The following are some of the ways to get in touch with each other Ohio A judge has convicted a teen of murder after she intentionally drove head-on at 100mph into a brick wall and killed her boyfriend.
Mackenzie Shirilla cried in court when a Cuyahoga county judge told her, “This wasn’t reckless driving.” This was Then, you can murder someone..”
Shirilla was found guilty of 12 felonies, including drug possession, felonious attack, and aggravated vehicular death, in the July 2019 crash. The crash killed her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20, who was in the passenger seat, and also killed their friend Davion Flanagan, 19, who was in the back.
A surveillance video of Shirilla’s vehicle accelerating rapidly down a residential road was shown during the trial. “She morphs from a responsible driver to literal hell on wheels as she makes her way down the street,” said Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Nancy Margaret Russo (no relation to the victim) on Monday as she announced the convictions.
Shirilla chose not to participate in a trial by jury, instead choosing to appear before a court.
Shirilla, then 17 years old, slammed Russo into the brick wall to break up their turbulent relationship.
Shirilla suffered serious injuries, but was able to survive after multiple operations, according to authorities. Russo and Flanagan were pronounced dead inside the car’s twisted wreckage.
Shirilla’s family members said that Shirilla was the Car crash Authorities disagreed that it was an accident.
“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,” prosecutor Michael O’Malley said after the verdict.
Flanagan, according to a second prosecutor on Monday, was at the incorrect place and time. “He was just a suitcase in the backseat in the defendant’s mind,” said Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim Troup.
Prosecutors said surveillance video showed Shirilla driving at a normal rate before turning a corner and then flooring the gas pedal and then jerking the wheel, slamming the car into the brick building.
Shirilla’s lawyer argued that the evidence didn’t show Shirilla intentionally crashed the vehicle and she lost control of it.
The hearing for sentencing is set to take place on August 21. Shirilla is facing a mandatory life sentence with the possibility of parole in 15 years.
According to her family, an appeal has been planned.