Mackenzie Shirilla referred to herself as the “third victim” of the fatal car crash that killed her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and their friend Davion Flanagan while she was behind the wheel.
Shirilla, 21, made the comment while speaking to her mother, Natalie Shirilla, during a phone call from the Cuyahoga County Corrections Center. At the time, the pair were discussing her lawyer’s decision to not let her take the stand and testify during the 2023 murder trial.
“I was asking him if I could just testify to show them that like, I have nothing to hide, and he was like, ‘I don’t know if that’s a good idea at this point,’” Shirilla told her mother after her bench trial, according to a phone call obtained by People.
Shirilla later argued it would benefit her case to testify in court. “If they see the truth, then they’ll know that this was nothing but a car accident,” she said. “They’ll just see that there’s a third victim, and it’s me, and I lost the love of my life and a good friend, and now I have to deal with this grief the rest of my life.”
She went on to say that she also had to “deal with” being “scared to drive and stuff like that.”
Shirilla also said she felt the bench trial had not gone well and admitted she was afraid she would have to spend another year in custody before she could be granted an appeal.
Also during the conversation, Shirilla accused the prosecutors of having “henchmen go and lie on the stand” during the trial. However, she did not specify what may have happened during the bench trial to make her feel that way.
Later in the conversation, Shirilla asked her mother to “pay my bond and get me out of here.” She continued, “Like, go to a bail bondsman and see if they can pay the 10 percent.” At the time, she was being held on a $500,000 bond.
Following the request, Shirilla acknowledged that the bond would be revoked in the next few days once the judge ruled on her case.
“I’m getting very irritated like, and I need to get the f*** out of jail because they’re just trying to f*** me over bad as f***,” Shirilla told her mother.
As Shirilla predicted, her bond was revoked a few days after the call when she was convicted of four counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault, two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide and one count each of drug possession and possessing criminal tools. She was ultimately handed two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life in prison.
Shirilla was arrested and charged following a car crash that took place on July 31, 2022, in Strongsville, Ohio. At the time, she was driving Russo, 20, and Flanagan, 19, home after they went to a graduation party and visited a friend’s house.
The car was traveling over 100 mph when they crashed into a brick wall, killing Russo and Flanagan.
During the trial, prosecutors argued that the crash was a botched murder-suicide attempt. Meanwhile, the defense said that Shirilla suffered from POTS, a condition that can cause dizziness and fainting, and she blacked out.
Shirilla also wondered if her medical diagnosis was the reason for the crash in Netflix’s documentary The Crash, which was released on May 15. Shirilla appeared in the documentary from behind bars and expressed remorse for the crime.
However, the interest in the case has only intensified after one of her former inmates came forward with claims that she was a mean girl and didn’t appear remorseful behind bars. In a series of TikTok videos, Mary Katherine “Kat” Crowder claimed that Shirilla was involved in many prison hookups.
“If she was grieving or remorseful, she would not have gone to prison and jumped into prison relationships over the next six months,” she said.
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