Mackenzie Shirilla texted about blackouts before deadly crash

(NewsNation) — Newly revealed texts show Mackenzie Shirilla complained of blackouts to her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, before the deadly crash that killed him and his best friend, Davion Flanagan. In one of these newly resurfaced texts obtained by People magazine, Shirilla told Russo about "a rlly bad blackout” back in 2020. In another message from July 2, 2022, Shirilla texted Russo saying she had an episode, and it “was probably the worst black out like pain level I've had." Weeks later, Shirilla, then 17, drove her Toyota Camry into a building at 100 mph. Russo, 20, and Flanagan, 19, were in the car with her and died. Shirilla was convicted of their deaths in 2023 and sentenced to two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life. During the trial, prosecutors called the incident an "intentional act," after information from the car's "black box" showed she had the accelerator fully pressed to the floor and there were no signs of braking before they hit the building. Shirilla and her attorneys argued the crash was due to her losing consciousness because of a medical condition. However, the defense was unable to provide evidence of that at trial. Shirilla has since filed an appeal with the Ohio Supreme Court, claiming her attorney at the time failed to fully investigate her medical condition in relation to the crash or find an expert to validate it at trial.