Mackenzie Shirilla convicted of murder in deadly Strongsville crash



The verdict is in for 19-year-old Mackenzie Shirilla.

Guilty on all counts — including four counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault and two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide — in connection with the deaths of 20-year-old Dominic Russo and 19-year-old Davion Flanagan.

“This was not reckless driving. This was murder,” said Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Nancy Margaret Russo moments before announcing her decision in the bench trial Monday afternoon.

It’s a case that dates back to Sunday, July 31, 2022, when Strongsville police say the crash happened at 6:15 a.m. near the intersection of Progress and Alameda. Upon their arrival, officers say they located a Toyota Camry “with severe damage and full airbag deployments.”

All three occupants inside the vehicle — including Shirilla — were unconscious, not breathing and trapped inside the vehicle. Russo (Shirilla’s boyfriend) and Flanagan were both pronounced dead at the scene.

“The video clearly shows the purpose and intent of the defendant,” Judge Russo said when announcing her verdict. “She chose a course of death and destruction that day.”

Judge Russo said Shirilla, who was 17-years-old at the time of the crash, had “a mission” and executed it “with precision.”

“She morphs from a responsible driver to literal hell on wheels as she makes her way down the street,” Russo said. “Mackenzie alone made the decision to drive the car, to drive an obscure route, a route she visited a few days before, and a route not routinely taken by her. Mackenzie alone chose a time to make the drive, early in the morning, when any reasonable person would expect a few people would be nearby to witness it or offer life-saving assistance.”

Kaitor Kay reports: https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/crime/mackenzie-shirilla-verdict-strongsville-crash-dominic-russo-davion-flanagan/95-11ab2c85-49b1-41af-8b13-bdd66fc5a04d

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29 thoughts on “Mackenzie Shirilla convicted of murder in deadly Strongsville crash”

  1. It wasn’t an accident

    “Two weeks before the crash, she allegedly threatened to crash her vehicle when she was driving with Russo because she was upset over a disagreement they had. Russo called his mother and asked to be picked up, and a friend ended up retrieving him. In a phone call with Russo, the friend allegedly overheard Shirilla say, “I will crash this car right now,” prosecutors said in court documents.”

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  2. 17, high on weed and possibly mushrooms; under such circumstances, you would not use words like methodical and purposeful. Not that it makes her innocent, but I don't agree with the judge's justification and see grounds for an appeal. When you are high, you are not methodical, purposeful and deliberate.

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  3. She could have just stopped the car and dropped them off or kicked them out of her vehicle. I can’t imagine what those guys went through as it was happening. How awful. She made the stupidest decision and now she must pay for it in return for her freedom. And yes, there are no winners here. They were all so young.

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  4. Good. For the first time in her life she learned there's consequences for her behavior. Apparently her mom thought they should've just taken her phone away for an evening.

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  5. The judge did the right thing. Removing a narcissistic sociopath from society, and saving some other family from this pain. This is what equality looks like. Have no compassion for her or her family.

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  6. This girl represents everything wrong with toxic femininity these days that gets fueled by feminism. Beyond entitled and thinking they're above any accountability. Judging men 24/7 when they do the EXACT same sh*t evil men do. No sympathy for this monster and hope to see more women who committed crimes receive the same sentences men get as they always seem to get away with it, or do less time.

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  7. Enough. Stop trying to sympathize with a complete and utter Sociopath who took her emotional fragility and rage out on her boyfriend and his friend. It was shown that she drove through the same street multiple times on previous days leading up to this. We need to stop feeding into this notion that there is no such thing as good and evil. She was not under the influence. She killed her boyfriend because they were in a "toxic relationship". Im sure it indeed was toxic. If a man did this to hos girlfriend he would get no sympathy and rightfully so. Hold her to the same standard. Hell even if she was under the influence what matters at the end of the day is what you have done. YOUR ACTIONS. This girl deserves to be locked away for the rest of her life.

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  8. There is no way in a million years that anyone can prove beyond reasonable doubt that this was murder I.e. Premeditated It's manslaughter. One can also argue that it was attempted suicide. The human mind is a scary place at times and some people are victims of themselves. It's often (but not always) a chemical imbalance, they don't think straight To those who think a long jail sentence will deter others should think again. I.e It didn't prevent this girl from doing what she did and that's common with 95% of crime. Example: The death penalty and whole life sentences are rife in the USA yet there are many many thousands of murders there every year, it didn't deter those killers. I would give the girl 12 months in jail. Either way, 1 year, 5 years or a full life sentence doesn't bring the dead back. The father of one of the deceased boys doesn't want the girl to have a long sentence either.

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  9. Mackenzie Shirilla is sentenced to life in prison. In the state of New Mexico, if a defendant was under 18 at the time the crime was committed, he or she cannot be sentenced to death or life without parole.

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  10. That’s a much more appropriate demeanor than she had at the beginning of this trial – I still think her remorse is for the consequences to herself, not for her actions or the lives she ruthlessly took

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  11. Her actions since the Murders have been deplorable she actually asked the police while she was in the hospital "Can't you just take my license for 10 yrs or something do you really have to arrest me" . This girl has shown ZERO EMPATHY then the judge only sentenced her to 15 – Life with the 2 murder charges to be served Concurrently not Consecutively so she will be up for Parole in 15 yrs. That's complete Bullshit and unsatisfactory.

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  12. What a kangaroo court that county is a joke that judge is a joke everybody knows 17 year old little girls can't drive no one knows exactly what happened in that car except for her and she can't remember weather for boyfriend grabbed the steering wheel stepped on the gas pedal was trying to scare her and she didn't do it nobody knows for certain but what we do know is you have a prosecuting attorney that wants to convict a little white girl because a black teenager died it was vehicular manslaughter it wasn't murder it was an accident that kind of stuff happens

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