Convicted killer Mackenzie Shirilla has suffered another legal setback in her effort to overturn her conviction. The Ohio Supreme Court declined to accept jurisdiction in her latest appeal, leaving in place lower court decisions that dismissed her challenge because it was submitted one day past the statutory deadline.
The 21-year-old was seeking review of an earlier ruling from the Eighth District Court of Appeals, which upheld the dismissal of her petition for post-conviction relief.
The Filing Issue: Ohio law requires post-conviction petitions to be filed within 365 days of the trial transcript being docketed. Because 2024 was a leap year, the court ruled the 365th day fell on October 23, 2024. Shirilla’s attorneys filed on October 24, rendering it untimely.
New Arguments Blocked: The missed deadline meant courts never evaluated her defense team’s claims, which cited ineffective assistance of counsel and proposed medical evidence suggesting she may have blacked out before the crash.
High Court Ruling: The state’s high court issued an entry declining to hear the case, with Justice Patrick DeWine dissenting.
Shirilla continues to serve a sentence of 15 years to life at the Ohio Reformatory for Women. She was convicted of four counts of murder and related charges following a 2022 incident in Strongsville, Ohio, where she intentionally drove a car at nearly 100 mph into a building, killing her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and friend Davion Flanagan. With her latest appeal rejected, her murder conviction remains firmly in place.
