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    Mackenzie Shirilla Feels “Trapped in a Nightmare” in Prison, Mom Says

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    Watch: Mackenzie Shirilla’s Mom Says Daughter Is “Trapped in a Nightmare” Behind Bars

    Mackenzie Shirilla‘s mom is sharing insight into her daughter’s life behind bars.

    After the Supreme Court of Ohio declined to hear the 21-year-old’s appeal on her murder conviction, her mom Natalie Shirilla detailed how she is doing as she serves out two concurrent 15 years to life sentences in prison for her role in the deadly 2022 car crash that killed her boyfriend Dominic Russo and friend Davion Flanagan.

    “It’s almost like she’s trapped in a nightmare that she has no memory of,” Natalie told Chris Cuomo on the June 24 episode of the Cuomo Crime Time podcast. “She’s never seen the evidence. She’s never seen the discovery. She’s never seen anything.”

    She went on to explain that Mackenzie—who in 2023 was found guilty of intentionally killing Russo, 20, and Flanagan, 19, when the Toyota Camry she was driving smashed into a brick wall at over 100 mph—is “struggling” in prison.

    Especially as she allegedly deals with the fallout of an incident she says she has no recollection of.

    read

    Mackenzie Shirilla of Netflix’s The Crash Denied Appeal in Murder Case

    “All she knows is that the boyfriend that she loved with her whole, whole heart is gone and Davion is gone,” Natalie said, “and she was the driver in a car accident, and has no memory of it.”

    The 52-year-old then became emotional as she shared intricate details about Mackenzie’s artwork, which she creates to help pass the time behind bars. 

    “It’s so sad, and one of these days I’ll share it,” she tearfully shared. “I’m not going to share it now for obvious reasons, but it’s really sad.”

    “She does self-portraits of herself where she has a rose of thorns around her neck or her mouth is sewn shut,” Natalie continued, “and she’s got all these question marks around her head like, ‘Why, why, why?’ And like, ‘Where’s Dom?’ Like, ‘What happened and [to] Davion?'”

    Reiterating that Mackenzie is “literally trapped in this nightmare,” she added that her daughter “struggles mentally.”

    Netflix

    According to prosecutors, however, Mackenzie “chose a course of death and destruction,” arguing that she intentionally crashed her car to end a toxic relationship with Russo. Meanwhile, Mackenzie and her family have maintained her innocence, with the aspiring influencer claiming that she had no memory of the crash and the morning before.

    Following previous failed attempts to appeal her case, the Supreme Court of Ohio denied Mackenzie’s latest appeal on June 23, according to legal documents obtained by E! News. 

    While her legal team argued that her case “presents substantial constitutional questions and matters of great public and great general interest,” Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio Sharon L. Kennedy ultimately refused to review her case, writing in a June 23 decision that she “declines to accept jurisdiction of the appeal.”

    In her first interview from prison, which was shown in The Crash, Mackenzie claimed there “was no intent whatsoever” behind the crash, pointing to her diagnosis of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) as the cause for the incident.

    “I was a driver of a tragedy,” she said in the doc, “but I’m not a murderer.”

    Read on for a closer look at Mackenzie’s murder case.

    Courtesy of Netflix

    Who is Mackenzie Shirilla?Mackenzie Shirilla, born Aug. 2, 2004, grew up in the Cleveland, Ohio, suburb of Strongsville.She started dating Dominic Russo, who was three years older, when she was a freshman in high school and moved in with him right after she graduated in 2022.

    Courtesy of Netflix

    What happened in the car crash that killed Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan?At roughly 5:30 a.m. on July 31, 2022, Mackenzie was behind the wheel when her Toyota Camry smashed into a brick building at the intersection of Alameda and Progress Drive in Strongsville.Police arrived at 6:20 a.m. to find, as one officer said into his radio, a car “split in two.”Dom was lying in the front seat and his friend Davion Flanagan was “stacked on top” of him, Cuyahoga County Assistant Prosecutor Tim Troup said in The Crash. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.First responders found “a small amount” of marijuana in Mackenzie’s purse, Troup said, as well as 8 grams of psilocybin mushrooms concealed in her clothing.”I’m ticking through the potentials of what could have caused this crash,” Troup, who assisted police in the investigation and tried the case in 2023, recalled in the doc. “Was it operator error? Was it substance abuse? Or could it be a much more serious felony?”

    Courtesy of Netflix

    Was Mackenzie Shirilla Injured in the Crash That Killed Dom Russo and Davion Flanagan?In The Crash, Mackenzie’s father Steve Shirilla said his daughter sustained a broken femur, three broken ribs, a lacerated liver and a lacerated kidney.Plus he said, gesturing to his left upper arm, “This bone broke—snapped, and it detached the tricep. And both carotid arteries had damage to ’em from her neck snapping.”

    Courtesy of Netflix

    What did friends and family say about Mackenzie Shirilla’s relationship with Dominic Russo?In text messages between Mackenzie and Dom shown in The Crash, she referred to a past instance of him cheating, which, according to friends in the doc, caused trust issues for her.After the crash, a friend of Dom’s told police (seen in interview footage) that Mackenzie would be raving about how much she loved Dom one minute and then threatening to dump him the next.Dom’s brother Angelo Russo told police in September 2022, per audio footage, that Dom tried to break up with Mackenzie “multiple times, even in July,” but they remained together.Friend Rosie Graham pushed back at the characterization of Mackenzie and Dom’s relationship as toxic, saying in the doc, “It wasn’t daily, weekly arguments, anything crazy like that. Mackenzie loved her life a lot, she really liked what she had going on with Dom.”They were all having a sleepover the night before the crash, she recalled, and “Dom cuddled up” with Mackenzie on the couch.There was “not one argument, not one moment of tension,” Rosie said, “not one bad vibe towards anybody.”

    Courtesy of Netflix

    How did the crash investigation lead to Mackenzie Shirilla being charged with murder?Doing crash reconstruction, Ohio State Highway Patrol Trooper Elliot Rawson said he calculated that the car was averaging 97.8 miles per hour as it approached the intersection where it hit the building.Then, Troup said, toxicology tests found THC, the active chemical in marijuana, in Mackenzie’s blood, but no traces of alcohol or psilocybin.A forensic auto investigator found that “the braking, the steering, the tires, the acceleration were working properly,” Troup said, so the car “didn’t malfunction.”Ohio State Highway Patrol Sgt. Ryan Fox said in the doc that the Camry’s electronic data recorder showed that the accelerator pedal was “completely pressed all the way down” in the five seconds before the crash.”Most people would want to slow the vehicle or stop the vehicle to avoid that type of an impact,” Fox said. “In this case, there was no braking.”The data showed that three seconds before impact, he continued, the steering wheel went right, then left, then hard right, and the car shifted from drive to neutral, then back into drive.”I think the boys were trying to save their life,” Troup said. “I think Dom and Davion were yanking on the wheel, grabbing at the gearshift, and it was just too late.”

    Courtesy of Netflix

    Once police were told by a friend of Dom’s mother that Mackenzie had allegedly threatened to crash a car with Dom in it two weeks before he died, Troup said, “The evidence that we had in this case was compelling. Hundred percent gas pedal, no attempt at using the brake. The car didn’t fail. She wasn’t on some kind of mind-altering substance. Mackenzie and Dominic had an incredibly toxic and failing relationship.”Mackenzie was arrested for murder on Nov. 4, 2022.

    Courtesy of Netflix

    What happened at Mackenzie Shirilla’s murder trial?She pleaded not guilty and waived her right to a jury trial.During a four-day bench trial, which began Aug. 7, 2023, Troup argued that text messages, social media posts and witness testimony painted a picture of a toxic relationship that Dom wanted out of, but Mackenzie refused to let him go.”She drove the car into the wall,” Troup told the court. “She made up her mind and never went back.”Mackenzie maintained that she had no recollection of the crash or the events of that morning. Her mother, Natalie Shirilla, testified that her daughter had been diagnosed with POTS—a chronic disorder of the autonomic nervous system that causes tachycardia, which can result in sudden dizziness—in 2017, and suggested she’d had a medical emergency that caused her to black out.

    Courtesy of Netflix

    The judge found Mackenzie guilty of four counts of murder (Ohio law allows prosecutors to file multiple legal theories for one act) as well as four counts of felonious assault, two of aggravated vehicular homicide, one of drug possession and one of possessing criminal tools.Mackenzie was sentenced on Aug. 31, 2023, to two terms of 15 years to life in prison, to be served concurrently.At the hearing, the then-19-year-old said in a prepared statement that she was “deeply sorry” and she hoped Dominic and Davion’s families could see that she “didn’t do this on purpose.”

    Courtesy of Netflix

    Where are the families of Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan now?In The Crash, Davion’s sister Davyne Flanagan called Mackenzie’s apology the “worst” she’d ever heard, saying, “I know when someone’s being fake or not, and that was not real.”Their family started a scholarship fund to send students in need to barber school in Davion’s honor, as that had been his plan for the fall of 2022. His dad Scott Flanagan called the day they got to present the first check “one of the few days I was really, truly happy” since the crash.Meanwhile, Dom’s dad Frank Russo and older sister Christine Russo recounted in the doc how they had supported Mackenzie up through her arrest.”We still thought she’d been drinking, or drugs involved, accidents happen all the time,” Christine said. “You never in a million years think this girl killed your brother.”

    Ohio Department of Rehabilitation & Correction

    Where is Mackenzie Shirilla now?Mackenzie, now 21, is incarcerated at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville, according to Ohio Department of Rehabilitation & Correction inmate records.”It’s really hard every day in here,” she said in The Crash. “I try to wake up and be the best person I can be every day, stay out of trouble. There’s not a moment that doesn’t pass where I don’t think about them.”Her conviction was upheld in September 2024 by the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals and the Ohio Supreme Court declined to take up the case the following year. Her first parole hearing is scheduled for September 2037.

    Courtesy of Netflix

    What has Mackenzie Shirilla said about the crash that killed her boyfriend Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan?Speaking about the case for the first time since the trial, Mackenzie said, “I know I’m not a monster.”She and Dom “would’ve probably been married by now, she said, describing him as “so protective and loving over me…We were partners.”Mackenzie said that they fought, but “we would be cool later, that day or a couple hours later, we would be watching movies on the couch, eating popcorn.”On the day of the crash, they were driving back to Dom’s house at 5 a.m., she said, “and I remember turning on the street, then I’m waking up in the hospital the next day. My whole life is shattered.”

    (E! and Oxygen are both part of the Versant Media family.) 

    For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App

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