After the Decision: The timeline for Mackenzie Shirilla’s pr!son sentence is drawing renewed attention following the rejection of her appeal
Shirilla, 21, will continue to serve two concurrent 15-years-to-life sentences for a 2022 crash that killed her boyfriend and their friend
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Mackenzie Shirilla in Netflix’s ‘The Crash’; Shirilla’s mugshot.Credit : NETFLIX
The Supreme Court of Ohio has declined to review Mackenzie Shirilla’s appeal, meaning the convicted murderer will remain in prison as her sentence stands.
Shirilla, now 21, was sentenced in 2023 to two concurrent terms of 15 years to life after being convicted of murder, aggravated vehicular homicide and related charges in connection with the 2022 car crash that killed her boyfriend, 20-year-old Dominic Russo, and their friend, 19-year-old Davion Flanagan.
She is currently serving her sentence at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville and will be eligible for parole in October 2037, when she is 33 years old.
Since her conviction, Shirilla’s legal team has repeatedly sought to overturn the verdict, filing two appeals in the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court and one in the Eighth District Court of Appeals. Those have been denied.
Her attorneys argued that medical evidence suggests she suffered from a pre-existing condition that may have caused her to lose consciousness while driving.
After exhausting her options in the lower courts, Shirilla took her case to Ohio’s highest court.
In an order signed by Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy on June 23, 2026 and viewed by PEOPLE, the Ohio Supreme Court stated that it “declines to accept jurisdiction of the appeal.”
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Mackenzie Shirilla’s arrest; The damaged car.
Strongsville Police Department; Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office
The decision marks yet another setback for Shirilla. The Ohio Supreme Court previously declined to hear her appeal in May 2025, and last month rejected another filing after it was submitted one day past the deadline. Her attorneys argued the delay was caused by a miscalculation related to a leap year.
Shirilla, then 17, intentionally drove her sedan into a brick wall in Strongsville, Ohio, at nearly 100 mph in July 2022 after her relationship with Russo had become strained, according to prosecutors. Russo and Flanagan died almost instantly, and Shirilla was hospitalized with numerous injuries.
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Prosecutors built their case on car data showing the accelerator was floored and the brakes were never applied in the five seconds before impact, along with text messages, videos and a prior alleged threat Mackenzie made to Russo to crash her car with Russo inside weeks before the fatal incident.
In jail conversations with her mother previously obtained by PEOPLE, Shirilla insists that “I don’t need to be rehabilitated” in prison and that she is the “third victim” in the crash.
Her case was recently featured in the Netflix documentary The Crash, which premiered May 15.
