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Mackenzie Shirilla Takes Fight for New Trial to Federal Court
Mackenzie Shirilla
Wants Feds to Give Her a New Trial
Published
Mackenzie Shirilla is taking her fight from Ohio’s highest court to the feds … launching a sweeping new challenge to the murder convictions that landed her in prison.
According to a federal petition, obtained by TMZ, Mackenzie is asking a judge to throw out her convictions and order a new trial … challenging nearly every part of the case against her.
Her attorney, Steven Bradley, argues there wasn’t enough evidence to move Mackenzie’s case from juvenile to adult court — she was 17 when she crashed — or convict her of intentionally killing her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and their friend, Davion Flanagan.
Bradley also claims Mackenzie’s trial attorneys failed to present evidence suggesting Dominic may have grabbed the steering wheel before the car slammed into a building at around 100 MPH.
The petition further claims her lawyers failed to fully investigate her nervous-system disorder — which can cause fainting and dizziness — or call an expert to explain how it may have caused her to lose consciousness behind the wheel.
Mackenzie is also challenging changes made to the victims’ coroner reports, as well as testimony from a medical examiner who allegedly did not personally perform either autopsy.
The federal filing comes after the Ohio Supreme Court declined to hear her appeal … a request to reconsider that decision remains pending.
She’s serving two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life and will first be eligible for parole in 2037.