Mackenzie Shirilla, notorious for her reckless driving that resulted in the tragic deaths of two young men, has been denied the opportunity for a new trial. The decision came as a result of her legal team submitting their request just one day past the deadline.
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a previous court ruling, effectively denying Shirilla another chance in court. At just 17 years old, Shirilla deliberately crashed her vehicle into a wall in a Cleveland suburb, a collision that claimed the lives of her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, aged 20, and their friend, Davion Flanagan, aged 19. This decision was reflected in the online court records.
The court’s firmly stated ruling highlighted the critical timing error. The appeal, filed in 2024, missed the deadline by a single day. “The filing of a postconviction petition is a jurisdictional act,” the court asserted in its recent decision.
Due to this oversight, the court was unable to consider the merits of Shirilla’s claims, as explained in the ruling: “Because the appellant filed the petition on the 366th day following the filing of the trial transcript, the trial court was without jurisdiction to consider the merits of the claims, and the application of equitable tolling is prohibited in the context of this jurisdictional bar.”
The tragic incident unfolded when Shirilla, along with Russo and Flanagan, spent time driving and using substances. In a sudden, fatal decision, she accelerated the vehicle to 100 mph and crashed into a warehouse in Strongsville, resulting in the deaths of both passengers.
Shirilla and the two victims were driving around and getting high when she suddenly gunned the engine and smashed the car into a warehouse in Strongsville at 100 mph, killing both passengers.
Shirilla miraculously survived and was found unconscious with her Prada slippers still on the accelerator.
Prior to her arrest, she posted a shocking photo on TikTok that boasted, “I’m just one of those girls that can do a lot of drugs and not die.”
She was found guilty in 2023 on four counts of felonious assault and two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, breaking down in tears as the judge called her “literal hell on wheels.”
“This was not reckless driving — this was murder,” Cuyahoga County Judge Nancy Margaret Russo said in court. “She had a mission, and she executed it with precision. The decision was death.”
Shirilla was sentenced to 15 years to life, but has sought a new trial, with her lawyers filing the request on Oct. 24, 2024, one day past the deadline under the Ohio state law.
In May, Russo, the same judge who found Shiririlla guilty at her non-jury trial, called the petition invalid.
The appeals court’s new ruling upheld Russo’s decision.
