Court of appeals upholds denial of Mackenzie Shirilla’s bid for new trial in Strongsville murder case

CLEVELAND — The Eighth District Court of Appeals has upheld a previous ruling that denied convicted Strongsville assassin Mackenzie Shirilla’s request for a new trialaffirming that her authorized group waited too lengthy to file her supplemental post-conviction aid petition.

Last May, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Nancy Margaret Russo, the identical decide who found Shirilla guilty in a 2023 bench trial of killing her boyfriend Dominic Russo (no relation to the decide) and their buddy Davion Flanagan in a crash, sided with the prosecution in calling the petition invalid. Shirilla’s legal professionals made the PCR request on Oct. 24, 2024 — simply in the future after the deadline that was mandated by Ohio legislation.

“The court finds the state’s position well-taken, to wit: that the defendant’s petition is time-barred as a matter of law, having been filed past the statutory deadline,” Russo wrote in his resolution. “As the filing by defendant was untimely, this court is without jurisdiction to consider the merits or arguments of any of the pleadings. Therefore, as the defendant’s petition is statutorily time-barred and filed out of rule, the court denies the petition for post-conviction relief.”

In a ruling filed final week, the Court of Appeals unanimously agreed with Russo’s reasoning.

“Shirilla’s postconviction relief petition was filed on the 366th day following the filing of her trial transcript. Accordingly, we found that the trial court correctly determined it was without jurisdiction to consider the petition,” wrote Judge Anita Laster Mays.

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Shirilla’s conviction in September 2024 in a separate case, and in April 2025, the Supreme Court of Ohio declined to even take up the matter. Shirilla’s attorneys instructed 3News that the submitting was based mostly on allegations that the coroner’s report for the crash was modified with out adhering to correct protocol.

Shirilla, who was simply 17 on the time of the wreck however criminally tried as an grownup, was discovered responsible of all counts, together with 4 counts of murder, 4 counts of felonious assault and two counts of aggravated vehicular murder. She is at the moment serving a sentence of 15 years to life in prison.

DISCLOSURE: Shirilla’s father is a former WKYC worker. He didn’t work in the information division throughout his time with the station.

3News’ Lynna Lai contributed to this report.