Mackenzie Shirilla: Could A Legal Mistake Result In A Retrial?

Mackenzie Shirilla remains in prison after a high-speed car crash killed her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and 19-year-old friend, Davion Flanagan. Guilty of murder, she came back into the chatter by true crime fans because of a Netflix documentary titled “The Crash.” Now she’s appealing her case, might she get a retail? Read on to find out more.

A Tragic Accident At First Glance

On the surface of it, a tragic accident happened when Mackenzie Shirilla (17) lost control of the car. Her boyfriend and the other passenger died, and they hadn’t been using their seatbelts. While Mackenzie survived, she suffered terrible injuries to her legs, internally, and broken ribs.

However, the prosecution believed she deliberately crashed the car, a Toyota Camry, into a brick wall in Strongsville, Ohio. At close to 100 miles per hour, it seems miraculous that anyone survived.

A Murder Case

How did it end up as a murder case? Well, data from the car’s event data recorder showed no braking before impact. Additionally, it seemed that full-throttle acceleration happened after a turn.

Meanwhile, the prosecution presented a history of arguments between Shirilla and Russo.

In one instance, she threatened to crash the car, and she visited the site of the eventual death scene days before the event unfolded.

Guilty Verdict

In August 2023, after a bench trial (meaning a judge, not a jury, decided the case), Judge Nancy Margaret Russo found Shirilla guilty of two counts of murder, felonious assault, and aggravated vehicular homicide, per People.

Apparently, the judge called her “literal hell on wheels” and sentenced her to two concurrent terms of 15 years of life in prison.

Since then, Mackenzie Shirilla unsuccessfully appealed her conviction multiple times. However, a new argument gets some attention.

Analysing The Appeal

This week, during his Brian Entin Investigates podcast, Brian spoke with a defense attorney named Mark Eiglarsh.They chatted about a new appeal.Entin explained how Shirilla’s legal team reportedly missed an appeal filing deadline by a single day.

Well, Eiglarsh didn’t hold a lot of hope for her because,“she’s not even eligible for an appeal at this point because they missed the cutoff by one day.” But then, he clarified that he wasn’t talking about Mackenzie but her attorney.

The Conviction Was On Point?

While Eiglarsh made it very clear that he’s not entirely keen on Shirilla, he had other things to discuss. Firstly, he believed that “the judge got it right.” Nevertheless, he also argued that the missed deadline amounts to a failure of due process.

Eiglarsh emphasized. “To miss the cut off by a day? Listen, she doesn’t know how to file these things. She relies upon an attorney to do so. And because a leap year or whatever they’re claiming was the reason why he missed it by one day, the appellate court at some point should say, ‘Okay, fine. We’ll make an exception.'”

The Court Can Probably Allow  Another Filing

He pointed to the famous legal standard from Strickland v. Washington, which governs claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. “He didn’t do his job, and as a result she had to pay. And that’s not fair,” Eiglarsh said.

Then, he argued again in her favor by pointing out that “The appellate courts should say that she didn’t have effective assistance of counsel, and as a result a new lawyer can go in and properly file this thing.”

Even so, it doesn’t sound like a case that he’d like to take on because the outcome could be a failure given that “her attorney did the best job he could with what he had.”

Unusual Choice of a Bench Trial

Entin also asked Eiglarsh about a rather unusual aspect of the case: Apparently, Mackenzie Shirilla opted for a bench trial, meaning no jury heard the evidence. And that doesn’t happen very often. In fact, Mark described it as “Very uncommon.”

Next, he explained that most defense attorneys prefer juries, especially in emotional cases. “I’d rather put six or 12 in the box and be more comfortable with people who can have an open mind, who aren’t politically motivated because most judges have to face reelection,” he said.

However, he noted that in this particular case, a jury likely would have reached the same conclusion. “I think a jury would have convicted her very easily.”

More Evidence

While the crash data alone seemed hard to disprove, Eiglarsh spoke with Entin about something he found involving an interview in a hospital. And that was something that helped him believe even there was little reasonable doubt.

Mark related:

When they first went in to interview her while she’s in the hospital, she then says to the detective in a recorded conversation, ‘Can I speak to my mom for a second?’ And then in some pig-Latin-type language, you hear her going…what it was translated to was, ‘Could we just tell them that I had a seizure or that I passed out or something like that?’

Then he pointed to something else that she had said. He cited her saying, “Can I just give my license for 10 years?” Well, from his perspective, he felt that “someone who isn’t responsible for this tragic crime wouldn’t say something like that.”

Defense & The Documentary

The seizure part seemed important, because if you don’t know, her defense team argued in court that Shirilla might have suffered an episode. Apparently, she could faint or black out due “to Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome.”

In the Netflix documentary, Shirilla gave her first on-camera interview, insisting, “I’m not a murderer,” and seemed sad. Still, some folks doubt that, especially after hearing about a Halloween video where she dressed as a corpse.

Will She Get her Appeal?

For now, Shirilla remains at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville. She won’t be eligible for parole until October 2037. At the moment, the Ohio Supreme Court considers another appeal. Legal observers like Eiglarsh say Shirilla’s best hope isn’t proving her innocence. Instead, she might be able to prove her lawyer failed her.

“I’m no fan of hers,” Eiglarsh said. “But I’m a huge fan of due process.”

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