Aug. 15 (UPI) — A 19-year-old Ohio woman has been found guilty of murdering her boyfriend and another man last year when she drove a car they were riding in into the wall of a building at 100 mph.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Nancy Margaret Russo delivered the verdict against Mackenzie Shirilla following a four-day bench trial in Cleveland last week.
Prosecutors had charged Shirilla, of Strongville, Ohio, with intentionally causing the crash at an industrial park on July 31, 2022, when she was 17 years old, resulting in the deaths of passengers Dominic Russo, 20, and Davion Flanagan, 19.
The court is scheduled to hand down a sentence on Monday.https://www.youtube.com/embed/lN-QoVy3u_E
Shirilla broke down in tears as Russo read out her verdict finding her guilty of murder, felonious assault and aggravated vehicular homicide.
In so doing, the judge rejected defense arguments that Shirilla didn’t intentionally kill Russo and Flanagan but merely lost control of the Toyota Camry while driving recklessly as many teenagers do.
During the trial, however, prosecutors pointed to security camera video of the incident showing the car accelerating “in a controlled manner” up to 100 mph “with intent” before careening off the road and crashing into a warehouse building, WKYC-TV reported.
The state also presented expert testimony finding that the car’s gas pedal was pushed to its full acceleration capacity with no attempt to brake and presented evidence that Shirilla’s relationship with boyfriend Russo was at times “hostile.”
Shirilla maintained she did not have any recollection of the moments before the crash, after which she was pried out of the vehicle by emergency responders.
