Mackenzie Shirilla’s appeal denied after it was filed 1 day late
Mackenzie Shirilla reacts as the judge reads her verdict. (WEWS)
Ohio’s Eighth District Court of Appeals upheld a trial court’s decision denying Mackenzie Shirilla’s appeal, saying that it was filed one day after the 365-day jurisdictional deadline.
Shirilla was 17 when she intentionally caused a car crash that killed her boyfriend and his friend in July 2022. Video showed Shirilla racing down the street, reaching speeds of 100 mph before she hit a brick building, killing the two passengers in her car. She was convicted of four counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault and two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide following a trial in 2023; Judge Nancy Russo sentenced her to an aggregate term of 15 years to life in prison.
Under Ohio law, a defendant appealing their verdict has 365 days from the time the trial transcript is filed with the court of appeals to submit their petition for appeal. Shirilla filed her petition on Oct. 24, 2024 — one day after the 365-day deadline.
In her appeal to the Eighth District, Shirilla argued that the clock didn’t start until December 15, 2023, when transcripts from a hearing that bound her case from juvenile to adult court were filed. The justices sided with the state, which argued that a juvenile hearing does not satisfy the statutory requirement of “trial transcripts.”
Shirilla also argued that because 2024 was a leap year, she should have been given an extra day to file her petition. But the justices disagreed, saying, “Ohio law is clear that PCR petitions must be filed within 365 days after the trial transcript is filed in the court of appeals, not on the date’s ‘one year anniversary.’”
Jail records show that Shirilla is currently housed at the Ohio Reformatory for Women, a state prison in Marysville.
Mackenzie Shirilla’s appeal in double murder of boyfriend, friend denied
The Strongsville woman convicted in the double murder of her boyfriend and friend in 2022 had her appeal for a new trial denied again.
The Court of Appeals of Ohio Eighth Appellate District County of Cuyahoga affirmed the court’s decision on Thursday.
Mackenzie Shirilla was found guilty of the murders of her boyfriend Dominic Russo, and friend Davion Flanagan in 2023.
Shirilla appealed her case in September 2024, but the conviction was upheld.
In February 2025, Shirilla’s legal team filed for appeal in the Ohio Supreme Court, and in April, it declined to hear the case.
According to police, on July 31, 2022, Shirilla, who was 17 at the time, lost control of her Toyota Camry and crashed into a building in the 11700 block of Alameda Drive.
Court records said she reached 100 miles per hour speeds before striking the brick building.
A passer-by called police, and when officers arrived at the scene, they found all three victims unconscious, not breathing, and trapped in the vehicle.
In 2023, Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Margaret Russo found Mackenzie Shirilla guilty of the following crimes:
- Four counts of murder
- Four counts of felonious assault
- Two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide
- One count of drug possession
- One count of possessing criminal tools
Shirilla was sentenced to life in prison with eligibility for parole after 15 years served.
Prosecutors introduced video of the crash during the bench trial, which started Aug. 7, 2023, and Judge Russo commented on as she delivered the verdict.
“She morphs from a responsible driver to literal hell on wheels as she makes her way down the street,” Judge Russo said in reference to the crash video. “She had a mission and she executed it with precision.”
Police later released the bodycam video from the arrest of Shirilla.
Court of appeals upholds denial of Mackenzie Shirilla’s bid for new trial in Strongsville murder case
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CLEVELAND — The Eighth District Court of Appeals has upheld a previous ruling that denied convicted Strongsville murderer Mackenzie Shirilla’s request for a new trial, affirming that her legal team waited too long to file its supplemental post-conviction relief petition.
Last May, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Nancy Margaret Russo, the same judge who found Shirilla guilty in a 2023 bench trial of killing her boyfriend Dominic Russo (no relation to the judge) and their friend Davion Flanagan in a crash, sided with the prosecution in calling the petition invalid. Shirilla’s lawyers made the PCR request on Oct. 24, 2024 — just one day after the deadline that was mandated by Ohio law.
“The court finds the state’s position well-taken, to wit: that the defendant’s petition is time-barred as a matter of law, having been filed past the statutory deadline,” Russo wrote in her decision. “As the filing by defendant was untimely, this court is without jurisdiction to consider the merits or arguments of any of the pleadings. Therefore, as the defendant’s petition is statutorily time-barred and filed out of rule, the court denies the petition for post-conviction relief.”
In a ruling filed last week, the Court of Appeals unanimously agreed with Russo’s reasoning.
“Shirilla’s postconviction relief petition was filed on the 366th day following the filing of her trial transcript. Accordingly, we find that the trial court correctly determined it was without jurisdiction to consider the petition,” wrote Judge Anita Laster Mays.
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Shirilla’s conviction in September 2024 in a separate case, and in April 2025, the Supreme Court of Ohio declined to even take up the matter. Shirilla’s attorneys told 3News that the filing was based on allegations that the coroner’s report for the crash was modified without adhering to proper protocol.
Shirilla, who was just 17 at the time of the wreck but criminally tried as an adult, was found guilty of all counts, including four counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault and two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide. She is currently serving a sentence of 15 years to life in prison.
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