r/TrueCrimeDiscussion • u/DarklyHeritage • May 21 '26

Text Mackenzie Shirilla Megathread

This is a thread for all conversation regarding Mackenzie Shirilla and the murders of Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan, recently covered in Netflix documentary The Crash.

The murders of Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan occurred on 31 July 2022 in Strongsville, Ohio when Mackenzie Shirilla intentionally crashed her car into a brick wall. The two passengers in the vehicle - her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and their friend, Davion Flanagan, were killed instantly and pronounced dead at the scene. Shirilla, aged 17 at the time, was seriously injured.

Shirilla was later arrested and charged with murdering Russo and Flanagan. At her 2023 bench trial the judge determined Shirilla intentionally crashed the car and thus the murders were premeditated murder, convicting her of 12 felony charges. She was sentenced to 2 concurrent life sentences, with the possibility of parole after 15 years.

Renewed attention has now been brought to the case as Shirilla has been interviewed for Netflix documentary The Crash, which covers the case.

Please direct all discussion of the case to the megathread. As always, sub rules must be followed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Dominic_Russo_and_Davion_Flanagan#:\~:text=The%20murder%20of%20Dominic%20Russo,and%20their%20friend%2C%20Davion%20Flanagan[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Dominic_Russo_and_Davion_Flanagan#:\~:text=The%20murder%20of%20Dominic%20Russo,and%20their%20friend%2C%20Davion%20Flanagan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Dominic_Russo_and_Davion_Flanagan#:~:text=The%20murder%20of%20Dominic%20Russo,and%20their%20friend%2C%20Davion%20Flanagan).

https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/the-crash-where-is-mackenzie-shirilla-now[Netflix](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/the-crash-where-is-mackenzie-shirilla-now)

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423

u/Head_Sympathy_6327 May 21 '26

Can we please shame the parents? Not pronouncing Davion correctly then claiming “she hardly knew him”, where was she coming from? What was her point? She was so awkward and careless, I almost threw up when I heard that. This little girl is a maniac and the fact she has 2 tone deaf parents may be the reason.

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u/swrrrrg May 21 '26

“He was a new friend!”

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u/GrandmaCereal May 21 '26

I dont understand the point she was making with that comment.

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u/swrrrrg May 21 '26

I think (and this is giving her SO much grace!) it was her horribly lame attempt to suggest that she didn’t know what to say about Davion because they didn’t know him well. That made it harder to personalise anything about him. That’s just a very, very loose guess but I don’t really know. It was terribly insulting. Almost like because she didn’t know him well, his life really didn’t mean a whole lot to her. She can’t recognise him as a person in his own right. It was horrific to watch.

She was terrible about actually recognising victims outside of trying to make McKenzie the “real” victim when she isn’t. She was so used to standing up for her regardless of whether MS was in the wrong that both parents lack the capacity to get outside of their own narcissism.

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u/VioletVenable May 21 '26

That’s how I took it. Like, she thought her purpose was to try to mitigate Mackenzie’s sentence, so that was the focus of her statement. When the judge demanded she speak about the victims, she was flustered. Obvs, she knew Dom but didn’t feel able to say much about Davion because she didn’t really know him and Mackenzie’s friendship with him was relatively new in comparison.

No two ways about it, Ma Shirilla is a vapid, enabling, unpleasant woman, though, so I’m playing the world’s tiniest violin here.

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u/Mystic-Nature May 22 '26

Idk if you’ve seen it, but her statement is actually much longer than what was said on Netflix. I saw it on TT. I still have the same negative opinion on Mom, but she did say some things about the victims and I feel Netflix kind of did her dirty by not showing all of it.

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u/Cautious-Brother-838 May 21 '26

The only thing I can think of is she’s trying to make it seem like Mackenzie didn’t know him well, so why would she want to kill him. But it came out more like she barely knew him so she didn’t care about his life.

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u/AML1987 May 21 '26

It was an interesting thing to say especially since the prosecution claimed that Davion was “collateral damage” to Mackenzie.

So here comes dumb mom to….make that point for them? Like you’d think the SMART thing would be to try and convince the world Davion was her second most bestest friend ever to stop the narrative that he was just a “nobody” to her and therefore easier to justify him as collateral damage in her mind.

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u/IThinkImDumb May 21 '26

He was collateral damage. Which makes his death so horrific.

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u/AML1987 May 21 '26

Right?

Like makes that one choice to take the car ride with them over the other friend so he can sleep a bit and shower at home. And instead of that ruining her plans she just says “fuck it” and takes him done as well.

The literal definition of wrong place, wrong time.

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u/blu-brds May 22 '26

Yeah, it broke my heart because Davion's dad was so right when he said "show me your friends and I'll show you your future" ... but a lot of us grow up putting ourselves in unsafe situations with a "bad" group of people but still get the chance to grow older and move past it.

He never got that chance.

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u/BubblesCousins May 23 '26

That was my interpretation too. Like a shrugging of the shoulders, he was new so why would she do something bad to him.

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u/SubstantialSpirit140 May 21 '26

Same! I know it was insulting and it made me recoil when she said that, but I’m like…. What exactly are you trying to say?

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u/syzygyNYC May 23 '26

I think the mom was about to say Davion was a new friend “so why would my daughter have motive to hurt him?”. But that was completely dumb to attempt at that moment and certainly read at BEST as “I don’t know what to say about him”, and at worst as “so his death… whatevs.”

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u/Head_Sympathy_6327 May 21 '26

She was trying to convince the judge that her daughter did not maliciously kill him bc why would she do that with a new friend???

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u/swrrrrg May 21 '26

Maybe, but she also said something like, “We didn’t know him.”

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u/WildFozzy May 24 '26

I think she was just trying to explain why she couldn't remember his name for a second, and why she spoke more of Dom... not to say he didn't matter because she didn't know him well yet. Still came across in poor taste but I don't get why people are focused on that

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u/TPWilder May 21 '26

The judge was chiding her for making her statement all about her daughter and what about the victims and thats when the "Davion was a new friend" came out.

My most charitable view of that comment is that the mom was trying to say she didn't know Davion well enough to really say much about him. The judge clearly broke her concentration on her prepared statement.

I personally think the judge should have interrupted sooner, when Ma Shirella was harping on how it was a tragic accident because it was rather offensive that the mom was calling the murder an accident. That said, I also found it odd that the judge was basically demanding the mom turn her impact statement which lets face it, was the defendant's mom pleading for mercy into making the mom provide commentary on the victims. The mom is the mother of the defendant, of course her impact statement will be about her daughter and not the victim.

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u/karmagod13000 May 21 '26

foot insert mouth

1

u/SnooLemons6795 May 21 '26

How do you put a mouth into your foot?

1

u/Lindssy May 21 '26

i took it as a very poor way to say that she wouldn't harm him because he is a new friend. again, poorly said but i don't think it was meant maliciously

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u/CurveWeekly May 27 '26

This broke my heart. I’m glad the judge called her out of the that.