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Published 13:31 18 May 2026 GMT
Reason Mackenzie Shirilla’s family believes she's innocent as teen serves life sentence for fatal 100mph crash into wall
The family of the young woman at the centre of Netflix's true crime documentary The Crash has claimed she is innocent after she was convicted of killing her boyfriend in a car crash.
Mackenzie Shirilla, who was 17 at the time, drove her Toyota Camry into the Plidco Building in Ohio at upwards of 100 mph on July 31, 2022.
Her boyfriend of four years, Dominic Russo, 20, and his friend Davion Flanagan, 19, were declared dead at the scene.
Shirilla is now serving 15 years to life in prison at the Ohio Reformatory for Women.
What was Shirilla accused of?
During her 2023 trial, Shirilla was declared guilty of all 12 charges against her, including murder, aggravated vehicular homicide, felonious assault, and drug possession.
It was proved that the now 21-year-old intentionally crashed her car as part of a premeditated murder plan prompted by a highly toxic, volatile relationship with her boyfriend.
However, her family believes she has been wrongly charged and should have only been charged with vehicular homicide.
Why do her family think she is innocent?
Allegedly, Shirilla was “on a mission” to Russo because he had threatened to break up with her.
Shirilla's father, Steve, told NBC News: “We believe she’s been falsely accused of something.
"We believe there’s no evidence.
"There’s no evidence that you can show me that says prior calculation, intent, there’s nothing.
"I don’t know how it left the juvenile court. There’s zero evidence. All the prosecution has that’s factual is five seconds of black box information."
In the interview, her mother, Natalie Shirilla, added: "Look at the evidence critically and objectively, and you will see there is no evidence of intent. She never threatened his life, his physical life.
“I will never, ever, never stop. There is no expiration on truth.
“Mackenzie would never hurt them or anybody she loves.
“She stands up for people that are in trouble or struggling. That’s who she is.”
In the new Netflix true crime documentary, The Crash, the accused murderer gave her first interview from prison.
She said: “I’ve never spoke before and I’ve never told my side of the story. I understand there’s many different sides to the story and different perspectives, but I just wanna say my truth. I just know myself, and I know I’m not a monster.
“I just want to make sure I’m big on the no intent.
“There was no intent whatsoever. I have excessive amounts of remorse for Dominic, Davion, both of their families. This was not intentional and I will do everything I can to prove that to the world and the families,” Shirilla added.
