Ohio Supreme Court declines to hear appeal of ‘The Crash’ subject Mackenzie Shirilla

STRONGSVILLE, Ohio (WCMH) – The Ohio Supreme Court has declined to hear the appeal of Mackenzie Shirilla, the subject of Netflix's documentary "The Crash," leaving intact a ruling that barred her postconviction challenge because it was filed one day late. On July 31, 2022, Shirilla, who was 17 at the time, drove her car at 100 mph into a building in Strongsville, near Cleveland. Her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20, and their friend, Davion Flanagan, 19, died in the crash. She was convicted of murder and other charges in 2023 in relation to the crash. On Tuesday, the high court announced in a brief entry order that it would not consider Shirilla’s latest appeal. Justice Patrick DeWine dissented from the decision, and the remaining justices voted not to take the case. The justices did not provide any specific reasoning in the order. See NBC4's latest headlines in the video player above. The Ohio Supreme Court’s order stems from a dispute over the timeliness of Shirilla’s filing of a petition for postconviction relief, a challenge to a criminal conviction that, if successful, may result in a new trial, modified sentence or dropped charges.  In October 2024, Shirilla filed the petition, which included claims of ineffective counsel at her original trial and new medical evidence suggesting she could have blacked out during the crash. In May 2025, the trial court dismissed the petition as time-barred because it was filed one day late, an error Shirilla’s attorneys attribute to a miscalculation related to 2024 being a leap year. In March 2026, the Eighth District Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s decision, and in April, Shirilla filed an appeal with the Ohio Supreme Court seeking review of the deadline dispute. The Ohio Supreme Court’s decision to not review the matter leaves the Eighth District Court of Appeals’ ruling in place. If the Ohio Supreme Court had reviewed Shirilla’s appeal and agreed with her, it would have likely instructed the trial court to review the merits of her petition for postconviction relief.   When it comes to discretionary appeals, the Ohio Supreme Court typically selects cases that pose a substantial constitutional question or impact a broad portion of the public. The most recent data from the court shows that in 2024, the court accepted 143 of 1,145 discretionary appeals, a 12.5% acceptance rate. In April 2025, the Ohio Supreme Court also declined to review a separate appeal filed by Shirilla shortly after her conviction. That appeal argued there was insufficient evidence that she purposefully caused the crash. At Shirilla’s original trial, prosecutors argued that the crash was intentional and tied to a toxic relationship between Shirilla and Russo. She maintains that she does not remember the incident but would not have intentionally harmed anyone.  Shirilla, now 21, is incarcerated at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville, just over 30 miles northwest of Columbus. She is serving a sentence of 15 years to life in prison.  "The Crash," a 90-minute documentary covering the deadly collision and Shirilla's bench trial, debuted on Netflix in May.