Mackenzie Shirilla’s appeal asks the Ohio Supreme Court to review her initial appeal, which was filed a day late. However, Ohio’s highest court is refusing to hear her case. Her defense attorneys argue that the logic behind denying her request “violates common sense.”
Hell on Wheels Trial
Shirilla was 17 at the time she intentionally caused a car crash that killed her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20, and his friend, Davion Flanagan, 19. Surveillance video showed Shirilla speeding down the street in his vehicle on July 31, 2022, reaching 100 mph, and crashing into a brick building in Strongsville, Ohio.
Russo and Flanagan did not make it out alive, whereas Shirilla was airlifted to a hospital due to the injuries she sustained. The “Hell on Wheels” driver, as the sentencing judge referred to her, was found unconscious in the driver’s seat, foot still on the pedal.
Shirilla was found guilty on August 31, 2023, by a jury of her peers on several charges, including murder, felonious assault, aggravated vehicular homicide, drug possession, and possession of criminal tools. Judge Nancy Margaret Russo sentenced her to two life sentences, one for each victim, to be served concurrently.
Shirilla is legally required to spend at least 15 years in prison before parole can be considered. She is currently housed and will remain incarcerated at the Ohio Reformatory for Women until her minimum 15-year sentence is met. Her first parole hearing is expected in September 2037, and her earliest release date would be October 29, 2037.
Series of Appeals
The now 22-year-old Shirilla filed an initial appeal in her case to Ohio’s Eighth District Court of Appeals on October 24, 2023. However, it was arguably denied because it was filed one day past the October 23 deadline. Her defense filed a further appeal of the Eighth District’s decision to the Ohio Supreme Court, but the panel of justices declined to hear the case.
Shirilla’s appellate attorney, John Martin, asked the Ohio Supreme Court in the renewed appeal to reconsider. He argued that a different Ohio district would have allowed it. He explained the 365-day deadline varies across jurisdictions, and in Shirilla’s case, her original attorney calculated the date from when a transcript of her juvenile bindover hearing was filed instead of the trial transcript.
Both transcripts were ordered at the same time but were delivered separately. In his motion for reconsideration, Martin wrote, “It is easy to characterize the instant case as one that involves how to count to 365 — or when to start counting.
“But to do so ignores the fact that real people with issues affecting their liberty are trying to explain via postconviction relief petitions why what met the eye at their trial was not the complete account of what happened.”
Reconsideration Denied
Shirilla’s appellate attorney also previously argued that the defendant received ineffective counsel, who did not present her supposed medical condition at the trial, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, or POTS. In the plea for reconsideration, Shirilla’s argument focused on the difference in jurisdictions and their calculations.
“Right now, there is uncertainty over the postconviction relief petition filing deadline, uncertainty that creates the untenable situation where persons in different parts of this State have different deadlines for filing. This irrational situation violates Fourteenth Amendment equal protection. It also violates common sense.”
Prosecutors were given the chance to respond and questioned whether there was new evidence. “What new material issue does Mackenzie Shirilla bring to this Court’s attention? None,” prosecutors wrote. “This Court already rejected Shirilla’s supplemental jurisdiction request. It should do so again. Creating a new, Shirilla-specific exception is a matter for Broad Street, not Front Street.”
In the end, the Ohio Supreme Court justices reached a 5-2 decision in favor of not considering Shirilla’s appeal, leaving the lower court’s decision intact.
