Mackenzie Shirilla’s Latest Appeal Bid Denied by Ohio Supreme Court

The Ohio Supreme Court on Tuesday denied Mackenzie Shirilla’s latest bid to revive her postconviction challenge, refusing to reconsider its June decision not to hear an appeal stemming from a petition filed one day late.

The court issued no opinion explaining the denial. Justices Patrick DeWine and Jennifer Brunner dissented. DeWine was the lone dissenter when the court declined to take Shirilla’s appeal in June, while Brunner joined him in opposing Tuesday’s denial.

The ruling leaves in place a March decision from the Eighth District Court of Appeals that upheld the dismissal of Shirilla’s petition for postconviction relief as untimely.

Her attorneys had challenged how Ohio’s 365-day filing deadline was calculated, arguing that a later transcript from Shirilla’s juvenile court proceedings should have determined when the clock began running. The appeals court found that the trial transcript controlled and that Shirilla’s Oct. 24, 2024 filing came one day too late.

The missed deadline has kept Shirilla’s postconviction claims from being considered on their merits. Her petition alleged ineffective assistance of counsel and cited medical evidence involving postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, which her attorneys said could support the possibility that she blacked out before the crash.

Shirilla was 17 when the Toyota Camry she was driving crashed into a brick building in Strongsville, Ohio, on July 31, 2022, killing her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20, and their friend Davion Flanagan, 19.

Prosecutors argued that the crash was intentional, relying on surveillance footage and vehicle data showing Shirilla accelerated to nearly 100 mph and did not brake before impact. A judge convicted her in 2023 of murder and other charges following a bench trial and sentenced her to 15 years to life in prison.

Her convictions were upheld on direct appeal. The Ohio Supreme Court declined to review that challenge in 2025, while the proceedings rejected on Tuesday arose from her later petition for postconviction relief.

Shirilla is also pursuing her convictions in federal court. She filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus on July 28 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, asking a federal judge to review alleged constitutional violations in her state prosecution.

The federal petition raises several claims, including ineffective assistance of counsel. The case, Shirilla v. Maldonado, is assigned to U.S. District Judge John R. Adams and remains pending.