CLEVELAND — A newly filed court motion is challenging one of Northeast Ohio’s most high-profile convictions by introducing medical evidence intended to potentially explain why a Strongsville teen crashed her car at nearly 100 mph, killing two passengers.
But while the defense argues that the new evidence could have changed the outcome of her trial, prosecutors say the petition is meritless, and legally improper because it was filed one day too late.
On April 3, Mackenzie Shirilla’s new defense team submitted a supplemental post-conviction relief petition, alleging her original trial attorney failed to present critical medical evidence that could have changed the outcome of her case. Shirilla, now 20, is currently serving a sentence of 15 years to life after being convicted of murdering her boyfriend Dominic Russo and their friend Davion Flanagan in the July 2022 crash…