Double murderer Mackenzie Shirilla launches desperate bid for freedom as she poses for new prison photo shoot
Mackenzie Shirilla is once again appealing her case to the Ohio Supreme Court in a desperate final bid for freedom while posing for glam shots from prison.
The 22-year-old was convicted in 2023 of murdering her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20, and their friend, Davion Flanagan, 19, by intentionally crashing a car into a building at nearly 100mph two days before her 18th birthday.
She has since been serving two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life at the Ohio Reformatory for Women, with her first chance at parole scheduled for September 2037, when she will be 33 years old.
On Monday, Shirilla’s support team posted a new selfie she took from prison on her Instagram page and said she ‘is trying to do better every day and holding on to hope.’
A day later, the convicted murderer’s attorneys filed a motion for the Ohio Supreme Court to reconsider a decision it made last month denying her post-conviction relief petition because it had been filed late.
Shirilla had brought her case before Ohio’s highest court after lower courts rejected all her prior appeals, but she was denied in May 2025.
She later filed the motion for post-conviction relief, a separate legal process used to challenge a conviction or sentence outside of a direct appeal, and her last chance at freedom.
The motion was tossed by the appellate court last month because it was filed 366 days after the trial transcript was submitted – just one day past the cutoff. Tuesday’s motion asking the court to reconsider the decision claims the deadlines were confusing.
Convicted double murderer Mackenzie Shirilla’s support team posted this selfie she took from prison on her Instagram and said she ‘is trying to do better every day and holding on to hope’
Shirilla’s attorneys have filed a motion asking the Ohio Supreme Court to reconsider a decision it made denying her post-conviction relief petition, which was her last chance at freedom
Shirilla remains behind bars at the Ohio Reformatory for Women for killing her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20, and their friend, Davion Flanagan, 19
Shirilla’s attorneys have argued that she should have been allowed more time to submit the motion because juvenile court transcripts were not filed until months after the trial transcripts.
Her attorneys also argued that the delay was the result of a miscalculation tied to a leap year.
‘Her post conviction relief was denied due to a deadline technicality,’ Shirilla’s support team wrote on Instagram.
‘The decision has nothing to do with the contents of it, it was unable to even be reviewed. Her appellate lawyer missed a deadline by filing it one day late due to a leap year, which also makes HIM ineffective assistance of council,’ the team added.
Shirilla’s legal team previously fought to overturn her conviction through three separate appeals – two in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court and another in the Eighth District Court of Appeals.
Her attorneys have repeatedly argued that medical evidence suggests Shirilla suffered from a pre-existing condition that may have caused her to lose consciousness before slamming her sedan into a brick building.
They claimed that her trial lawyers failed to adequately investigate evidence that she suffers from Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, or POTS.
Tuesday’s motion asking the Supreme Court to reconsider Shirilla’s petition comes years after prosecutors said she deliberately drove her Toyota Camry into the side of the PLIDCO building in Strongsville, Ohio, on July 31, 2022, as her relationship with Russo deteriorated.
Shirilla’s attorneys have argued that she suffered from a pre-existing condition that may have caused her to lose consciousness before slamming her sedan into a brick building at nearly 100mph
Shirilla survived the crash and was hospitalized with multiple severe injuries. She has called herself a ‘third victim’ who does not need to be ‘rehabilitated’
While Russo and Flanagan died almost instantly, Shirilla survived the crash and was hospitalized with multiple severe injuries.
Evidence presented at trial showed that the vehicle was traveling approximately 100mph in a 35mph zone moments before impact, with data indicating the accelerator was fully engaged and no brakes were applied.
Surveillance video showed the car speeding down a quiet road before smashing through a business sign and slamming into the building, with first responders finding the vehicle split in half in what one officer called ‘the worst crash I’ve ever seen.’
Shirilla has maintained that the crash was not intentional, calling herself a ‘third victim’ who does not need to be ‘rehabilitated’ in shocking phone calls with her mother.
Judge Nancy Margaret Russo ultimately found her guilty in 2023, famously declaring: ‘This was not reckless driving – this was murder.’
‘She had a mission, and she executed it with precision,’ the judge said.
The case has remained in the headlines in recent weeks following the release of the Netflix documentary, The Crash, which revisited the fatal collision and featured interviews with Shirilla from prison.
