Shirilla was sentenced to life in prison for intentionally causing the 2022 car crash that killed her boyfriend and their friend.

The Crash’s Mackenzie Shirilla petitions Ohio’s highest court after allegedly missing deadline due to leap year

Shirilla was sentenced to life in prison for intentionally causing the 2022 car crash that killed her boyfriend and their friend.

By Marina Watts

Marina Watts

Marina Watts is a news writer for with seven years experience covering entertainment, pop culture and celebrity news. Her previous work appears in PEOPLE, Bustle and Newsweek.

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May 28, 2026 9:08 p.m. ET

Mackenzie Shirilla in 'The Crash'. Credit:

- Mackenzie Shirilla's legal team is requesting relief from the Ohio Supreme Court after an alleged mixup with deadlines.

- Shirilla is currently serving life in prison, with the possibility of parole after 15 years, for intentionally causing the 2022 car crash that killed her boyfriend and their friend.

- *The Crash*, the documentary about the fatal crash and subsequent criminal investigation, is available to stream on Netflix.

Mackenzie Shirilla's lawyers are requesting that the Ohio Supreme Court review her petition for post-conviction relief after prosecutors claim that a calendar-related mixup led to a previous petition's denial by the Eighth District Court of Appeals in Cuyahoga County.

A petition for post-conviction relief is a legal request asking the court to get rid of or modify a conviction or sentence. It's usually made after the direct appeals process has been used up.

According to a memorandum reviewed by * *asking that the court decline jurisdiction to hear the petition, prosecutors claim that the convicted murderer's legal team "miscalendered" the date for her petition due to 2024 being a leap year. Shirilla was sentenced to life in prison, with the possibility for parole after 15 years, for the 2022 murder of 20-year-old boyfriend Dominic Russo and 19-year-old friend Davion Flanagan. According to the filing, a post-conviction challenge had been missed by one day due to 2024 having one more calendar day than 2023.

On the other hand, Shirilla's attorneys argued in a memorandum in support of jurisdiction filed April 27 that her petition had been denied as the "result of ambiguity in the postconviction relief statute." The document states, "The ambiguity centers around the meaning of the term 'trial transcript' which is used to measure the time by which a postconviction relief petition must be filed."

Mackenzie Shirilla in 'The Crash'.

The memorandum in support of jurisdiction adds, "A 'trial transcript' is not always essential to, or included within, the record on direct appeal."

However, the prosecutor's memorandum in response to jurisdiction claims that "Defendant-Appellant Mackenzie Shirilla miscalendared the date that her petition for postconviction relief was due. The trial transcripts were filed in her direct appeal on October 23, 2023, triggering the 365-day statutory clock to file the petition."

Shirilla "filed her petition on October 24, 2024, which is the same day that many of her exhibits were notarized. Because 2024 was a leap year, Shirilla's petition was late by one day," the prosecutor's memorandum says. The trial court determined that her petition was untimely and denied, the prosecutors say.

The prosecutor's memorandum adds that the current matter "concerns only the untimely filing of a post-conviction petition due to the mistake of counsel." It reads, "For these reasons, the State respectfully asks that this Court decline to exercise jurisdiction over this appeal."

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Prosecutors note that Ohio law states that Shirilla had 365 days from when the trial transcript was filed with the court of appeals to submit a petition for relief. According to the prosecutor's memorandum, Shirilla's attorneys had argued on appeal that the calendar didn't start until December 15, 2023, when the "transcript of a probable cause hearing in the juvenile court was filed in the direct appeal."

However, according to prosecutors, the Court of Appeals for Cuyahoga County noted that a "juvenile probable cause hearing is not a trial." The prosecutors further argue that "to the extent the phrase 'trial transcript' is vague, it is vague only in cases where the defendant pleaded guilty and there is no trial. That is not the case here."

A statement from the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office posted to Facebook this week says that prosecutor Michael O'Malley "believes without question that Mackenzie Shirilla is guilty of murder."

"We are confident that any court that reviews this case will come to the same conclusion,” the statement adds.

* *EW contacted lawyers for Shirilla and did not receive an immediate response. The Ohio Supreme Court has yet to announce whether it will consider Shirilla's petition.

Mackenzie Shirilla in 'The Crash'.

Previous appeals have been denied. Shirilla, who is currently imprisoned in the Ohio Reformatory for Women, will be eligible for parole in 2037. There has been renewed interest in Shirilla's case due to the Netflix documentary *The Crash*, which premiered May 15.

"It's really hard every day in here," Shirilla says of prison in* The Crash*. "I try to wake up and be the best person I can be every day, stay out of trouble. There's not a moment that doesn't pass where I don't think about [Russo and Flanagan]."

*The Crash* is available to stream on Netflix.

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