CLEVELAND (Court TV) — A teenager sentenced to prison won’t be getting an appeal after her attorney filed the paperwork too late.
Mackenzie Shirilla reacts as the judge reads her verdict. (WEWS)
Ohio’s Eighth District Court of Appeals upheld a trial court’s decision denying Mackenzie Shirilla’s appeal, saying that it was filed one day after the 365-day jurisdictional deadline.
Shirilla was 17 when she intentionally caused a car crash that killed her boyfriend and his friend in July 2022. Video showed Shirilla racing down the street, reaching speeds of 100 mph before she hit a brick building, killing the two passengers in her car. She was convicted of four counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault and two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide following a trial in 2023; Judge Nancy Russo sentenced her to an aggregate term of 15 years to life in prison.
Under Ohio law, a defendant appealing their verdict has 365 days from the time the trial transcript is filed with the court of appeals to submit their petition for appeal. Shirilla filed her petition on Oct. 24, 2024 — one day after the 365-day deadline.
In her appeal to the Eighth District, Shirilla argued that the clock didn’t start until December 15, 2023, when transcripts from a hearing that bound her case from juvenile to adult court were filed. The justices sided with the state, which argued that a juvenile hearing does not satisfy the statutory requirement of “trial transcripts.”
Shirilla also argued that because 2024 was a leap year, she should have been given an extra day to file her petition. But the justices disagreed, saying, “Ohio law is clear that PCR petitions must be filed within 365 days after the trial transcript is filed in the court of appeals, not on the date’s ‘one year anniversary.'”
Jail records show that Shirilla is currently housed at the Ohio Reformatory for Women, a state prison in Marysville.
