Ohio prison authorities have confirmed that Mackenzie Shirilla, convicted of murder, has taken on a job in prison as she serves her life sentence for a fatal 2022 car crash that claimed the lives of her boyfriend and a friend.
Shirilla is working in the food service department at the Ohio Reformatory for Women, according to Tara Nickle, who assists the correction warden and acts as a public information officer for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
While Shirilla’s role provides a glimpse into her current life behind bars, officials have withheld further specifics about her duties, citing exemptions under Ohio’s public records laws.
This insight into Shirilla’s prison activities comes as the case garners renewed public interest, particularly after Netflix featured the incident in “The Crash,” highlighting how prosecutors argued the deadly event was no mere accident, dubbing Shirilla “hell on wheels.”
Convicted killer Mackenzie Shirilla has landed a prison job while serving a life sentence for the 2022 crash that killed her boyfriend and their friend, Ohio prison officials confirmed to News Media. (Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction)
Shirilla, now 21, is serving two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life in prison for killing her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20, and their friend, Davion Flanagan, 19, after prosecutors said she deliberately slammed her Toyota Camry into a brick building in Strongsville, Ohio, on July 31, 2022.
Police records reviewed by News Media show Strongsville officers responded around 6:15 a.m. on July 31, 2022, after the Camry struck the PLIDCO building at 11792 Alameda Drive in Strongsville.
Dominic Russo and Damion Flanagan were killed July 31, 2022, when Mackenzie Shirilla intentionally crashed her car into a wall, authorities said. She was convicted of four counts of murder and other charges for their deaths. (A. Ripepi and Sons Funeral/ Jardine Funeral HomeHOme)
Shirilla, then 17, was removed from the driver’s seat and flown to MetroHealth Medical Center. Russo and Flanagan were pronounced dead after being mechanically extricated from the wreckage, records show.
A grand jury presentation reviewed by News Media said Life360 data showed the vehicle traveling 90 mph in a 35 mph zone, while Event Data Recorder information showed the accelerator fully engaged and no service brake applied in the seconds before the devastating crash.
Mackenzie Shirilla looks on during her sentencing in the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court in Cleveland, Ohio, on Monday, Aug. 21, 2023. She was found guilty of four counts of murder and other charges related to the deaths of her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and his friend, Davion Flanagan, in July 2022.
A later police request to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office said the deaths were initially classified as accidental, but investigators believed the evidence showed the crash was “not an accident, but an intentional act.”
Police asked the medical examiner to conduct a secondary review and change the manner of death to homicide.
Prosecutors argued at trial that Shirilla drove into the building to end her toxic relationship with Russo, and that Flanagan was an unintended victim who happened to be in the car. Shirilla’s case is back in the limelight after Netflix’s new series, “The Crash.”
Mackenzie Shirilla sits behind the wheel of her Toyota Camry alongside a photo of Davion Flanagan, one of two men she was convicted of murdering. (Instagram)
Since the docuseries, Shirilla’s lawyers have asked the Ohio Supreme Court for an appeal.
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In a filing with the Ohio Supreme Court reviewed by News Media, Shirilla’s attorneys argue her trial lawyers failed to adequately investigate evidence that she suffered from Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, or POTS. The syndrome, they say, could have caused her to lose consciousness before the crash.
The defense says the condition was only “cursorily referenced” at trial, despite Shirilla and her family allegedly putting her attorneys on notice about it. Her lawyers now argue trial counsel should have dug deeper and sought expert testimony to explain whether POTS could account for Shirilla’s failure to brake before impact.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley “believes without question that Mackenzie Shirilla is guilty of murder,” his office said in a May 27 statement.