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Aug 18, 2023 · The Ohio teenager convicted this week of crashing her car at 100 mph into a brick wall to kill her boyfriend and his friend left more than a dozen bizarre tributes on his online obituary less than...
- 5 min
- Rebecca Rosenberg
- Overview
- 'I'm so deeply sorry'
- Victims' families asked for harshest sentence
- The trial
The Ohio teenager dubbed "hell on wheels" — who was convicted of intentionally crashing her car at 100 mph into a building, killing her boyfriend and his friend — was sentenced to two concurrent 15 years-to-life sentences Monday.
Mackenzie Shirilla, 19, was sentenced on murder charges in the deaths of her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20, and Davion Flanagan, 19. She will receive credit for time served and have her driver’s license suspended for life.
Shirilla was convicted last week in a bench trial on 12 counts, including murder, for the crash in July 2022.
Shirilla, then 17, drove without braking into a brick building in the Cleveland suburb of Strongsville. The passengers, Russo and Flanagan, were pronounced dead at the scene.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Nancy Margaret Russo said Monday she grappled with whether to give Shirilla consecutive or concurrent sentences.
“I understand that the pain in this room wants me to impose the harshest sentence, but I don’t believe that would be the appropriate sentence, because I do believe that Mackenzie won’t be out in 15 years,” she said.
Shirilla, who did not testify, spoke before the court before the sentence was read.
“The families of Dominic and Davion, I’m so deeply sorry. I hope one day you can see I would never let this happen or do it on purpose. I wish I could remember what happened,” she said, crying.
The victims' relatives spoke before the sentencing.
“Mackenzie, going to prison because you did this, be thankful you’re still alive and have a future, whatever that may be," said Dominic’s mother, Christine Russo.
"Dom and Davion were robbed of their futures, their hopes and their dreams. Mackenzie showed no mercy on Dominic, nor did she on Davion. Only God at this time can have mercy on her soul,” she added.
Davion Flanagan’s mother said his death has devastated their family.
His sister, Davyne Flanagan, said: “I feel stuck. I feel like I can’t move forward. I feel lost. ... I would like you to give Mackenzie the longest possible sentence. I’ve known her for about three years, and she’s always taking the easy way out.”
Before the sentencing, the prosecution presented TikTok videos showing Shirilla at a concert and celebrating Halloween after the crash.
At last week's verdict, the judge shared blistering remarks and condemned Shirilla's actions, saying: “She had a mission, and she executed it with precision. The mission was death.”
The crash happened around 5:30 a.m. on July 31, 2022, when Shirilla accelerated her Toyota Camry into the Plidco Building, a large brick building at the intersection of Progress and Alameda drives in Strongsville, police and prosecutors said.
Police arrived at the scene around 45 minutes later. Russo and Flanagan were pronounced dead at the scene; Shirilla was hospitalized.
The judge said in her verdict remarks that Shirilla was “literal hell on wheels,” saying she intentionally drove at an hour when not many witnesses would be around, on a path she didn't routinely use but had visited days before.
Prosecutors argued in the trial that Shirilla had become turbulent and threatening toward her boyfriend and that she crashed to end their relationship.
Two weeks before the crash, she allegedly threatened to crash her vehicle when she was driving with Russo because she was upset over a disagreement they had had. Russo called his mother and asked to be picked up, and a friend ended up retrieving him. In a phone call with Russo, the friend allegedly overheard Shirilla say, “I will crash this car right now,” prosecutors said in court documents.
- Breaking News Reporter
- Marlene Lenthang
- 2 min
Aug 20, 2023 · Mackenzie Shirilla, 19, was found guilty of 12 counts last Monday, including four counts of murder, in the July 2022 crash in Strongsville, Ohio, which killed her boyfriend, Dominic Russo,...
- Marlene Lenthang
- 2 min
- Breaking News Reporter
Aug 16, 2023 · An Ohio teen is facing life in prison after being convicted of murdering her boyfriend and his friend by deliberately driving her car into a brick wall at 100 mph — with a judge calling her...
- 42 sec
- Olivia Land
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