Fresh revelations continue to surface in the Mackenzie Shirilla case, recently revisited in Netflix’s true-crime documentary The Crash.
The film has reignited widespread attention around the divisive Ohio case involving Shirilla, who was convicted after a high-speed collision that killed her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and their friend, Davion Flanagan.
Shirilla has long maintained the deaths were not intentional, saying she blacked out and did not mean to harm anyone. Prosecutors, however, argued the crash was deliberate—contending she accelerated into a wall at more than 100 miles per hour. Investigators also cited vehicle data indicating the accelerator was still being pressed at the moment of impact.
Now 21, Shirilla is serving a sentence of 15 years to life. In the 90-minute documentary, she speaks publicly from prison for the first time since her conviction, again insisting she is innocent and claiming she experienced a seizure just before the crash.
The interview—her first from behind bars—has fueled renewed arguments about intent, responsibility, and whether the evidence supports the conviction.
Separately, Law & Crime highlighted five notable points the documentary did not fully explore—details that, depending on how they’re interpreted, may shift how some people view the case.
According to cell phone location information, Shirilla showed up near the crash site in the days leading up to the incident. Prosecutors argued this supported their claim that she may have been checking out the area in advance.
Prosecutors also pointed to what happened in the immediate aftermath: while Shirilla was still hospitalized, she and her mother reportedly contacted a Los Angeles modeling agency about work—something the state framed as an attempt to profit from public sympathy.
Another detail cited involved messages Shirilla sent to a classmate. In the texts, she asked the person to retrieve photos of her from Russo’s room so they could be placed in his casket, explaining she wanted him to be “with her forever”.
The state also introduced video that it said undercut claims about her demeanor. Prosecutors showed footage of Shirilla at a concert in a wheelchair months after the crash, arguing it was relevant to her attitude during an ongoing investigation.
Authorities were additionally told Shirilla had been seen driving in Strongsville after the crash—something prosecutors argued conflicted with testimony from her mother about dizziness and broader medical issues, and with the suggestion she could not safely operate a vehicle.
Shirilla did not take the stand during the trial. Instead, she delivered a statement at sentencing on August 21, 2023, tearfully addressing the Russo and Flanagan families while still maintaining she did not cause the deaths on purpose.
She said: “I hope one day you can see I would never let this happen or do it on purpose.”
Judge Russo sentenced Shirilla to 15 years to life for Flanagan and 15 years to life for Russo, to be served at the same time. She is incarcerated at the Ohio Reformatory for Women, roughly 130 miles from Strongsville.
In March, Ohio’s Court of Appeals rejected her petition after her team “filed one day past the 365-day jurisdictional deadline.” Under the current timeline, she can seek parole beginning in 2037.
17 July 2022 – Mackenzie Shirilla and her boyfriend Dominic Russo get into an argument. A friend allegedly overhears Shirilla tell him: “I will crash this car right now.”
31 July 2022 – Shirilla is driving Russo, 20, and their friend Davion Flanagan, 19, from Russo’s home to a friend’s house. At around 5.30am, she crashes the car into a Plidco Building in Strongsville, Ohio, travelling at 100mph without braking. Police arrive on the scene 45 minutes later. Russo and Flanagan are pronounced dead and Shirilla is transported to MetroHealth Medical Cente.
August 2022 – 200 people attend a vigil for Russo and Flanagan. Shirilla remains in critical condition. When a detective visits her in hospital, she is said to be speaking a ‘unique language’ similar to pig Latin.
October 2022 – Shirilla attends a Halloween party wearing fancy dress which resembles a corpse, which Davion’s father considers in very poor taste. He says in Netflix’s The Crash: “Dressing up as corpses three months after she killed two people, it just sickened us to the very core.”
4 November 2022 – Shirilla is arrested and faces 18 charges, including two counts of aggravated murder. She also faces charges for allegedly breaking into the Columbia Church of God in Columbia Station days before the crash, along with drug possession charges.
7 August 2023 – Shirilla’s trial begins. Her defence team argue she may have passed out at the time of the crash due to postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), but no medical records or expert testimony confirms the diagnosis.
14 August 2023 – Shirilla is found guilty on all counts. Judge Nancy Margaret Russo calls her ‘hell on wheels’, and the court concludes she intentionally crashed the car in a premeditated act.
23 August 2023 – Shirilla is sentenced to two concurrent 15 years to life sentences. Her legal team later lose an appeal and relief petition. She remains incarcerated in the Ohio Reformatory for Women.
22 May 2025 – Shirilla’s parents insist that she’s innocent. Her father Steve tells WKYC: “Show me one piece of evidence – one – that says she did this on purpose. Show it to me, then she’s right where she belongs and she’s guilty of it. But there isn’t any.” Her mother Natalie claims there are texts in which Shirilla says Russo was ‘trying to end her life’.
15 May 2026 – Netflix’s The Crash premieres. In it, Shirilla insists she is ‘not a murderer’ and has no memory of the crash, continuing to blame POTS.
18 May 2026 – Steve Shirilla is placed on administrative leave from his job as an art and digital media teacher at Mary Queen of Peace School in Cleveland following allegations he had ‘demonstrated poor judgement’. Viewers of Netflix’s documentary objected to his attitude towards Shirilla’s marijuana use and his dismissal of claims she told a classmate to end their life.
September 2037 – This is when Shirilla will be eligible for parole
Netflix have been approached for comment.