'Hell on wheels' teen murdered boyfriend and friend in crash

Mackenzie Shirilla, 17, ended her relationship with a devastating impact, killing not only her boyfriend but her promising athlete friend in a shocking car crash

Those who had spent time with Mackenzie Shirilla and her boyfriend Dominic Russo knew their relationship was unpredictable. It was 2022 and they had been together for a few years, but they had broken up many times along the way. Shirilla, then 17, and Dominic, 20, would argue, and then makeup again. After a while, it’s what everyone expected of the tempestuous couple.

Shirilla would spend a lot of time at Dominic’s house, with his family. They’d hang out with friends or drive around the local area of Strongsville, Ohio. Dominic was well liked. He loved fashion, was always singing and was known for his big smile. He was determined to make something of his life and had plans to start a clothing line. Shirilla was a confident teen, who liked to post on social media.

On 30 July 2022, Shirilla spent the evening with her boyfriend and his friend, Davion Flanagan, 19. Gifted athlete Davion had been adopted by Scott and Jamie Flanagan when he was eight years old after a difficult start in life. He had been taken into foster care with his two younger sisters, as his biological parents were drug addicts. They’d spent years bouncing between foster homes.

Scott and Jamie had adopted all three of the siblings and they were thriving in their loving care. Davion had taught himself to cut hair and was going to attend barber college so he could open his own shop one day.

Davion, Dominic and Shirilla hung out together, and allegedly smoked marijuana. In the early hours of 31 July, Shirilla was driving Davion home in her Toyota Camry. He was in the back, with Dominic in the front. At around 5.30am, they were involved in a catastrophic car accident. The vehicle slammed into the side of a brick building on an intersection at the speed of 100mph.

A member of the public finally saw the wreckage and emergency services arrived on the scene about 45 minutes later. Tragically, Dominic and Davion were declared dead at the scene. Shirilla was trapped in the driver’s seat, unconscious, with her “fuzzy Prada slipper” still on the accelerator pedal. She was cut from the vehicle and taken to hospital, where she would miraculously survive.

The crash was devastating to the community and the families of the victims. Two young lives were lost and Shirilla publicly told of her heartache over losing her boyfriend. She shared photos of the two of them together and wrote emotional posts on Dominic’s obituary page.

“I miss your laugh, your perfect smile,” she said. “God u are the last person to deserve this you had such a perfect life ahead of you … I wish I told you all this more. Please wait for me.”

It was unthinkable to imagine how Shirilla was feeling having survived the crash, when two hadn’t, and there was a rush of sympathy for her. But investigators weren’t sure the crash had been an accident. They examined surveillance video in the area and saw that Shirilla had been driving normally before the crash, then had inexplicably sped up.

The car’s data recorder confirmed that moments before the crash, the accelerator pedal was pushed down at full capacity and at no point had she hit the brake. Why would Shirilla deliberately drive fast into the side of a building at 100mph?

Chilling treat

The police discovered that two weeks before the incident, on 17 July, Shirilla had been driving locally in the area with Dominic and they had been arguing. Dominic had called his mum and asked her if she could pick him up. A friend went to collect him instead, and, while on the way, he spoke to Dominic on the phone and heard Shirilla say, “I will crash this car right now.” It was a chilling threat. When the friend arrived, Shirilla was seen striking Dominic before he left.

In another incident that month, Dominic videoed Shirilla making threats to damage his car and verbally degrading him. Dominic tried to calm her down as she called him names and tried to force her way into his home. He had to call his mum for help.

As the police continued their enquiries, Shirilla was in her hospital bed, looking up modelling jobs on the internet. When she was discharged, she attended a music concert in her wheelchair, and at Halloween she did a TikTok video with friends where she was dancing, insensitively dressed up as a what appears to be a corpse.

Investigators determined that Shirilla had crashed the car on purpose to hurt her boyfriend. Davion had died as a result. In November 2022, she was charged with murder in connection with the deaths of Dominic and Davion. She pleaded not guilty.

In 2023, Shirilla faced a judge-only bench trial, with no jury. It lasted four days and she was tried as an adult. Her defence lawyers said it had been an accident. They said that while the relationship had been toxic, the fighting had come from both sides and there was no evidence that the crash had been intentional.

The prosecution said Shirilla deliberately caused the accident because she was “on a mission” to kill her boyfriend. She had made violent threats before –including threats to crash her car with Dominic in it. Shirilla did not testify at her trial.

The security footage of the crash was played in the courtroom. It showed the car speeding down the street, with no signs of slowing down,before it slammed into the building with a sickening crunch.

The judge found Shirilla guilty of 12 counts, including murder. Shirilla cried at the verdict. At the sentencing in August 2023, then 19, she finally made a statement. She continued to insist to the families that she couldn’t recall what had happened.

“I hope one day you can see I would never let this happen or do it on purpose,” she said. “I wish I could remember what happened. I’m just so sorry. I’m heartbroken… I wish I could take all your pain away.”

Two life sentences

Davion’s adopted parents said they were broken by the death of a young teen with so much potential. Because the prosecution had focused so much on the relationship between Dominic and Shirilla, they felt that Davion was overlooked and treated as “the other one in the backseat” rather than a victim in his own right. He had been collateral damage, but he deserved to have his story told.

Dominic’s mother, Christine, said Shirilla should be thankful she survived the crash. “Be thankful you’re still alive and have a future, whatever that may be,” she said. “Dom and Davion were robbed of their futures, their hopes and their dreams.

”The judge described Shirilla as 'hell on wheels' and said she had been 'on a mission' and was solely responsible for everyone’s pain in the courtroom. “This was not reckless driving,” the judge said. “Her actions were controlled, methodical,deliberate, intentional and purposeful. This was not reckless driving. This was murder.”

Shirilla was given two life sentences,to run concurrently, with the chance of parole after 15 years. Her driving licence was permanently suspended. There was unhappiness that the sentences weren’t consecutive, but the judge said it was unlikely she would get parole in 15 years unless she started to show signs of remorse and ownership for what she’d done.

It’s still unclear exactly what was going through her mind that fateful morning when Shirilla committed such a horrifying act. Two lives were lost in the catastrophic impact when Shirilla turned her car into a murder weapon.