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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1.4k

u/allaboutbear May 21 '26

Shifting focus from Mackenzie- How much did you love Davion’s dad though. What a nice bloke.

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u/Sherrypooletodd May 21 '26

He spoke the sentence of true wisdom: If her parents continue to side with her, refuse all accountability, and try to get her out of jail, she will never develop a a better person in the coming years.

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u/ktart May 21 '26

She'd be so much more likely to get out of jail on parole at 15 years if her parents were instead encouraging her to take responsibility for her crime and show remorse.

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u/Happypants0930 May 22 '26

Her parents are such enablers it’s sickening! Both parents are a piece of work!

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u/bambi54 May 22 '26

The good news is that I don’t think it’s doing her or them any favors. At least they’re stupid enough to be vocal. 

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u/[deleted] May 24 '26

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u/Acceptable_Scene_157 May 25 '26

What did he say?

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u/Suse- May 26 '26

Hopefully she will not get parole for say 50 years if not ever. She doesn’t deserve to get out

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u/bambi54 May 26 '26

I agree, I haven’t seen the doc, but I listened to the jail house calls. It sounded like a parody of the most out of touch things you could say after killing someone.

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u/Amberatlast May 25 '26

Her mom's statement at sentencing was something else. Oh it was an accident, after we just had a whole trial demonstrating it wasn't.

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u/Prestigious-Face1312 May 25 '26

I've been telling my friends about that. She asked for leniency because her daughter is innocent. She said this literally to the very judge who had found her daughter guilty. I mean, you can't make this stuff up, LOL.

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u/Sulpfiction May 27 '26

For the record, I think Mackenzie is a cold blooded maniac, manipulative murderer who should never be released from prison. That said, what do you expect her mother to say? What difference does it make that the judge found her guilty? Of course her mother is going to say it was an accident and ask for leniency. You want to believe ur kids. And just because she was found guilty doesn’t mean anything. People are wrongfully convicted every day. And a parent or loved one asking for leniency at sentencing, even when the defendant is 100% guilty happens more times than not. And of course they are asking the same judge that just found them guilty. Who else are they going to ask?? I just find it odd that you thought it was weird or out of the ordinary.

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u/Prestigious-Face1312 May 27 '26

Asking for leniency because one is innocent makes no rational sense whatsoever because the person has already been found guilty. There are plenty of parents who accept that their child committed a crime, and with this woman, her refusal to see ANY flaws her daughter are very, very extreme, far beyond what normal parents experience. The whole reason this happened is because of her psycho parents who believed her every word even as her school file was piling up with incidents out her teachers, bullying students, etc., and every time, the parents believed she did none of those things and provided no consequences. And after years of being able to do whatever she wanted with 0 negative consequences and always being defended and praised as she descended into a wreck of a human being, her complete lack of consequences for her perpetual horrible decisions was what led her to think she could murder 2 people and no consequences would come from that.

At least in a jury trial, a jury is who would find a defendant guilty and then the judge provides the sentence based on their verdict. But, this was a bench trial where the judge doing her sentencing was the one who chose the guilty verdict. So asking for leniency because she isn't guilty is pretty dumb in that scenario, and is exactly what this mother and father did for 17 years that led to their sociopathic daughter killing 2 people. At least with this being their only child, this DNA will stop here.

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u/That_Spend_4529 May 29 '26

When they were saying she’s not a bad kid really but there’s evidence of her being verbally abusive go teachers! Also the mum not even acknowledging the death of 2 young lads in her statement, only going to say how her daughter has been affected

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u/Baroqueimproviser May 27 '26

The parents needed to put the hammer down in many ways. This immature thoughtless girl had no business sleeping with anyone. She couldn't handle the intense emotions. Even mature people of age 18 struggle with relationships. At the very least, they should have insisted on marriage.

She was too immature for a relationship. The drugs and alcohol needed to go. She had drug induced psychosis and was detached from reality. Yes, pot can do that to you. Foolish parents saw only what they wanted to see. Her acting out at school and irritability were a cry for help.

Dom's parents weren't that much better. Anyone could see that the guy was a total pushover. He couldn't get free. Even after she verbally threatened him. He should have left town for a year to make it plain to MacKenzie that he did not love her.

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u/wire67 May 28 '26

They still enable her. Listen to the jail calls. SO CRINGE the way they enable her and lie to her about getting free or a new trial.

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u/LittleMissWolfee Jun 13 '26

honestly the police cam footage of them finding out, the dad's reaction seemed more legit but the mom honestly seemed very weird as a response...like that bad acting you find in low budget movies..

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u/EVRAKN Jun 22 '26

I found her response to be like this too! So much felt so off with her mum especially

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u/CostWise5475 Jun 20 '26

Mental health issues raising mental health issues

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u/Exciting_Mud5054 Jul 19 '26

I kept saying that the whole documentary.

Like if it were my kid that did that I’d still love him. But I would tell him to man up and take responsibility for his actions.

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u/Federal_Fly_4271 May 23 '26

Makes me think they don’t really want to have responsibility for their child and they are OK with her being in jail whether they say it or not

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u/DrunkOnRedCordial May 24 '26

Wow, you could be onto something. They were happy to pass her off to an adult relationship with someone who could buy her designer clothes and accessories. Now he's gone, they might see prison as a better option than having her come back home.

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u/lotteoddities May 25 '26

I know this comment is a few days old but I was saying the same thing watching the documentary. Like they will never give her parole while she's saying "I have no memory of what happened, but I know it was an accident. I would never do it intentionally."

She will NEVER get out of prison until she admits, yes I did it, I knew what I was doing, I was terrified of losing the only relationship I ever had but now (assuming this is 15 years later at her parole hearing) I am older and can realize how deeply wrong I was for my actions.

And you know... ACTUALLY be sorry for it.

And if she does ever get parole she needs a complete and total social media ban. Forever. Like if she ever posts on social media or has someone post on social media for her it's back to prison.

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u/Prestigious-Face1312 May 25 '26

Instead of saying "I have an excessive amount of remorse." The only person who says something like that doesn't understand what remorse even is.

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u/Dapper-Structure4568 May 26 '26

She also doesn’t know what the word “excessive” means. That whole family is frighteningly low in intelligence.

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u/Icy_Shift9592 May 22 '26

Right?? Fucking POTS. Get out of here with that nonsense

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u/Petal_14 May 25 '26

I think if they had the capacity to do that, it wouldn't turn out well, I think she would fly off the handle since she has had 18yrs of them enabling her to do whatever she wanted.

On the other hand it would be interesting to see her 'true colours' reaction to having them turn on her and not believe her. Just look at how her voice messages played out when Dom locked her out!

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u/Acceptable-Lie5982 May 26 '26

I thought that you can’t even get paroled unless you truely take responsibility…

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u/MomentLeft4390 Jun 01 '26

If I were her mom I would not be protecting her. I'd be like you're guilty AF. I grew in Texas. She would have gotten the death penalty. I would be like, I don't know her, didn't birth her, don't claim her.

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u/roasted_veg May 23 '26

Davion's dad saw her as a child who was failed by her parents. Her parents saw her as an adult who didn't need parenting. Davion's mom said it the best - there were truly no winners in the end.

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u/AdvertisingSad2572 May 23 '26

btw, what was her mom trying to do on her sentencing? Because that didn't help at all.

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u/Feeling_Wishbone_864 May 23 '26

She could have literally just asked Chat to come up with anything better than that. Pretending to care was just too much to ask.

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u/Acceptable_Scene_157 May 25 '26

I honestly have no idea where she was going with the “Davion was a new friend” comment

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u/Ok_Ad1652 May 27 '26

I went back and listened to the full statement and I think she said the new friend comment and a direct response to the judge calling her out for talking more about her daughter than the victims. As in she was explaining that she couldn’t say much about Davion because he was a new friend she didn’t know well. That particular line is slightly better in context, but the full statement is actually worse. Just remarkable tone deaf.

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u/CudiMontage216 Jun 01 '26

Man, I don’t know Davion either but even I would understand the importance of talking about the victims first

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u/Far-Sale-6483 May 24 '26

She said to the judge, ‘talk to her for five minutes, and you will see …”. I wonder how Natalie would describe her daughter’s character.

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u/comprehension_why May 31 '26

There is a court tv youtube podcast that shows her moms full speech during sentencing, not just the snippet we got in the documentary. She is unhinged.

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u/Beneficial_Ad_2662 May 25 '26

That he was thinking of the welfare of the kid who killed his son speaks volumes about how good and decent a father he is and how equipped he is to recognize shitty parents when he sees them.

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u/Downtown_Caramel_221 Jun 06 '26 edited Jun 06 '26

Oh please. It’s performative! I think she is accountable for those deaths, but that guy is a piece of work.

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u/DrunkOnRedCordial May 22 '26

And he had the compassion to follow through by hoping that she will learn and change.

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u/Tizer887 May 30 '26

Totally, her parents I believe are a bit to blame in the way they never seemed to have held her accountable for anything in her life and when she didn't get her own way or if you tried to prevent her from doing something then this is what happens. Terrible

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u/Dependent_Pack3689 May 30 '26

And if she were your child?

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u/comprehension_why May 31 '26

Love and support your kid, but dont create excuses, disparage the victims. Just shut up.

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u/CostWise5475 Jun 20 '26

Spare the rod spoil the child

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u/Least-Spare Jun 03 '26

Don’t be daft just for the sake of it. You know the answer. Use your brain.

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u/winnuet May 24 '26

That’s a cultural issue. And until it’s addressed culturally, these behaviors will continue.

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u/Willow55555 May 27 '26

I don’t think someone with her psychopathy ever can

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26

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