Unexpected Reaction: Mackenzie Shirilla’s family makes a surprising move after the Ohio Supreme Court refuses to revisit her appeal
Shirilla’s case was the subject of the Netflix documentary ‘The Crash’
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(745x280:747x282):format(webp)/Mackenzie-Shirilla-car-wreck-052626-e14187d8a00147c09351caa38928d3a1.jpg)
(L-R) Mackenzie Shirilla mugshot, photo of car crash scene.Credit : Ohio Reformatory for Women; Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office
The Supreme Court of Ohio has once again declined to hear an appeal filed by attorneys for Mackenzie Shirilla, who was convicted of murder in the July 2022 deaths of her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20, and their friend, Davion Flanagan, 19.
In a decision signed by Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy on Tuesday, June 23, and viewed by PEOPLE, the Ohio Supreme Court said that it “declines to accept jurisdiction of the appeal.”
The court had previously rejected Shirilla’s appeal on May 28 because it was filed one day late, a decision that her attorneys argued was the result of a miscalculation caused by a leap year.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2):format(webp)/Mackenzie-Shirilla-car-2-011325-fadbb5722b6f4bf5a88127ca19dc233d.jpg)
Photo of 2022 car crash scene.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office
This comes after the Ohio Supreme Court originally declined to review Shirilla’s appeal in May 2025, as previously reported by PEOPLE.
Shirilla has attempted to appeal the case three times, twice in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court and once in the Eighth District Court of Appeals, all of which have been denied.
In May 2025, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Nancy Margaret Russo, the same judge who found Shirilla guilty in her 2023 bench trial, ruled Shirilla’s appeal for a new trial and supplemental post-conviction relief as invalid, according to WKYC.
The Eighth District Court of Appeals upheld the sentence in March 2026, per the outlet.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(975x438:977x440):format(webp)/The-Crash-Mackenzie-Shirilla-court-2-051826-ad4a0ce84cda45918f90540fe96ebc5a.jpg)
Shirilla’s attorneys filed the appeal with the Ohio Supreme Court on April 27, claiming that “there is medical evidence that Mackenzie Shirilla suffered from a pre-existing medical condition that could have caused her to black out while driving.”
Her attorneys wrote in the appeal that her petition for post-conviction relief, according to the trial court, was filed “out of time.”
In a memorandum in response to the appeal filed on May 14, the court argued that Shirilla “miscalendared” the due date of her post-conviction relief petition.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2):format(webp)/dominic-russo-davion-flanagan-73025-f007d145346f464b8666dbcf9a11cd2b.jpg)
“The trial transcripts were filed in her direct appeal on October 23, 2023, triggering the 365-day statutory clock to file the petition,” the court found. “Shirilla filed her petition on October 24, 2024, which is the same day that many of her exhibits were notarized. Because 2024 was a leap year, Shirilla’s petition was late by one day. The trial court properly denied her petition as untimely.”
Shirilla, who was 17 at the time of the fatal crash, remains incarcerated in the Ohio Reformatory for Women, where she is expected to have her first parole board hearing in September 2037, according to state prison records reviewed by PEOPLE.
She currently has an expected release date of October 29, 2037, per state prison records. Her case was the subject of the Netflix documentary The Crash.
PEOPLE has reached out to Shirilla’s attorneys for comment.
