🚨 THE SHIRILLA CASE IS BACK, AND SO ARE WE. Netflix just dropped "The Crash." Mackenzie Shirilla's new attorneys just filed a fresh appeal with the Ohio Supreme Court on April 27, 2026. And tonight on Defense Diaries Live, we kick off our full trial re-watch series, going back to August 2023 to go through the facts and the bench trial that put a 17-year-old behind bars for what could be life. On July 31, 2022, in Strongsville, Ohio, a black Toyota Camry slammed into a brick industrial building at nearly 100 miles per hour. Two young men, Dominic Russo (20) and Davion Flanagan (19), died on impact. The driver, 17-year-old Mackenzie Shirilla, survived. She says she does not remember what happened. In August 2023, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Nancy Margaret Russo convicted Shirilla on four counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault, and two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide after a bench trial. The judge said Shirilla "had a mission and she executed it with precision." Shirilla is serving 15 years to life at the Ohio Reformatory for Women. Three years later, the legal fight is anything but over. The Court of Appeals upheld the conviction. The Ohio Supreme Court declined to hear the case in April 2025. A post-conviction relief petition was filed one calendar day late, an issue Shirilla's new lawyers say cost her a critical challenge because the prior legal team failed to account for 2024 being a leap year. On April 27, 2026, those new attorneys filed a fresh appeal with the Ohio Supreme Court arguing the deadline should have started later and that ineffective assistance of counsel deprived her of an acquittal. The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office wants it tossed. So tonight we go back to the start. Over the course of this series, Bob and Ali re-watch the entire bench trial : every witness, every piece of evidence, every ruling. Tonight's kickoff sets the table. 🎯 WHAT WE'RE COVERING TONIGHT: ⚖️ The bench trial decision: why Shirilla waived a jury, and whether that was the moment the case was lost ⚖️ The State's theory: surveillance video, GPS data, "black box" readings, and Judge Russo's "mission" finding ⚖️ The defense theory: medical event, accident, the missing motive ⚖️ Mens rea by inference: how do you prove "purposely" with no confession and no note? ⚖️ The psilocybin and the digital scale: what the State actually did with that evidence ⚖️ Adolescent brain science and the decision to try a 17-year-old as an adult ⚖️ The new Ohio Supreme Court appeal: the leap year argument, the IAC claim, and what it actually means for Mackenzie ⚖️ Netflix's "The Crash": what the documentary got right, what it left out ——— DISCLAIMER: All commentary is for educational purposes and reflects our professional opinions as criminal defense attorneys based on publicly available information. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. #MackenzieShirilla #ShirillaTrial #TheCrashNetflix #DefenseDiaries #TrueCrime #CriminalDefense #DominicRusso #DavionFlanagan #StrongsvilleOhio #TrueCrimeYouTube 00:00:00 Intro and greetings! Announcements 00:03:05 CASE RECAP: About the victims & MS / Photos / Documentary / Conversation / Map / Opinions / Pov's / Evidence / Questions and super chats 00:32:10 "Tech wizardry at its best" 00:43:40 Conclusions, questions, comments & final thoughts 00:59:50 Thanks & goodbyes!