Mackenzie Shirilla is spending her life behind bars after being convicted of intentionally killing her boyfriend and a friend in a high-speed car crash.
On July 31, 2022, Shirilla was a 17-year-old high school student who had been dating her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20, for around four years, per his family. The pair lived together in one of the Russo family’s homes, but their relationship was allegedly less than perfect. In the months leading up to the tragic crash, Russo’s mother, Christine, said the couple were on the rocks, often fighting and making threats towards one another, per Ohio Supreme Court documents.
On the night of the crash, Shirilla and Russo were leaving a party with another friend of theirs, Davion Flanagan. Shirilla got behind the wheel in the early morning hours on July 31 — and just minutes later, she drove her 2018 Toyota Camry into a brick building at upwards of 100 mph. Shirilla was seriously injured while Russo and Flanagan were declared dead at the scene.
Following a 2023 bench trial, meaning without a jury, Shirilla was found guilty of all 12 charges against her, which included murder, aggravated vehicular homicide, felonious assault and drug possession.
“Nothing can make this better,” Russo’s sister told PEOPLE following the sentencing. “Just hoping and praying that our pain eases even slightly. There’s a huge hole in us all. We will never be whole again.”
So, where is Mackenzie Shirilla now? Here’s everything to know about her life three years after the fatal crash.
Who is Mackenzie Shirilla?
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Shirilla was born in August 2004 and raised by her parents, Natalie and Steve, in Strongsville, Ohio.
At the time of the crash, Shirilla was 17 years old and a student at Strongsville High School.
What was Mackenzie Shirilla’s relationship with Dominic Russo?
At the time of the car crash, Russo was Shirilla’s longtime boyfriend. The recent graduate of Strongsville High School had met Shirilla when they were in school together, according to the Russo family. He was a business owner who ran several companies, including a clothing line, and was a doting uncle to his nieces and nephews.
According to Ohio Supreme Court documents, Christine said Russo and Shirilla had been dating for about four years, although Russo’s brother claimed that the pair had “broken up many times” over the years. Despite the alleged turbulence, Russo and Shirilla moved in together towards the end of 2021.
While Christine said she considered Shirilla to be a part of the family, she claimed that her son’s relationship with Shirilla became “strained” in the six months leading up to the crash. She allegedly observed “fighting,” “arguments,” “disagreements,” “breakups” and “threats” and believed that Shirilla became “more possessive” of her son.
In one alleged instance, in July 2022, Russo called his mother while he was with Shirilla and seemed to be in a “bad situation.” A family friend who was with Christine at the time, Christopher Martin, drove to pick up Russo, who was in a vehicle with Shirilla. Martin, who was on the phone with Russo, allegedly overheard Shirilla saying, “I’m going to wreck this car right now.” As Russo exited the vehicle to join Martin, the family friend claimed to see Shirilla “swinging her hands at him.”
In video footage recorded in July 2022 and discovered after Russo’s death, Shirilla was also heard threatening to break into Russo’s home.
What happened on the night of Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan’s death?
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In the hours before the tragic car crash, Shirilla, Russo and Flangan attended several gatherings. Around 10:15 p.m. on July 30, 2022, the trio went to a graduation party at the home of Shirilla’s friend Kellie Vraja. They remained at the party for less than an hour.
The group then drove to their friend Paul Burlinghaus’ home. According to his testimony, the group arrived around 11 p.m., and they listened to music while some people smoked marijuana. Burlinghaus said that “everything seemed fine” between Shirilla and Russo.
While he went to sleep around midnight, the group continued to hang out until the early hours of the morning on July 31. According to data from a phone app, Shirilla, Russo and Flangan left the house around 5:30 a.m.
The drive began normally, but just minutes later, Shirilla unexplainably sped up, and the trio were involved in a high-speed car wreck when her 2018 Toyota Camry crashed into a brick building. It would be 45 minutes before a passerby came across the crash site and called 911, per the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office.
Russo and Flangan were pronounced dead on the scene. Shirilla was found unconscious and not breathing, according to Ohio Supreme Court documents, and was transported to a local hospital with serious injuries.
In May 2025, Shirilla’s parents, Steve and Natalie, alleged that they and neurologist Dr. Kamal Chemali reviewed evidence that is “consistent with loss of consciousness” for Shirilla at the time of the crash, per 3News. Steve and Natalie believe that their daughter suffered a medical event right before the crash and did not intentionally kill her boyfriend and friend.
What happened during the investigation into Mackenzie Shirilla’s car crash?
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Following the crash, an investigation began. Over the course of several months, those close to Shirilla and Russo were interviewed about the couple’s relationship to determine whether the crash was more than just an accident.
Shirilla publicly paid tribute to her deceased boyfriend online, writing that he was “the last person to deserve this.” She shared photos of the couple on Russo’s obituary page, adding that she missed his “laugh” and “perfect smile.”
Months after the crash, Shirilla was officially arrested. In Strongsville Police Department recordings that were released in 2025, Shirilla could be seen on bodycam footage where she was told she was being arrested for “aggravated murder x 2.” She was held in jail on a $500,000 bond.
Shirilla’s case went to trial in 2023, where prosecutors accused her of intentionally crashing her car to kill Russo and end their allegedly toxic relationship. At the time, prosecutors claimed that Shirilla had purposefully driven towards the wall of the brick building at upwards of 100 mph.
During the trial, investigators worked to recreate the time leading up to the crash with the help of experts — as Shirilla claimed to have no recollection of the moments before her car hit the wall. Forensic mechanical expert Mark Sargent concluded that, based on the car’s event data recorder, the vehicle’s accelerator pedal was fully depressed with no application of the brake just seconds before the collision.
That meant that Shirilla’s foot was on the accelerator when the crash occurred, even leaving her fuzzy slipper trapped between the gas pedal and the floor mat. Although there are theories that Shirilla’s slipper could have accidentally caused the acceleration, Sargent believes the shoe “could not have been caught in such a way that it caused unintended acceleration prior to the crash,” per Ohio Supreme Court documents.
In the few seconds prior to the crash, the car experienced a hard steering event towards the right. Whether that was Shirilla attempting to regain control of the vehicle, a passenger reaching for the wheel or a physical reaction to the car being airborne and then hitting the ground, is still unknown. The vehicle was also shifted between neutral and drive in the moments before the crash — but it’s unclear why.
Sargent also concluded that there was “no indication of any precrash mechanical or electrical failure that may have caused a loss of accelerator control, a loss of braking or a loss in the ability to steer the vehicle.”
In other evidence uncovered by investigators, it was revealed that Shirilla was under the influence of marijuana and was in possession of the psychedelic mushroom psilocybin at the time of the crash. Strongsville PD detective Zaki Hazou also uncovered over a hundred instances of what he characterized as distracted or reckless driving on Shirilla’s social media accounts, including driving while smoking, according to Ohio Supreme Court documents.
Was Mackenzie Shirilla charged with murder?
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As the case was a bench trial, it was not heard by a jury and was decided upon solely by a judge. In August 2023, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Nancy Margaret Russo, who is not related to the victim, found Shirilla guilty of all 12 charges against her, which included murder, aggravated vehicular homicide, felonious assault and drug possession.
“She had a mission and she executed it with precision,” the judge said just before she handed down her verdict, per 3News. “The decision was death.”
Judge Russo, who referred to Shirilla as “hell on wheels,” was sentenced to two concurrent 15-year-to-life terms. She received credit for almost a year of time served behind bars as well as eligibility for parole after 15 years, according to NBC News. Her driver’s license was also permanently suspended.
“To the families of Dom and Davion, I am so deeply sorry,” Shirilla tearfully said during the sentencing, per WKYC. “I hope one day you can see how I’d never let this happen or do it on purpose. I wish I could remember what happened. I’m just so sorry. I’m heartbroken.”
Where is Mackenzie Shirilla now?
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Following her sentencing, Shirilla and her legal team appealed the conviction, but it was upheld, according to WKYC Channel 3.
While it’s possible that she will be released on parole after 14 years, some members of Russo’s family have said that justice would not be served if she were released that soon.
“I feel like the sentences should have been [run] consecutively,” Russo’s sister told PEOPLE. “I can’t imagine how I would feel if Mackenzie got out in 14 years.”
“My brother’s life and Davion’s life was completely stolen,” she added. “They don’t get out in 15 years. They don’t come back in 15 years. They don’t get any chance to live a life.”
Russo’s father, Frank, though, has expressed a desire for Shirilla to be rehabilitated.
“I lost my son, it’s harder on our family, but I don’t want the rest of her life ruined too. It isn’t going to make me feel any better,” he told NBC News after her sentencing. “She’s just a little kid. She f—– up. She did a damn stupid thing but now her parents are destroyed, her family’s destroyed too. I wish there was a way she could get some kind of help, some kind of treatment.”
In May 2025, Shirilla’s parents, Steve and Natalie, spoke out for the first time since her sentencing.
“Show me one piece of evidence — one — that says she did this on purpose. Show it to me,” Steve told 3News. “Then she’s right where she belongs and she’s guilty of it. But there isn’t any. There’s no evidence (of) what was going on in that car other than information they gleaned from the black box.”
While Shirilla is being held in an Ohio women’s prison in Marysville, her new legal team has continued to file appeals and post-conviction relief petitions. Her parents and team allege that two pieces of evidence were ignored in the original trial: health data that could point to Shirilla suffering a medical event at the time of the crash and apologetic text messages from Russo that they say show he instigated the couple’s fights.
