Convicted killer Mackenzie Shirilla has seen her final bid for freedom crushed after Ohio’s highest court denied her last chance at appeal, just a month after an earlier attempt was tossed over a one-day filing delay by her attorneys. 

Shirilla, now 21, remains behind bars at the Ohio Reformatory for Women, serving a life sentence for the 2022 crash that killed her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20, and their friend, Davion Flanagan, 19.

On Tuesday, the Ohio Supreme Court shut the door on her case, leaving the ‘hell on wheels’ murderer behind bars until at least October 2037, when she will first be eligible for parole. 

The order, signed by Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy, stated that the court ‘declines to accept jurisdiction of the appeal,’ according to People. 

With every attempt now exhausted, Shirilla will continue serving the sentence imposed in 2023, with her first chance at freedom not arriving until she turns 33. 

The decision dealt a crushing blow to her legal team, which has aggressively fought to overturn the verdict through three separate appeals – two in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court and another in the Eighth District Court of Appeals. 

Her attorneys have repeatedly argued that medical evidence suggests Shirilla suffered from a pre-existing condition that may have caused her to lose consciousness before slamming her sedan into a brick building at nearly 100mph. 

They claimed that her trial lawyers failed to adequately investigate evidence that she suffers from Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, or POTS. 

Mackenzie Shirilla’s final bid for freedom was denied by the Ohio Supreme Court on Tuesday, the state’s highest court

The order, signed by Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy, stated that the court ‘declines to accept jurisdiction of the appeal’

The ruling means that Shirilla will remain behind bars until at least October 2037, when she will first be eligible for parole

But every attempt she has made has been rejected by the courts. 

Shirilla brought her case before Ohio’s highest court after using all available options in the lower courts, but it was denied in May 2025.

She filed a motion for postconviction relief after her initial attempts to secure release were denied, a separate legal process used to challenge a conviction or sentence outside of a direct appeal.

Last month, however, the motion was tossed by the appellate court after her legal team failed to meet the strict deadline, filing it 366 days after the trial transcript was submitted – just one day past the cutoff.

She then petitioned the Supreme Court to consider her motion, arguing that because juvenile court transcripts were not filed until months after the trial transcripts, she should have been allowed more time to submit it.

Her attorneys also argued that the delay was the result of a miscalculation tied to a leap year. 

Tuesday’s decision comes years after prosecutors said Shirilla, then 17, deliberately drove her Toyota Camry into the side of the PLIDCO building in Strongsville, Ohio, on July 31, 2022, as her relationship with Russo deteriorated. 

While Russo and Flanagan died almost instantly, Shirilla survived the crash and was hospitalized with multiple severe injuries. 

Shirilla’s attorneys argued that she suffered from a pre-existing condition that may have caused her to lose consciousness before slamming her sedan into a brick building at nearly 100mph

Prosecutors claimed that Shirilla deliberately crashed her car on July 31, 2022, as her relationship with Dominic Russo deteriorated

Shirilla remains behind bars at the Ohio Reformatory for Women for killing her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20, and their friend, Davion Flanagan, 19

Evidence presented at trial showed that the vehicle was traveling approximately 100mph in a 35mph zone moments before impact, with data indicating the accelerator was fully engaged and no brakes were applied.

Surveillance video showed the car speeding down a quiet road before smashing through a business sign and slamming into the building, with first responders finding the vehicle split in half in what one officer called ‘the worst crash I’ve ever seen.’ 

Shirilla has maintained that the crash was not intentional, calling herself a ‘third victim’ who does not need to be ‘rehabilitated’ in shocking phone calls with her mother. 

Judge Nancy Margaret Russo ultimately found her guilty in 2023, famously declaring: ‘This was not reckless driving – this was murder.’

‘She had a mission, and she executed it with precision,’ the judge said.

The case has remained in the headlines in recent weeks following the release of The Crash, which revisited the fatal collision and featured interviews with Shirilla from prison. 

The Daily Mail had previously reported allegations from former inmates that she cultivated a ‘Mean Girl’ reputation behind bars, embraced the notoriety surrounding her case and showed little remorse for the crash. 

A former inmate, who gave her name as Kat, said: ‘She showed absolutely no remorse. Mackenzie acted like it was glorified high school, she walked around like she was famous.’

Shirilla survived the crash and was hospitalized with multiple severe injuries

A former inmate said Shirilla ‘showed absolutely no remorse’

Shirilla has maintained that the crash was not intentional, calling herself a ‘third victim’

Kat also revealed that Shirilla was enjoying such torrid romances with other women that she would regularly walk around with ‘hickeys on her neck.’ 

‘The girlfriend thing was well known,’ she said. ‘And in prison it’s very common especially for people in her life sentence situation and especially with the younger girls.’ 

Shirilla herself previously told The Daily Mail that she believed she was the victim of a ‘wrongful conviction.’

She is serving two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life, and has recently landed a prison job as a food service worker after complaining that there was ‘literally nothing’ for her to do behind bars.