The father of the teenager who died after his girlfriend intentionally crashed a car into a brick building at 100 mph said he doesn't want the rest of her life 'ruined' by spending it behind bars.
Mackenzie Shirilla was 17 when she crashed into the building at around 5:30 a.m. on July 31, 2022 in Strongsville, Ohio, a suburb in Cleveland.
Shirilla's boyfriend Dominic Russio, 19, was a passenger along with friend Davion Flanagan, also 19, and they were both pronounced dead at the scene. Shirilla survived the crash.
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Shirilla, now 19, was found guilty of four counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault, two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, one count of drug possession and one count of possessing criminal tools.
After being given the verdict, Judge Nancy Margaret Russo said: "This was not reckless driving. This was murder.
"She had a mission, and she executed it with precision."
However, Dominic’s father Frank Russo, 61, does not want to see his son’s killer behind bars.
“It’s horrible for everybody. Yeah, I lost my son, it’s harder on our family, but I don’t want the rest of her life ruined too. It isn’t going to make me feel any better,” Russo told NBC News.
“The whole thing’s just a shame,” he continued, as Shrilla awaits sentencing on Monday (August 21).
She faces a maximum sentence of life in prison with eligibility for parole after 32 years, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office said.
Mr Russo said the trial was difficult to go through because it happened around the one-year anniversary of his son’s death, who he described as being a keen basketball player who was a ‘go-getter’.
“He was opening up his own clothing line, he was not average kid, I’ll tell you that,” he said.
Mr Russo wants Shirilla to get help, rather than face the rest of her life in jail. “She’s just a little kid. She f---ed up. She did a damn stupid thing but now her parents are destroyed, her family’s destroyed too,” he said. “I wish there was a way she could get some kind of help, some kind of treatment.”
Shirilla had THC in her system over the state's legal limit but she was not pursued on driving under the influence charges.
Her attorney, Jim McDonnell, had pushed for his client to only be found guilty of vehicular homicide but not for murder.
Shirilla's mother says she hopes her daughter will appeal the verdict.
On the other hand, the victims' mothers have expressed relief.
Flanagan's mother said: "We are just thankful that we feel justice was served today.
"There’s not a day that goes by that we don’t miss our son and justice was served for him today. But honestly there’s no winners here. There’s no winners here today."
Gregory Robinson