Strongsville teen sentenced to life in prison for double-fatal crash

[brooklynite]

WJW Cleveland

STRONGSVILLE, Ohio (WJW) – A Strongsville teenager was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of murder.

Mackenzie Shirilla stood trial earlier this month on charges of murder, aggravated vehicular homicide and drug possession for a crash in the early morning hours of July 31, 2022.

Judge Nancy Margaret Russo announced guilty verdicts on all 12 counts. She referenced video evidence of the vehicle being driven by Shirilla speeding down the street, reaching up to 100 mph just before the crash.

Judge Russo on Monday sentenced Shirilla to two concurrent life sentences for the murders of 19-year-old Davion Flanagan, a recent Strongsville High School graduate, and Shirilla’s boyfriend, 20-year-old Dominic Russo. She will be eligible for parole after 15 years.

Talk about a wasted life...

[MineralMan]

1. I'm surprised at that sentence.

It's not typical of sentences for such young people. But, I don't know the story.

[brooklynite]

2. The prosecution claimed the crash was intentional and pre-planned.

[MineralMan]

3. Yeah, I saw that. However,

nobody who was in the car could provide any evidence in the trial. It's just an odd outcome, it seems to me.

[brooklynite]

5. "nobody who was in the car could provide any evidence in the trial"

...because they're dead.

As a legal argument, its right up there with "have pity on me for killing my parents; I'm an orphan!"

[MineralMan]

7. I'm not arguing with you.

I was just a little surprised.

As the article said, even the attorneys said that nobody in the car could provide evidence, so there was no information about the driver's intent. Here in the Twin Cities, there's a huge uproar about light sentences given to people who cause deaths through automobile driving. Even when the situation is egregious on the driver's part, sentences seem to be light. Personally, I think that's wrong. And I'm not mourning for that young woman's fate in any way. Just surprised.

[jimfields33]

6. She's eligible for parole in 15 years.

If she behaves herself, gets into treatment and perhaps some schooling, she may be able to have a semblance of a life.

[MineralMan]

8. Yes. She looks to be under 20 years old.

She can start over after that, I suppose. Anyhow, it's a strange story.

[Chainfire]

4. That is a lot of ruined lives over a kid's stupidity. It is a damn shame.

[Snooper9]

9. Spoiled entittled brat -

I watched the guility verdicts from the judge last week and there was one comment from someone who went to school with her-


@eepyc0re
3 days ago (edited)
"I went to school with her. We first met when we were like 12-13. We used to misbehave together in class to annoy a teacher we didn’t like in the eighth grade. I’m not proud of my behavior from then, I was an annoying kid but I thankfully grew out of it when we reached high school. Mackenzie never did, she would stay mocking and belittling teachers and other school staff. She even once got suspended because she made an instagram account in middle school that was exclusively for posting pictures/ making of a lunch lady who was indian and had a heavy accent. she made fun of her bc of the accent.

She didnt feel the need to be mean to me but she was a stereotypical mean girl personified. She was better than everyone else and everyone else needed to fall at her feet at all times. Her friends all shared the same mindset as well. She ran for homecoming queen but when she lost to another girl she was posting about how everyone “just couldn’t handle her” and how she was still the queen in her mind.

Drugs were her whole personality. Her username on everything was babykush or something like that. Sometimes when I used the bathroom at school I’d see her skipping class to vape. She even offered me a hit once. We were never friends or enemies we just knew of each other bc we had a lot of classes."

EDIT; to people accusing me of lying for likes, you don’t have to believe me and i don’t care about likes but as someone who’s lived in strongsville all my life i wanted to provide some added context. Also to add context, we didn’t hang out, we just happened to have some classes together. everything i’m saying is from small class interactions or her own social media posts. to people calling me a snitch you should look at yourself and wonder why that’s what you’re worried about when this is about a REAL case that affected a REAL town where people died. some of y’all have no sympathy towards victims and it shows.

[Silent3]

10. Was this supposed to be a murder/suicide, and the suicide part didn't work out so well?

I haven't heard anything about this case before, but from the description of what happened here, I don't get the impression Shirilla intended to survive the crash either.

[SYFROYH]

14. Probably, but as the judge said...

..a failed suicide in a murder-suicide plot is still murder.

I am surprised that reasonable doubt wasn't met for intentional murder. Voluntary manslaughter would seem to be easy to prove, but the facts must have been compelling.

[Silent3]

15. "a failed suicide in a murder-suicide plot is still murder"... no disagreement there.

I was just curious if she expected to survive the event somehow (like trying to aim the impact to only effect the victims - stupid, but people have tried dumber things).

What a suicide attempt might have added to the story (but clearly didn't in this case) is a possible insanity defense.

[SYFROYH]

16. Apparently, she claims she doesn't remember the event at all.

Which, if true, has to be really weird.

[hlthe2b]

11. Teen Apparently Left Deranged Notes on Obit of Boyfriend She Murdered

(I saw video of her during trial--apparently zero remorse shown)

Teen Apparently Left Deranged Notes on Obit of Boyfriend She Murdered
Mackenzie Shirilla, 19, was found guilty of deliberately crashing her car at 100mph.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/mackenzie-shirilla-appears-to-have-posted-disturbing-comments-on-boyfriends-obit-after-killing-him

--snip--
On the day of the crash, police found the car with “severe damage.” Dominic Russo and Flanagan were both pronounced dead at the scene, while Shirilla, who was found unconscious, was hospitalized. During her trial, prosecutors argued that Shirilla and Russo had a toxic relationship and that she had threatened him before the fatal incident—including by threatening to crash her car.

“There is no doubt that this happened because of the relationship with Dominic and the defendant’s intent was clearly to end that, and she took everybody that was in the car with her,” Tim Troup of the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office said Monday, adding that Flanagan died because he had simply “got in the wrong car seat.”

On Russo’s obituary, other posts made in Shirilla’s name included photographs of them together, including one tagged “Strongsville Prom 2022.” “You are the love of my life you will always be with me and I will always think about you,” read one comment using Shirilla’s name posted on Aug. 6, 2022— a week after the fatal crash. Another on the same day reads: “I love you Dom you are my soulmate I won’t never forget the memories we made together you made me the girl I am today and you were just an amazing bright soul.” It added a desire to “hug you one last time.”

“I miss you nug,” another comment on Aug. 24 reads below a picture appearing to show Shirilla and Russo at Universal Orlando Resort. “I still feel like your just going to walk in the door any second,” the post continues. “I miss your laugh your perfect smile. I feel your energy around me everyday i just wish it was physical. God u are the last person to deserve this you had such a perfect life ahead of you... i wish i told you all this more. Please wait for me.”

The comments, if indeed they were made by Shirilla, paint a radically different picture to that of the callous killer Judge Russo—who is not related to Dominic—described Monday. “She had a mission, and she executed it with precision,” the judge said. “The decision was death.”

[Jeebo]

12. How can anybody survive a 100mph crash?

That doesn't sound like a survivable crash to me.

-- Ron

[SYFROYH]

13. The killer is lucky their weren't consequutive sentences.

She could be out in 15 years and still have kids of her own.

[struggle4progress]

17. "Two weeks before Mackenzie Shirilla deliberately ploughed her car

into a brick building, instantly killing her boyfriend Dominic Russo, 20, and his friend Davion Flanagan, 19, the then 17-year-old had threatened to cause a crash during a heated argument with Russo."

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/mackenzie-shirilla-crash-murder-sentencing-b2397451.html