in addition to a litany of charges including aggravated vehicular homicide, felonious assault, drug possession, and criminal tools possession.
Mackenzie Shirilla timeline
17 July 2022 - Mackenzie Shirilla and her boyfriend Dominic Russo get into an argument. A friend allegedly overhears Shirilla tell him: “I will crash this car right now.”
31 July 2022 - Shirilla is driving Russo, 20, and their friend Davion Flanagan, 19, from Russo’s home to a friend’s house. At around 5.30am, she crashes the car into a Plidco Building in Strongsville, Ohio, travelling at 100mph without braking. Police arrive on the scene 45 minutes later. Russo and Flanagan are pronounced dead and Shirilla is transported to MetroHealth Medical Center.
August 2022 - 200 people attend a vigil for Russo and Flanagan. Shirilla remains in critical condition. When a detective visits her in hospital, she is said to be speaking a ‘unique language’ similar to pig Latin.
October 2022 - Shirilla attends a Halloween party wearing fancy dress which resembles a corpse, which Davion’s father considers in very poor taste. He says in Netflix’s The Crash: “Dressing up as corpses three months after she killed two people, it just sickened us to the very core.”
4 November 2022 - Shirilla is arrested and faces 18 charges, including two counts of aggravated murder. She also faces charges for allegedly breaking into the Columbia Church of God in Columbia Station days before the crash, along with drug possession charges.
7 August 2023 - Shirilla’s trial begins. Her defence team argue she may have passed out at the time of the crash due to postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), but no medical records or expert testimony confirms the diagnosis.
14 August 2023 - Shirilla is found guilty on all counts. Judge Nancy Margaret Russo calls her ‘hell on wheels’, and the court concludes she intentionally crashed the car in a premeditated act.
23 August 2023 - Shirilla is sentenced to two concurrent 15 years to life sentences. Her legal team later lose an appeal and relief petition. She remains incarcerated in the Ohio Reformatory for Women.
22 May 2025 - Shirilla’s parents insist that she’s innocent. Her father Steve tells WKYC: “Show me one piece of evidence - one - that says she did this on purpose. Show it to me, then she's right where she belongs and she's guilty of it. But there isn't any.” Her mother Natalie claims there are texts in which Shirilla says Russo was ‘trying to end her life’.
15 May 2026 - Netflix’s The Crash premieres. In it, Shirilla insists she is ‘not a murderer’ and has no memory of the crash, continuing to blame POTS.
18 May 2026 - Steve Shirilla is placed on administrative leave from his job as an art and digital media teacher at Mary Queen of Peace School in Cleveland following allegations he had ‘demonstrated poor judgement’. Viewers of Netflix’s documentary objected to his attitude towards Shirilla’s marijuana use and his dismissal of claims she told a classmate to end their life.
September 2037 - This is when Shirilla will be eligible for parole
Topics: Mackenzie Shirilla, Netflix, True Crime, Instagram, Documentaries
Michael Slavin