On Monday, a girl was sentenced to 15 years to life imprisonment for killing two people after a court determined she purposefully slammed her car into a business building at 100 mph in northeastern Ohio.
The July 31, 2022, crash killed Dominic Russo, 20, and Davion Flanagan, 19. (Source: New York Post)
A 19-year-old Girl in Ohio Guilty of Various Crimes
A Cuyahoga County court convicted Mackenzie Shirilla, a 19-year-old girl resident from Ohio convicted and guilty of various crimes, including two counts of murder, following a bench trial in the July 31, 2022 single-vehicle incident in the Cleveland suburb of Strongsville. According to the Strongsville Police Department, the early-morning crash killed her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20-year-old, and her friend 19-year-old Davion Flanagan. Shirilla was also found guilty of other offenses, including aggravated vehicular murder and cocaine possession, by Common Pleas Court Judge Nancy Margaret Russo, who is unrelated to the victim.
Regarding Shirilla’s two murder counts, the judge spared the youngster consecutive potential life terms in both men’s murders, according to court spokesman Deena Lucci. The judge informed Shirilla that she would most certainly be imprisoned for at least 15 years — the minimum time allowed served before she can appear before a parole board.
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A 19-year-old Girl in Ohio Intentionally Kill Her Passengers
According to Dominic Russo’s 34-year-old sister, Christine Russo of Cleveland, she is very relieved that the grief and stress are all over now. She was astounded and disturbed that (the court) administered the punishments concurrently rather than consecutively. Mackenzie took the lives of two innocent young men, and Christine Russo pushed that Shirilla should spend the rest of her life in prison.
During the trial, prosecutor Tim Troup claimed Shirilla had “a tumultuous relationship” with her partner and intended to kill her passengers, according to Lucci. Shirilla’s lawyer, James McDonnell, could not be reached immediately. According to the Associated Press, McDonnell contended at trial that the state had no proof his client intended to kill the men and that no one knew what was going on inside the Toyota Camry in the seconds before the crash.
Shirilla’s conduct, according to Judge Russo, was deliberate, methodical, controlled, intentional, and planned. The accident was premeditated murder. Shirilla, according to officials, did not testify at trial and cried as she read a statement during her sentence hearing.
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