Mackenzie Shirilla has taken on a new prison job after reportedly telling her mother she was ‘bored as hell’ during life behind bars.
Shirilla is currently serving two concurrent life sentences, with parole eligibility after 15 years, after being convicted over the deaths of her boyfriend Dominic Russo and their friend Davion Flanagan.
The case centered on the July 31, 2022 crash in Strongsville, Ohio, in which Shirilla, who was 17 at the time, drove the vehicle carrying all three of them into a commercial building at around 100mph.
In August 2023, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Nancy Margaret Russo found Shirilla guilty on multiple counts, including murder, and later sentenced her to 15 years to life in prison on each of the two murder counts, to be served concurrently.
Public interest in the case has grown again following the release of Netflix documentary The Crash, which looks back at the fatal incident and the legal proceedings that followed.
Officials at the Ohio Reformatory for Women have now confirmed that Shirilla, 21, has been assigned a new role while incarcerated.
The prison said Shirilla is now working as a ‘food service worker’.
According to TMZ, Shirilla had previously told her mom that she was ‘bored as hell’ while serving her sentence.
A prison spokesperson did not reveal how much she is earning in the position, though inmate wages in Ohio have historically been extremely low. According to data compiled by the Prison Policy Initiative, regular prison jobs in the state have typically paid between $6 and $24 per month, with some higher-skilled roles earning more.
The update comes after details emerged from a phone call obtained by TMZ, in which Shirilla discussed what she wants to do if she is ever released.
During that conversation, her mother Natalie told her she is a ‘pillar of strength’ and said that, if freed, she would ‘help so many people’.
Natalie said on the call: “All the things you have been experiencing. It’s so much. So many highs and lows, ups and downs.”
On the call, the timing of which is not clear, Shirilla can then be heard replying: “Yes, like, man. Like, I just wanna come home and just like … I don’t even know.”
She then went on to describe the kind of work she hopes to pursue in the future.
“I’ma be a life coach and stuff. I’m just going to be everything. I’m [gonna] do everything,” she can be heard to say on the call.
Shirilla has continued to maintain that the crash was an accident, a position also featured in the Netflix documentary, although prosecutors argued at trial that the collision was deliberate and the judge ultimately agreed, describing her actions as intentional rather than reckless.
Shirilla is expected to become eligible for parole in 2037, roughly 15 years after she entered custody. She will be around 33 years old at that point, although parole is not guaranteed.