Mackenzie Shirilla - I'm struggling to get Beyond a Reasonable Doubt in her case - Long Read
Some background: I am an attorney but I practice in real estate law and have never practiced in criminal law. I watched the Netflix documentary The Crash recently and have been reviewing what court documents I could find.
If anyone has additional facts not in the documentary and verifiable, I would be grateful to look over them.
First, I'm not saying Shirilla is ACTUALLY innocent or ACTUALLY guilty it seems at this point we may not ever know the full truth of what happened. What I am interested in is reviewing evidence showing that this was murder beyond a reasonable doubt.
Second, I know she is a bad person and she is not someone I would want my daughter to be friends with or my sons to date. Additionally, I know her parents were bad parents who enabled her and instilled a sense of entitlement. I know that she was in a toxic relationship. But we don't convict people based on whether they are "bad" or not, we do it based on evidence of a crime. There are plenty of bad, entitled, narcissistic teenagers out there.
Third, everything I present here is based on what I have researched, I believe it to be accurate but I admit there could be mistakes and I welcome correction with verifiable sources.
A significant amount of my information is found here: https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/8/2024/2024-Ohio-4674.pdf
- The Route
The below two images show a Google Maps view of the route from where the party (sleepover) was to where the three people were living. The top route includes the turn onto Progress Drive (actual route) Note: the time 17 minute estimate isn't fully accurate as the route has a driver turning into the parking lot of the PLIDCO building, likely indicating the routes to be near equal time. The bottom route would have been the GPS suggested route.
The judge stated Shirilla “made the decision to drive a car, to drive an obscure route, a route she visited a few days before, and a route not routinely taken by her.” This strikes me as an odd statement not fully supported by evidence I have seen. The routes are not significantly different and the GPS suggested route includes 9 additional traffic lights compared to the actual route which would include 3-4 additional traffic lights. Given Shirilla's proclivity for reckless driving behavior, it would be reasonable for her to take a route with less traffic lights and less likelihood of police activity, giving her an opportunity to speed. According to the responding officer's testimony "Galassi admitted that Progress Drive is a 'cutthrough' street with a speed limit of 35 m.p.h. He admitted that drivers use Progress Drive 'as a cut-through' to get from Pearl Road to State Route 82 (Royalton Road), and they often exceed the speed limit travelling on that route."
I couldn't find any evidence to support the assertion that the route was "not routinely taken by her." Was this presented at trial and does anyone have information backing that up? My understanding is that she was in that area based on a cell phone ping from 7/28/22 but there isn't further information as to how long she was there, how many times she drove on that road, etc.
To me, the route is not so obscure or unreasonable as to be a strong indicator of guilt. She did not drive 5 miles out of the way to use a straight road for murder, she at most would have added a minute to her drive, assuming she wasn't stopped at all the traffic lights on Pearl Rd.
- Progress Road
This is where I find the most evidence that this was an intentional act, but I can still run some plausible scenarios showing that alternatives could have happened, introducing reasonable doubt. In the two camera angles we have, the Camry makes a controlled right turn onto the street (she even uses her turn signal) and then we skip forward to the EuroFins Test Oil building across the street from the crash where the vehicle is traveling at a high rate of speed (https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VQNRolXUL10).
This road is just under 2/3 of a mile long and is primarily straight but includes a curve left (dog leg) located approximately 1000 feet from the crash intersection (per Google Earth Pro measurements). According to the Event Data Recorder "the vehicle was traveling at an average of 88.86 m.p.h. over the two seconds leading up to the crash. It was traveling approximately 97 m.p.h. before leaving the roadway. He concluded that the vehicle was gaining speed before leaving the roadway. From when it left the roadway to when it crashed into the building, it was traveling at approximately 80.5 m.p.h."
Someone who is better at math could probably run a better analysis but I asked AI for help and it indicated if the car exited the dogleg at 65mph the 1000 feet would have been enough for her Toyota Camry to accelerate to the numbers provided by the EDR for the 5 seconds leading up to the crash. The Camry would have needed approximately 1500 feet to go from 0-97mph (remember the road is about 3600 feet). Since the vehicle was still accelerating into the intersection, it would indicate she wasn't pressing the accelerator to the floor from the beginning of the street, but pressed it down some point much later.
Why do I bring this all up? The math (as far as I can tell) does not eliminate the possibility for the alternative story of a medical event causing the crash.
- The Crash
We only have bits of information provided by the evidence but I'm going to bring up some of it that was interesting.
Shirilla was driving and was found with her legs and lower torso on the driver's side with her head and upper torso being on the passenger side underneath the passenger side dashboard.
Shirilla and Russo were both sitting in seats that had their seatbelts engaged according to the EDR. I've heard this misinformation circulated frequently that she put on her seatbelt because she wanted to live and let Russo and Flanagan ride without theirs so they would die. The court record indicates the crash expert Mark Sargent "admitted that the data recorder from the vehicle showed that both front seatbelts were engaged." Obviously I can't say 100% that either of them had their seatbelts on, but the EDR shows the seatbelts were buckled. There is no indication about the backseat seatbelt being engaged provided by the EDR.
Russo's chair was in a fully reclined position. This would indicate that he was relaxing or even sleeping during the car ride. This would also indicate that Flanagan was sitting in the seat behind Shirilla. Flanagan is found on top of Russo with his back toward the car seat and his face upward toward the roof.
The EDR indicates the steering wheel made a small left, a small right, and a sudden jerk to the right "Within 4.5 seconds of the start of the crash, the vehicle registered a small right turn, then a small left turn followed by a 'significant right-hand turn' that caused the data recorder to note a 'rollover event,' meaning that there was enough lateral force on the car that the data recorder thought it was turning over. He explained that the car was traveling very fast and then there was a 'hard yank' of the steering wheel, turning the wheel 142 degrees... The vehicle hit the wall 1.1 seconds after the hard-steering event." I don't know that the small turns indicate anything of significance and happened several seconds before the hard yank meaning the vehicle was still on the road at that time and it very well could have been due to the rough concrete road that is raised in some spots (per patrol officer Brent Robinson). The hard yank is more indicative of someone manually affecting the steering wheel by turning it to the right.
It was 45 minutes after the crash before anyone arrived on scene to help, Shirilla's O2 sat was at 82% (normal is above 95%), medical personnel did not evaluate Shirilla until 2 hours after the crash "Dr. Tseng admitted that a blood-oxygen level of 82 would be abnormally low for most people. Dr. Tseng further admitted that a patient with POTS may experience dizziness or a headache. Medical personnel evaluated Shirilla approximately two hours after the reported time of the crash. A person who has suffered a seizure or a 'mini-stroke' could possibly have recovered within two hours."
Flanagan was alive when first responders came on scene despite the initial officers believing he was dead "Emergency personnel called for two air ambulances, one each for Shirilla and Flanagan, who was determined to still be alive as well. Unfortunately, Flanagan died on the scene before the helicopter arrived."
- Reasonable Doubt
Again, I want to reiterate before I receive a deluge of hate, I'm not trying to prove Shirilla is innocent nor am I saying she is. I *think* she is guilty but I'm probably only about 60-65% sure and that does not get me beyond reasonable doubt. I am an attorney and I believe in the ideals of the justice system that requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt before convicting someone of a crime.
I'm going to propose an alternate story that I don't believe to be disproven by the evidence I have reviewed. So let's take the most reasonable alternative to pre-meditated murder: a medical event causing Shirilla to pass out.
Shirilla turns onto Progress Dr as we see in the first video. She accelerates to an unsafe but a frequent speed for herself (65-70MPH). Russo is laying back in his passenger seat chair with his seatbelt on, Flanagan is in the back seat behind Shirilla (potentially with a seatbelt on, potentially he has his eyes closed as well). At the end of the dogleg left, Shirilla is leaning forward in her seat and then passes out slumping forward and toward the passenger side, in front of the gearshift. This sends the car into a rapid acceleration, hitting 97 before exiting the roadway. Russo is asleep and does not know any of this is happening but Flanagan realizes something is wrong and sees Shirilla slumped over and feels the car accelerating. He first tries to shift the car into neutral because that's what he can reach but Shirilla's body is blocking it from staying there so it gets pushed back into drive and sequential as he desperately tries to move it. At this point there is only about 2 seconds before they hit the wall. He lunges forward to grab the stearing wheel and yanks on it in a last ditch attempt to save the vehicle. A second later they hit the wall causing massive damage, pinning Shirilla under the passenger dash and throwing Flanagan forward on top of Russo. Flanagan is able to move some as he was still alive but later passed away after first responders arrived on scene but being disoriented and badly injured he ends up on top of Russo in the position the officers found him.
I've read a lot of people saying that if she passed out she would have just gone limp, but if she were leaning forward and even slightly to the right, her bodyweight would have pushed her leg further into the accelerator. You can even try this sitting in your chair right now by pretending to drive and then pretending the pass out while leaning forward.
Regardless of what the truth of whether it was murder or an accident actually is, the evidence indicates that Davion Flanagan acted as a hero in his final seconds trying to prevent the crash.
If you have additional evidence that may help me move my mind beyond reasonable doubt, I encourage you to post it. If you're just going to tell me she's a bad person and you hate her and her parents and they all deserve to die, please save your effort.