Mackenzie Shirilla Files Federal Habeas Corpus Petition Over Conviction

Mackenzie Shirilla, convicted in 2023 of 12 felony counts including murder for the 2022 high‑speed crash that killed boyfriend Dominic Russo and friend Davion Flanagan, is seeking to overturn her convictions. She was sentenced to two concurrent terms of 15 years to life and has been serving time at the Ohio Reformatory for Women.

Shirilla’s new legal team filed a federal writ of habeas corpus arguing that key exculpatory evidence was improperly excluded, that she received ineffective counsel, and that her case should not have been transferred from juvenile to adult court given her minor status at the time of the incident. The petition also cites a possible benign explanation for her presence at the crash site involving a grocery‑store pickup. The case gained wider public attention after Netflix’s 2026 documentary "The Crash" examined the incident.