Legal Battle Begins: Mackenzie Shirilla’s boyfriend’s family made their first decisive move after learning she brought in a top U.S. attorney
Mackenzie Shirilla cries as she is found guilty of murder on Aug. 14, 2023.WKYC
Mackenzie Shirilla was dubbed “Hell on Wheels” for a devastating 2022 Ohio crash in which she drove into a brick building at 100 mph, killing her boyfriend and his friend.
Now she’s back in the limelight with the new Netflix documentary “The Crash,” which premieres Friday and delves into what led to the deadly incident.
Shirilla was 17 at the time of the July 31, 2022, crash in Strongsville, a Cleveland suburb, that killed her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20, and Davion Flanagan, 19.
Prosecutors said the crash was intentional, as she never hit the brakes, and described her relationship with Russo as toxic. But her family maintains her innocence as her lawyers have tried to appeal the case, unsuccessfully, in court.
The crash
The crash happened around 5:30 a.m., as Shirilla was driving them to Russo’s home from a friend’s house, according to police and evidence in court.
Shirilla accelerated her Toyota Camry into the large, brick Plidco Building in Strongsville, police and prosecutors said.
When police arrived 45 minutes later, officers found the car “with severe damage and full airbag deployments.”
All three people were found trapped in the car unconscious and not breathing, police said at the time. Russo and Flanagan were pronounced dead at the scene.
Photos from the scene depict the utterly destroyed car, its entire front ripped into pieces, the front windshield shattered and the side and the roof mangled.
An investigation of the car’s event data recorder found that Shirilla’s right foot was pressed to the accelerator’s full extent and that the brakes were never applied before impact, the Cuyahoga County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said.
Mackenzie Shirilla was sentenced to life in prison with first eligibility for parole after 15 years for intentionally crashing her car and killing her two passengers in Strongsville, Ohio.Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office
A toxic relationship
During the trial, prosecutors argued that the couple had fought often, and family members previously described the pair’s toxic relationship.
Prosecutors said Shirilla had made increasingly violent and threatening comments leading up to the crash.
Two weeks before the incident, Shirilla had threatened to crash while she was driving with Russo as a passenger, apparently upset over a disagreement they had, according to a prosecutor’s filing.
Russo called his mother and asked to be picked up during the fight, and a friend went to get him. The friend was on the phone with Russo when he heard Shirilla say, “I will crash this car right now,” according to the filing.
Shirilla’s parents, Natalie and Steve Shirilla, told NBC News on Thursday they dispute that evidence and believe it was false.
Mackenzie Shirilla is alleged on another occasion to have threatened to key Russo’s car and to break the handle off a door after he refused to let her into his home, according to court filings.
Trial and sentencing
Shirilla was arrested in connection with the crash about three months later, on Nov. 4, 2022.
On Aug. 14, 2023, Shirilla, then 19, was found guilty in a bench trial of four counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault, two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, one count of drug possession and one count of possessing criminal tools.
The defense claimed that they mutually fought each other and that it couldn’t be determined whether Shirilla crashed intentionally.
Key to the case was security video of the crash that was played in court, which showed the car speed toward the building and ended with a roaring impact.
“This was not reckless driving. This was murder,” Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Nancy Margaret Russo said at the verdict reading, as Shirilla broke down in tears.
Russo said Shirilla morphed from “a responsible driver to literal hell on wheels as she makes her way down the street.”
The judge said Shirilla made a calculated decision to take that obscure route out of her routine, at a time when not many people would be around.
Russo said: “She had a mission, and she executed it with precision. The mission was death.”
One week later, on Aug. 21, 2023, Shirilla was sentenced to life in prison, with first eligibility for parole after 15 years.
She spoke in court before her sentencing, apologizing and calling Russo her “soul mate.”
“The families of Dominic and Davion, I’m so deeply sorry. I hope one day you can see I would never let this happen or do it on purpose. I wish I could remember what happened,” she said, crying.
Where is she today?
Shirilla is 22 and is housed at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville, about 27 miles northwest of Columbus.
She won’t be eligible for parole until Oct. 29, 2037.
Shirilla’s legal camp filed an appeal in September 2023, but the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals upheld her conviction.
In October 2024, her attorneys filed a post-conviction relief petition, which was also denied on the basis that it was filed after the statutory deadline.
In March, the Eighth District Court of Appeals affirmed the ruling denying the 2024 petition. In May 2025, the Supreme Court of Ohio declined to review the appeal.
Shirilla’s legal team has continued to pursue efforts related to her appeal.
NBC News has reached out to her attorney for comment.
Family maintains Shirilla is innocent
Shirilla’s parents stand by her innocence and say they won’t stop fighting for her release.
“We believe she’s been falsely accused of something. We believe there’s no evidence. There’s no evidence that you can show me that says prior calculation, intent, there’s nothing,” Steve Shirilla told NBC News on Thursday. “I don’t know how it left the juvenile court. There’s zero evidence. All the prosecution has that’s factual is five seconds of black box information.”
He said she should have been charged with vehicular homicide, if anything.
Natalie Shirilla also believes that her daughter didn’t get a fair trial and that her first lawyer didn’t use much of the information the family turned in.
“Look at the evidence critically and objectively, and you will see there is no evidence of intent. She never threatened his life, his physical life,” she said.
They remain determined in appealing her case.
“I will never, ever, never stop,” Natalie said. “There is no expiration on truth.”
“Mackenzie would never hurt them or anybody she loves,” she added. “She stands up for people that are in trouble or struggling. That’s who she is.”
Victims’ families grapple with loss
The Russo and Flanagan families are still grappling with the devastating loss of their loved ones.
Davion Flanagan was a football player, aspiring barber and loving big brother, according to a fundraiser page by his family. The family has started a memorial barber school scholarship fund in his honor.
Dominic Russo was one of seven siblings and loved playing basketball. He was passionate about fashion and had plans to open his own clothing line, family members have told NBC News.
Both families have said the appeals process has been painful.
“Another day, another hearing. This time with three appellate judges deciding whether Mackenzie deserves post-conviction relief,” Scott Flanagan, Davion’s father, wrote on Facebook in January.
“It seriously never ends. How many chances does she get when our son and Dominic didn’t get a single one? It’s like a scab being constantly ripped off when all we want to do is heal the loss of our son and forget all about the horrible person who ended his life,” he added.
NBC News reached out to the Flanagans for comment.
Christine Russo, Dominic Russo’s older sister, who participated in the Netflix documentary, said her family still struggles with his loss.
“It hasn’t gotten any better. It’s gotten worse. As time goes, we’re missing him more as different stages of grief are hitting,” she told NBC News.
“Since the sentencing, it’s appeal after appeal after appeal,” she said Thursday. “There’s no resting; there’s no finding peace. It’s just constant, like them slapping it again in our face every six months.”
She said the family hasn’t had any contact with the Shirillas outside of seeing them at court hearings.
Russo said that for years she tried avoid public discourse online about the case, but she has recently started her own podcast, “The Big Sister: Unhinged,” to give her brother a voice, discuss sibling grief and raise domestic violence awareness.
Years later, she still keeps in contact with the Flanagans.
“I feel so guilty. I feel so bad for his sisters, because I know how hard it hurts me. That was their older brother, their protector. Dom was my baby,” she said. “She ruined everybody’s existence on Earth, not just Dom’s — everyone in our families, everyone in Davion’s family, my kids.”
