Ohio's Supreme Court took just 16 words to make clear its thoughts on the latest request from a Cuyahoga County woman whose murder trial was featured in a Netflix documentary.
"It is ordered by the court that the motion for reconsideration in this case is denied," the court said in a Sept. 1 decision.
Mackenzie Shirilla, now 21, had asked Ohio's top court to reconsider its previous decision
not to accept her appeal.Shirilla is serving a life sentence after being convicted of murder in the July 31, 2022, deaths of her boyfriend, 20-year-old Dominic Russo, and a mutual friend, Davion Flanagan, 19. Shirilla will be eligible for parole for the first time after serving 15 years.
Following her conviction and an initial appeal's rejection, Shirilla filed
a request for postconviction relief with the Eighth District Court of Appeals – which handles Cuyahoga County cases – but that court rejected it because the filing was one day past a 365 day deadline.
The Ohio Supreme Court rejected a request from Shirilla's attorneys to look at the motion despite it being past the deadline but on June 23, the court rejected her request. Shirilla's attorneys then filed a motion to reconsider, which is what the court denied on Sept. 1.
Shirilla has also filed a federal application for a writ of habeas corpus, seeking to have her convitions overturned and be granted a new trial. That petition remains pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.
What led to Mackenzie Shirilla's murder conviction?
On July 31, 2022, the trio were in a car that struck a building in Strongsville at nearly 100 mph. Shirilla, 17 at the time, was driving and the lone survivor.
Cuyahoga County prosecutors charged Shirilla with murder and at her trial, evidence showed the accelerator was fully engaged at the time of the crash and no efforts were made to brake.
Shirilla says she suffered a medical episode that caused the crash.
Netflix featured Shirilla's case in a 2026 documentary, "The Crash."
Bethany Bruner can be reached at bbruner@dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Supreme Court rejects Mackenzie Shirilla's appeal request
