The Ohio Supreme Court has declined to hear Mackenzie Shirilla’s most recent post-conviction appeal, effectively ending her latest attempt to challenge her murder convictions stemming from a fatal high-speed crash. In an order filed June 23, 2026, and signed by Chief Justice Sharon L. Kennedy, the state’s highest court stated it had reviewed the jurisdictional filings but would not accept the case. This decision leaves in place a lower-court ruling that dismissed her petition because it was filed one day past the legal deadline.
Shirilla, now 21, is serving two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life in prison after being convicted in 2023 of four counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault, and two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide. Prosecutors said that on July 31, 2022, the then-17-year-old deliberately drove her Toyota Camry into a brick commercial building in Strongsville, Ohio, at high speed. The crash killed her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20, and their friend Davion Flanagan, 19. Shirilla survived with serious injuries. Authorities maintained she accelerated intentionally as a way to end what they described as a toxic relationship with Russo, with Flanagan becoming an unintended victim who happened to be in the vehicle. Shirilla has consistently maintained that the crash was accidental.
Her case gained renewed public attention following the release of the Netflix documentary series The Crash, which examined the events and subsequent legal proceedings. In the wake of the series, Shirilla’s attorneys filed a post-conviction petition arguing that her original trial lawyers failed to adequately investigate a medical condition known as Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). They contended that POTS could have caused her to lose consciousness or control of the vehicle before impact, and that the condition was only briefly mentioned at trial despite the family having alerted counsel about it. The defense claimed trial attorneys should have pursued expert testimony on whether the syndrome could explain the failure to brake.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley’s office has continued to assert that Shirilla is guilty of murder without question. Her convictions had already been upheld on direct appeal in 2024. The latest petition, however, was rejected on procedural grounds. Under Ohio law, a post-conviction petition must generally be filed within 365 days after the trial transcript is filed in the court of appeals. The relevant transcript was filed on October 24, 2023, setting a deadline of October 23, 2024. Shirilla’s filing arrived on October 24, 2024—the 366th day.
Her legal team argued that the clock should have started later, when juvenile bindover transcripts were filed, and also pointed to the 2024 leap year as a reason the deadline should have been extended. The appellate court rejected both claims, ruling that the statute specifically refers to the “trial transcript” rather than supplemental juvenile-hearing records, and that the law requires 365 days, not a full calendar year. The court further declined to excuse the late filing on fairness grounds, noting that the deadline is jurisdictional and that Shirilla had not met any statutory exception that would allow consideration of an untimely petition.
By declining jurisdiction, the Ohio Supreme Court left the lower court’s dismissal intact. Shirilla remains incarcerated, with her earliest possible parole eligibility reported in some coverage as September 2037. The case, sometimes referred to in media as the “Hell on Wheels” incident, continues to draw attention due to the Netflix series and ongoing family and public interest in the circumstances of the 2022 crash.
Source: Fox News.