Ohio prison officials have responded after a new selfie of Mackenzie Shirilla surfaced on her Instagram page.
Shirilla, 21, is serving two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life at the Ohio Reformatory for Women after being convicted of deliberately crashing a car into a building in 2022, killing her boyfriend Dominic Russo and their friend Davion Flanagan.
Attention around the case has grown again following the release of Netflix’s The Crash, which revisits the fatal July 31, 2022, crash in Strongsville, Ohio.
On June 23, 2026, the Ohio Supreme Court refused to take up Shirilla’s appeal. Her attorneys missed the deadline for a post-conviction review by a single day because 2024 was a leap year.
The update was shared on her Instagram account alongside the selfie. The page biography says it is ‘Run by Mackenzie’s Support Team’.
The post prompted questions about how the image ended up online. Dominic Russo’s sister, Christine, told TMZ it was ‘heartbreaking’ to see Shirilla maintaining a social media presence while her family continues to mourn.
She also raised concerns about prison rules, asking ‘whether rules regarding electronic devices had been violated’.
Now, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction has addressed those concerns.
According to TMZ, chief spokesperson JoEllen Smith said Shirilla sent photos of herself using the prison’s ViaPath tablet system, which is intended to help inmates ‘stay connected to loved ones’. In Ohio, inmate tablets can be used for approved communication and other limited services, but they do not provide access to social media platforms.
The department’s Chief Inspector reviewed the matter and determined that Shirilla did not upload the image to social media herself because inmates ‘do not have access to social media platforms on the ViaPath tablets,’ the outlet reported.
Smith added that inmates are allowed to ‘send photos to family members using the tablet in compliance with the prison’s rules and regulations’.
The previous upload on the account had appeared seven weeks earlier, and Shirilla appeared to be wearing the same outfit in that post.
Its caption included a message said to be ‘from Mackenzie’, in which she said she ‘was not perfect’ and ‘always loved Dom and would never do anything to hurt him’.
So far, all three of Shirilla’s efforts to overturn her murder conviction have been rejected by the Supreme Court.
She will first become eligible for parole in September 2037.
The events at the center of the case began after Mackenzie Shirilla and Dominic Russo argued, with a friend later saying Shirilla told him, “I will crash this car right now.”
Shirilla was driving Russo, 20, and Davion Flanagan, 19, from Russo’s house to a friend’s home when the crash happened. At about 5.30am, the vehicle slammed into a Plidco Building in Strongsville, Ohio, at 100mph without any sign of braking. Police reached the scene 45 minutes later. Russo and Flanagan were pronounced dead, while Shirilla was taken to MetroHealth Medical Center.
Around 200 people later gathered for a vigil honoring Russo and Flanagan. Shirilla was still in critical condition at the time. When a detective visited her in hospital, she was reportedly speaking a ‘unique language’ resembling pig Latin.
Months later, Shirilla attended a Halloween party in a costume that appeared to resemble a corpse. Davion’s father said this was deeply upsetting, telling Netflix’s The Crash, “Dressing up as corpses three months after she killed two people, it just sickened us to the very core.”
Shirilla was eventually arrested and charged with 18 offenses, including two counts of aggravated murder. Prosecutors also accused her of breaking into the Columbia Church of God in Columbia Station shortly before the crash, as well as drug trafficking and possession offenses.
During trial, her defense argued that she could have blacked out because of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS. However, no medical records or expert testimony confirmed that diagnosis.
The court found Shirilla guilty on all counts. Judge Nancy Margaret Russo described her as ‘hell on wheels’, and the court ruled that the collision was an intentional, premeditated act.
She was then sentenced to two concurrent terms of 15 years to life. Later attempts by her legal team to win an appeal and post-conviction relief were unsuccessful, and she remains imprisoned at the Ohio Reformatory for Women.
Her parents have continued to maintain that she is innocent. Her father, Steve, told WKYC, “Show me one piece of evidence – one – that says she did this on purpose. Show it to me, then she’s right where she belongs and she’s guilty of it. But there isn’t any.” Her mother, Natalie, has said there are texts in which Shirilla claimed Russo was ‘trying to end her life’.
In Netflix’s The Crash, Shirilla says she is ‘not a murderer’ and maintains that she cannot remember the crash, while continuing to attribute it to POTS.
Separate controversy later emerged around Steve Shirilla, who was placed on administrative leave from his role as an art and digital media teacher at Mary Queen of Peace School in Cleveland following allegations that he had ‘demonstrated poor judgement’. Some viewers of the documentary criticized his comments about Shirilla’s marijuana use and his rejection of claims that she had told a classmate to end their life.
The Ohio Supreme Court’s latest decision means Shirilla’s conviction will stand, after the court upheld the earlier ruling that her missed deadline prevented the case from being challenged through that avenue.
Her first chance at parole will come in September 2037.
The events at the center of the case began after Mackenzie Shirilla and Dominic Russo argued, with a friend later saying Shirilla told him, “I will crash this car right now.”
Shirilla was driving Russo, 20, and Davion Flanagan, 19, from Russo’s house to a friend’s home when the crash happened. At about 5.30am, the vehicle slammed into a Plidco Building in Strongsville, Ohio, at 100mph without any sign of braking. Police reached the scene 45 minutes later. Russo and Flanagan were pronounced dead, while Shirilla was taken to MetroHealth Medical Center.
Around 200 people later gathered for a vigil honoring Russo and Flanagan. Shirilla was still in critical condition at the time. When a detective visited her in hospital, she was reportedly speaking a ‘unique language’ resembling pig Latin.
Months later, Shirilla attended a Halloween party in a costume that appeared to resemble a corpse. Davion’s father said this was deeply upsetting, telling Netflix’s The Crash, “Dressing up as corpses three months after she killed two people, it just sickened us to the very core.”
Shirilla was eventually arrested and charged with 18 offenses, including two counts of aggravated murder. Prosecutors also accused her of breaking into the Columbia Church of God in Columbia Station shortly before the crash, as well as drug trafficking and possession offenses.
During trial, her defense argued that she could have blacked out because of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS. However, no medical records or expert testimony confirmed that diagnosis.
The court found Shirilla guilty on all counts. Judge Nancy Margaret Russo described her as ‘hell on wheels’, and the court ruled that the collision was an intentional, premeditated act.
She was then sentenced to two concurrent terms of 15 years to life. Later attempts by her legal team to win an appeal and post-conviction relief were unsuccessful, and she remains imprisoned at the Ohio Reformatory for Women.
Her parents have continued to maintain that she is innocent. Her father, Steve, told WKYC, “Show me one piece of evidence – one – that says she did this on purpose. Show it to me, then she’s right where she belongs and she’s guilty of it. But there isn’t any.” Her mother, Natalie, has said there are texts in which Shirilla claimed Russo was ‘trying to end her life’.
In Netflix’s The Crash, Shirilla says she is ‘not a murderer’ and maintains that she cannot remember the crash, while continuing to attribute it to POTS.
Separate controversy later emerged around Steve Shirilla, who was placed on administrative leave from his role as an art and digital media teacher at Mary Queen of Peace School in Cleveland following allegations that he had ‘demonstrated poor judgement’. Some viewers of the documentary criticized his comments about Shirilla’s marijuana use and his rejection of claims that she had told a classmate to end their life.
The Ohio Supreme Court’s latest decision means Shirilla’s conviction will stand, after the court upheld the earlier ruling that her missed deadline prevented the case from being challenged through that avenue.
Her first chance at parole will come in September 2037.