Mackenzie Shirilla, Who Killed Boyfriend and Friend in 100 MPH Crash, Shares New Selfie From Prison

Mackenzie Shirilla, who was found guilty of killing her boyfriend and his friend during the 2022 car crash, requested that the Ohio Supreme Court review its denial of her postconviction relief.

Some of her supporters released new pictures of the 22-year-old prisoner.

In 2023, she was found guilty of murdering Dominic Russo, aged 20, and Davion Flanagan, 19. According to prosecutors, the girl deliberately drove a car into a building at almost 100mph, shortly before reaching the age of 18.

She was sentenced to serve two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life at the Ohio Reformatory for Women. Her eligibility to apply for parole comes in 2037.

The defense of Shirilla filed a motion this week requesting that the state’s highest court review its prior rejection of her postconviction relief petition, which is an opportunity to contest a conviction beyond ordinary appeal procedures.

Previously, an appeals court denied the petition because it was filed 366 days after the trial transcript was submitted, which was one day past the required period. However, the attorneys argued that the timing criteria were unclear given delays in other juvenile court transcripts and the fact that the year was a leap year.

Also, her team uploaded a selfie of Mackenzie on Instagram while she was in prison. The caption read: “Mackenzie is trying to do better every day and holding on to hope…Mackenzie and her family (along with everyone’s help) will respectfully continue to do everything they can so that the merits of the brief can be heard, just as anyone else would do in their position.”

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She has failed numerous appeals in lower courts. The defense contends that she may have fainted before the crash because of a medical condition referred to as Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, and that it was not thoroughly investigated during trial proceedings.

However, prosecutors argued that the crash was planned and deliberate. The testimony at trial indicated that the vehicle traveled at almost 100mph in a 35-mph area, with the accelerator pressed down for 4.6 seconds without braking.

The video recorded the car accelerating on a suburban street in Strongsville before the collision with the sign and its later crash into a commercial building in July 2022. As a result, the car broke apart, leading to the instant deaths of both Russo and Flanagan, while Shirilla sustained major injuries and referred to herself as “a third victim”.

“This was not reckless driving; this was murder,” Judge Nancy Margaret Russo, who ruled on the matter, said.

The case received renewed attention after the release of the Netflix documentary “The Crash,” which includes interviews with Shirilla from her time in prison.

The victim’s sister, Christine, criticized the coverage of the case. In the past, she said that some of the information in the documentary was “lies”.

“Appeal denied. #sorrynotsorry you are STILL a murderer. Not surprised at all”, she wrote on her Instagram page following the denial of one of the appeals.

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Christine launched a Change.org petition under the name of “Dom’s Law”, which is aimed at preventing the convicted offenders from benefiting financially from the crimes committed after leaving prison.

In the petition, Christine explained how the documentary forced her family to relive the horror of that tragedy “again and again”.

“What hurts even more is seeing how modern social media culture allows violent offenders to gain attention, followers, donations, publicity, and influence from the crimes that destroyed families like mine,” she said.

“I started this petition to call on lawmakers to modernize these laws for the digital age and close the loopholes that allow convicted violent offenders to turn tragedy into personal gain,” she added.

Apart from that, Anastasia, a former inmate at the Ohio Reformatory for Women, claims that Shirilla admitted to herself privately that she caused the crash deliberately, although publicly she claimed otherwise.

Anastasia told the Daily Mail that she was “deeply disturbed” after her interaction with Shirilla at the prison.

“She said she was suicidal, but she almost looked as though she was enjoying (telling the story), like she was amused by it,” Anastasia said.

According to Anastasia, Shirilla gave quite chilling statements about the incident.

“She said the devil made her do it”, Anastasia claims.

“She said the devil was pressing on her foot… She wanted to make it sound like she was a little devil girl, and that this is what she intended to do. Like there was a reason that Dom had to die,” Anastasia said.