Speeding ‘hell on wheels’ killer Mackenzie Shirilla loses bid for new trial because lawyers were too slow
Speeding “hell on wheels” killer Mackenzie Shirilla has been refused a new trial — because her lawyers were too slow and filed the request a day late.
The ruling by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upholds a lower court decision denying another trial for Shirilla, who was just 17 when she intentionally slammed her car into a wall in a Cleveland suburb, killing boyfriend Dominic Russo, 20, and 19-year-old friend Davion Flanagan, online court records show.
The court noted that the convicted filed the request one day late in 2024.
“The filing of a postconviction petition is a jurisdictional act,” according to the appeal court’s ruling, which was released last week.
“Because the appellant filed the petition on the 366th day following the filing of the trial transcript, the trial court was without jurisdiction to consider the merits of the claims, and the application of equitable tolling is prohibited in the context of this jurisdictional bar.”
Shirilla and the two victims were driving around and getting high when she suddenly gunned the engine and smashed the car into a warehouse in Strongsville at 100 mph, killing both passengers.
Shirilla miraculously survived and was found unconscious with her Prada slippers still on the accelerator.
Prior to her arrest, she posted a shocking photo on TikTok that boasted, “I’m just one of those girls that can do a lot of drugs and not die.”
She was found guilty in 2023 on four counts of felonious assault and two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, breaking down in tears as the judge called her “literal hell on wheels.”
“This was not reckless driving — this was murder,” Cuyahoga County Judge Nancy Margaret Russo said in court. “She had a mission, and she executed it with precision. The decision was death.”
Shirilla was sentenced to 15 years to life, but has sought a new trial, with her lawyers filing the request on Oct. 24, 2024, one day past the deadline under the Ohio state law.
In May, Russo, the same judge who found Shiririlla guilty at her non-jury trial, called the petition invalid.
The appeals court’s new ruling upheld Russo’s decision.
