Ohio Supreme Court Denies Shirilla Appeal Reconsideration

The Ohio Supreme Court has denied a request from Mackenzie Shirilla to reconsider its earlier decision not to hear her appeal, marking another legal setback in her challenge to a 2023 murder conviction for a fatal 2022 car crash. The ruling, issued on September 2, 2026, upholds a lower court's finding that her postconviction petition was filed one day past the legal deadline. Shirilla, now 22, is serving two concurrent life sentences with the possibility of parole after 15 years. She was convicted in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court for the deaths of her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20, and his friend, Davion Flanagan, 19. Prosecutors argued that Shirilla intentionally drove her Toyota Camry at speeds approaching 100 mph into a brick building in Strongsville, Ohio, during the early morning hours of July 31, 2022. Evidence at trial included surveillance video and vehicle "black box" data showing the car was traveling at high speed without braking before impact. Shirilla has maintained the crash was an accident, and her defense has argued she may have suffered from a medical condition, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), that could have caused her to lose consciousness.