Mackenzie Shirilla's lawyer asks judge to overturn murder conviction over alleged constitutional rights violations
Mackenzie Shirilla has launched a fresh bid for freedom with her lawyers asking a federal court to overturn her murder conviction and grant her a new trial.
A new lawyer for the 21-year-old has filed a new petition arguing that her trial and subsequent imprisonment have violated her constitutional rights.
In the petition, which was filed on Tuesday 28 July at Ohio’s Northern District federal court, Shirillia’s legal team have asked the judge to overturn the conviction on several grounds, including ineffective counsel at trial, insufficient evidence to establish probable cause and improper admission of evidence at trial.
The filing, which has been obtained by PEOPLE, documents alleged evidence that was not presented at trial that Shirilla’s lawyers say could have helped prove her innocence.
Advert
Her legal team has claimed she has a ‘benign explanation’ about why she was driving in that particular area at that time of the morning that wasn’t presented by her defence team at trial.
The filing states there is ‘evidence that a local grocer had left a package of produce for [Mackenzie] at a 24-hour pickup spot at a store in the vicinity of the crash scene’.
The new filing also claims her case was improperly moved from juvenile court to adult court.
Shirilla is currently serving two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life for the 2022 murder of her then-boyfriend Dominic Russo and his friend Davion Flanagan.
At her trial, Shirilla was dubbed ‘hell on the wheels’ by the judge, after black box evidence showed that she had crashed her Toyota Camry into a brick wall at speeds of 100mph.
The case has received renewed attention following the release of the Netflix documentary The Crash, which features interviews with many of those close to the case including the victims’ families as well as Shirilla and her parents.
Throughout the investigation, trial, and conviction, Shirilla has maintained her innocence and filed three appeals in the hopes of landing a new trial.
Just last month, the Ohio Supreme declined to hear her appeal.
According to the new petition, Shirilla currently filings pending in two court. One calling on the Eighth District Court of Appeals to reopen her appeal due to ineffective counsel, and another asking the Ohio Supreme Court to reconsider her late plea for post-conviction relief.
The latest federal filing has been assigned to Judge John Adams, Fox News reports, and, as yet, no court dates have been announced.
Shrilla is currently incarcerated at the Ohio Reformatory for Women.
She will become eligible for parole in 2037 when she is 33, but her trial judge warned that she could spend the rest of her life behind bars.
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.
23 June 2026 - The Ohio Supreme Court declines to review Shirilla’s appeal case. Her lawyers missed the deadline for a post-conviction review by one day because 2024 was a leap year, and the court upheld an earlier decision that Shirilla’s conviction therefore could not be challenged.
September 2037 - This is when Shirilla will be eligible for parole
Topics: Mackenzie Shirilla, US News
Claire Reid