Mackenzie Shirilla Sentence: Shirilla found guilty in 100 mph crash
Mackenzie Shirilla sentence came on Aug. 14, 2023, when a judge found Shirilla guilty in a bench trial over the July 31, 2022, Strongsville crash that killed her boyfriend and his friend. Shirilla was 19 at the time of the verdict and 17 when the Toyota Camry hit the Plidco Building at 100 mph.
The crash killed Dominic Russo, 20, and Davion Flanagan, 19. Prosecutors said Shirilla accelerated into the building around 5:30 a.m. and never hit the brakes.
Strongsville crash details
Police arrived 45 minutes later and found the car severely damaged with the airbags deployed. All three people were trapped in the car, unconscious and not breathing, and Russo and Flanagan were pronounced dead at the scene.
An investigation of the car’s event data recorder found that Shirilla’s right foot was pressed to the accelerator’s full extent. The same recorder showed the brakes were never applied before impact.
Shirilla was driving them to Russo’s home from a friend’s house when the crash happened. Prosecutors described the relationship between Shirilla and Russo as toxic and said she had made increasingly violent and threatening comments before the wreck.
August 14 verdict
Shirilla was found guilty of four counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault, two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, one count of drug possession and one count of possessing criminal tools. She had been arrested in connection with the crash on Nov. 4, 2022.
Two weeks before the crash, Russo called his mother and asked to be picked up during a fight. A friend was on the phone with him when he heard Shirilla say, “I will crash this car right now,” according to a prosecutor’s filing.
Shirilla’s parents, Natalie and Steve Shirilla, told News they dispute that evidence and believe it was false. Prosecutors also said she had threatened to crash while driving with Russo as a passenger and had threatened to key his car and break the handle off a door after he refused to let her into his home.
The verdict leaves Shirilla facing the full set of convictions tied to the deaths of two young men in the Strongsville crash, with the case now resolved at trial on the facts prosecutors put before the court.
