Bryan Kohberger seeks to withdraw guilty plea in Idaho murder case
Bryan Kohberger, the man accused in the killings of four University of Idaho students, is now seeking to take back his earlier guilty plea. In a post-conviction petition, Kohberger claims he received ineffective legal representation and says his plea was shaped by coercion, misinformation and promises he alleges were not honored. The filing asks for a new trial, a move that has frustrated victims’ relatives, including the mother of Kaylee Goncalves, who said the development was disappointing but not unexpected.
In a separate high-profile case, convicted double murderer Mackenzie Shirilla has been dealt another defeat in court after the Ohio Supreme Court refused to reconsider its decision not to take up her latest appeal.
Shirilla, now 21, is serving two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life in prison for the deaths of her boyfriend, 20-year-old Dominic Russo, and their friend, 19-year-old Davion Flanagan. Prosecutors said Shirilla deliberately crashed her Toyota Camry into a brick building in Strongsville, Ohio, in 2022.
According to court records, Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy rejected Shirilla’s motion for reconsideration after her defense team urged the state’s highest court to revisit its June 23 decision declining to review the case.
“It is ordered by the court that the motion for reconsideration in this case is denied,” Kennedy wrote.
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)
Tuesday’s decision leaves intact a lower-court ruling that Shirilla’s postconviction challenge was filed one day too late.
Shirilla’s attorneys have argued that the missed deadline resulted from confusion over the filing timeline, including a calendar mistake involving the 2024 leap year.
The postconviction challenge sought to raise claims that Shirilla received ineffective assistance of counsel, including an argument that her trial lawyers failed to adequately investigate evidence that she suffered from Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, or POTS.
Her attorneys have argued that the condition could have caused Shirilla to lose consciousness before the crash and potentially explain why she failed to brake before impact.
Mackenzie Shirilla makes a statement to the court during her sentencing in the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court in Cleveland, Ohio on Monday, August 21, 2023. (Law&Crime livestream)
The defense previously said the condition was only “cursorily referenced” at trial despite Shirilla and her family allegedly putting her attorneys on notice about it.
The latest court decisions, however, have focused on whether Shirilla’s postconviction petition was filed on time rather than the merits of those arguments.
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Under Ohio law, a postconviction petition must generally be filed within 365 days after the trial transcript is filed in the court of appeals. The court determined that the relevant transcript was filed Oct. 24, 2023, making the deadline Oct. 23, 2024.
Shirilla filed her petition on Oct. 24, 2024, the 366th day.
Shirilla argued that the clock should have started later, when juvenile bindover transcripts were filed, and also pointed to the 2024 leap year. The appellate court rejected both arguments, finding that the statute refers to the “trial transcript,” not supplemental juvenile-hearing transcripts, and that the law provides 365 days, not a calendar year.
Mackenzie Shirilla is serving two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life for the deaths of her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and their friend, Davion Flanagan. (Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction)
Her attorneys later asked the Ohio Supreme Court to review the case. The state’s highest court declined to accept jurisdiction June 23 before Shirilla’s legal team asked the justices to reconsider that decision.
Shirilla’s case has received renewed public attention following the release of Netflix’s “The Crash.”
Shirilla was convicted in 2023 after a bench trial of four counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault and two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide.
Prosecutors argued at trial that Shirilla intentionally 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.
Mackenzie Shirlla, now 19, was convicted Monday of intentionally crashing her car into a brick wall to kill her boyfriend, Dominic Russo and his friend, Davion Flanagan. Shirilla posted the photo to Russo’s online obituary. (Legacy.com)
Evidence presented in the case included surveillance video, vehicle “black box” data and evidence that Shirilla’s car was traveling nearly 100 mph without braking before the crash, according to WOIO.
Shirilla has maintained that the crash was not intentional.
Her convictions were upheld on direct appeal in 2024.
News Media has reached out to Shirilla’s attorney for comment.