Ohio prosecutors urge high court to reject Mackenzie Shirilla appeal bid
The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office says Shirilla’s latest request repeats arguments the Ohio Supreme Court already declined to hear.
By Bianca Rossi · Entertainment Editor
3 min read
Ohio prosecutors are asking the state’s highest court to shut down Mackenzie Shirilla’s latest bid for another review of her case, saying her new filing brings no fresh issue to the table.
In court documents obtained by TMZ, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office urged the Supreme Court of Ohio to deny Shirilla’s motion for reconsideration. Prosecutors argue the filing repeats points already placed before the justices before the court declined to hear her appeal last month.
Shirilla was convicted in 2023 after prosecutors said she intentionally drove at nearly 100 mph into a brick wall, killing her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and their friend, Davion Flanagan. She is serving two life sentences at the same time and is not eligible for parole until 2037, according to TMZ.
The latest fight is about whether the Ohio Supreme Court should take another look after turning away her case. Prosecutors acknowledge in the filing that reconsideration can be used when a court’s decision is later viewed as mistaken, but they say that is not what is happening here.
The state’s position is blunt: reconsideration is not meant to give a losing side another chance to make the same case.
According to the prosecutors’ filing, Shirilla does not identify any new material issue for the court to consider. The office wrote that she repeatedly points the justices back to arguments from her earlier memorandum in support of jurisdiction, the filing the court already had before it declined to take the case.
“What new material issue does Mackenzie Shirilla bring to this Court’s attention? None,” prosecutors wrote in the documents, according to TMZ. They added that Shirilla more than once directs the court to claims already briefed in her previous filing.
Shirilla is also asking the justices to take up at least one of her four arguments if they will not consider all of them, TMZ reported. Prosecutors say the court already had the ability to do that when it rejected the appeal last month.
The state closed its response with a pointed line about who has the power to change the rules. Prosecutors wrote, “Creating a new, Shirilla-specific exception is a matter for Broad Street, not Front Street,” according to TMZ.
The line appears to refer to the Ohio Statehouse on Broad Street and the Supreme Court of Ohio on Front Street, framing prosecutors’ argument that any special exception should come from lawmakers, not the court.
The Supreme Court of Ohio has not yet been reported to have ruled on the reconsideration request. No response from Shirilla to the prosecutors’ latest filing was included in TMZ’s report.
This story draws on original reporting from TMZ.