Mackenzie Shirilla, the 19-year-old from Ohio who deliberately crashed her car into a brick wall to kill her boyfriend, was sentenced to 15 years to life on Monday.
Judge Nancy Margaret Russo described Shirilla as “hell on wheels.” The teen was convicted last week on 12 counts, including the murder of her boyfriend Dominic Russo, 20, and his friend Davion Flanagan, 19, in 2022.
The Judge and Dominic share the same last name but have no relation.
Shirilla will be eligible for parole after she serves 15 years behind bars. However, her license is permanently suspended, NBC News reported.
“To the families of Dom and Davion, I am so deeply sorry,” Shirilla said at the sentencing hearing Monday while wearing shackles and sobbing, per WKYC. “I hope one day you can see how I’d never let this happen or do it on purpose. I wish I could remember what happened. I’m just so sorry. I’m heartbroken.”
“Mackenzie, going to prison because you did this, be thankful you’re still alive and have a future, whatever that may be,” Dominic’s mother, Christine Russo, replied at the hearing, reported NBC News.
Strongsville police say Shirilla was driving a 2018 Toyota Camry with Russo and Flanagan riding passenger. She hit a brick wall going at a 100 mph in the early morning hours of July 31, 2022. The three had allegedly been smoking marijuana at a friend’s home earlier in the day, while Shirilla also allegedly had traces of THC in her system that exceeded the Ohio legal limit the trial court heard, PEOPLE added.
Prosecutors argued that Shirilla wanted to end her toxic relationship with Russo. Surveillance video shows Shirilla driving normally before accelerating and smashing the car into a brick building, trapping her and her passengers inside the vehicle.
Russo and Flanagan were pronounced dead at the scene, 3 News reported, while Shirilla was found not breathing and unconscious.
Prosecutors said Shirilla deliberately drove her car into the wall “on a mission” to kill her boyfriend. Judge Russo later told Shirilla that she “had a mission and she executed it with precision.”
“This was not reckless driving,” Judge Russo said. “This was murder.”
Shirilla wrote on Russo’s obituary page last August that he was “the last person to deserve this” and “had such a perfect life” ahead of him. The teen also shared pictures of herself and Russo on several posts, expressing her longing and grief.
“I miss your laugh your perfect smile,” she wrote. “I feel your energy around me everyday i just wish it was physical.”
Shirilla’s mother says her daughter will appeal the verdict.
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