Mackenzie Shirilla.Photo:WKYC CHANNEL 3/YOUTUBE
WKYC CHANNEL 3/YOUTUBE
An Ohio teenager who was sentenced to life in prison forintentionally driving into the side of a buildingand killing her boyfriend and another friend paid tribute to him several times online last year, writing that he was “the last person to deserve this.”“You had such a perfect life ahead of you,” Mackenzie Shirilla, now 19 years old, wrote on her late boyfriend Dominic Russo’sobituary pagelast August.
Across several posts that included photos of herself and Russo, 20, Shirilla said she misses him and wishes he was still alive.
“I miss your laugh your perfect smile,” she wrote. “I feel your energy around me everyday i just wish it was physical.”
Shirilla’s family also posted a tribute to Russo, according toThe Daily Mail, which first reported the news. “She loved you, we loved you. My whole family loved you,” a post attributed to the Shirillas read. “Forever in our hearts…forever.”
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Nancy Margaret Russo found Shirilla guilty of all 12 charges against her on Monday, including murder, aggravated vehicular homicide, felonious assault and drug possession. The conviction carries an automatic sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years, according toCleveland.com.
Russo, the judge (who is not related to the victim), told Shirilla that she “had a mission and she executed it with precision.”
“This was not reckless driving,” Russo said, according to3News. “This was murder.”
According to Strongsville Police, in the early morning hours of July 31, 2022, Shirilla was driving a 2018 Toyota Camry with Russo in the front seat and Flanagan in the back seat when she slammed into the side of a brick building at 100 mph.
Prosecutors maintained that Shirilla wanted to end her turbulent relationship with Russo, according to 3 News.
Mackenzie Shirilla and Dominic Russo.Cleveland.com
Cleveland.com
Shirilla also allegedly had THC in her system that exceeded the legal limit in Ohio, Cleveland.com reports.
According to surveillance video prosecutors showed in court, Shirilla was seen driving on Progress Drive in the Progress Drive Business Park at a normal speed.
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But when she turned onto Alameda Drive, she became “literal hell on wheels,” according to Judge Russo. Shirilla was seen accelerating before jerking the wheel to the right and left before slamming into a brick building at 100 mph, leaving her and her passengers trapped in the twisted metal wreckage.
Russo and Flanagan were pronounced dead at the scene. Shirilla was unconscious and not breathing when she was found trapped inside the car with the others, 3News reports.
Shirilla’s mother has said her daughter will appeal her conviction.
source: people.com
