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Newly released jail calls and text messages are shedding fresh light on the case of Mackenzie Shirilla, the Ohio woman dubbed “hell on wheels,” whose murder conviction is back in the spotlight thanks to Netflix’s “The Crash.”
Shirilla, now 21, is serving two concurrent terms of 15 years to life in person for killing Dominic Russo, 20, and Davion Flanagan, 19, after prosecutors said she deliberately slammed her Toyota Camry into a brick building in Strongsville, Ohio, on July 31, 2022. Prosecutors argued at trial that Shirilla smashed into the building to end her toxic relationship with Russo, and Flanagan just happened to be along for the ride.
“This was not reckless driving. This was murder. She had a mission, and she executed it with precision. The mission was death.”
The records, released by Strongsville Police Department and reported by Fox 8, come as Shirilla recently asked the Ohio Supreme Court to review her case for an appeal.
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Shirilla’s case is back in the limelight after Netflix’s new series, “The Crash.”
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What has happened since ‘The Crash’?
Since the documentary was released on May 15, police have released text messages between Shirilla and her boyfriend, Russo, as well as jailhouse calls and bodycam footage from the day of the crash, according to Fox 8.
The texts, reviewed by the local outlet, reveal that Shirilla complained to Russo about blackouts years before the crash and again just weeks before it, including a July 2, 2022, message in which she described what she called her “worst black out.”
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Shirilla’s attorneys have argued that medical evidence could support her claim that she blacked out before the July 31, 2022, crash that killed Russo and Flanagan.
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But other messages painted a darker picture of the couple’s relationship. Shirilla reportedly messaged, “THIS IS WHY I J WANNA F—ING KMS [kill myself]” and “I’m gonna kill someone.”
In another message, according to Fox 8, she told Russo to “treat the girl who would die for you a little better.”
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In March 2022, Russo allegedly texted that Shirilla “hit me” and “tried to throw a rock at me.”
Along with the new text messages, her father, Steve Shirilla, has been placed on administrative leave from his job at a Catholic school for participating in the documentary, according to WOIO-TV.
According to the outlet, the school, Mary Queen of Peace School, sent a letter to families said that is investigating claims that a teacher at the school “has demonstrated poor judgment.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Mary Queen of Peace School for comment.
The messages have resurfaced as Shirilla’s lawyers asked the Ohio Supreme Court to review whether her postconviction claims should be heard after a lower court ruled her petition was filed one day too late.
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In a filing with the Ohio Supreme Court reviewed by Fox News Digital, Shirilla’s attorneys argue her trial lawyers failed to adequately investigate evidence that she suffered from Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, or POTS. The syndrome they say could have caused her to lose consciousness before the crash.
The defense says the condition was only “cursorily referenced” at trial, despite Shirilla and her family allegedly putting her attorneys on notice about it. Her lawyers now argue trial counsel should have dug deeper and sought expert testimony to explain whether POTS could account for Shirilla’s failure to brake before impact.
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Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley “believes without question that Mackenzie Shirilla is guilty of murder,” his office said in a May 27 statement.
“We are confident that any court that reviews this case will come to the same conclusion.”
Before delivering her verdict in 2023, Cuyahoga County Judge Nancy Margaret Russo said Shirilla was on a “mission.”
“This was not reckless driving. This was murder,” the judge said at the time as Shirilla wept in court. “She had a mission, and she executed it with precision. The mission was death.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to Shiirilla’s attorneys for comment.
