Mackenzie Shirilla Says She Wants to Be a ‘Life Coach’ If She Gets Released from Prison

The subject of the Netflix documentary ‘The Crash’ is currently serving two sentences of 15 years to life for a crash that killed her boyfriend and his friend Mackenzie Shirilla.Credit : Ohio Reformatory for Women Mackenzie Shirilla is planning her future, should she be released from jail. The 21-year-old is currently serving two concurrent terms of 15 years…

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The subject of the Netflix documentary ‘The Crash’ is currently serving two sentences of 15 years to life for a crash that killed her boyfriend and his friend

Mackenzie Shirilla.
Mackenzie Shirilla.Credit : Ohio Reformatory for Women

Mackenzie Shirilla is planning her future, should she be released from jail.

The 21-year-old is currently serving two concurrent terms of 15 years to life in prison at an Ohio women’s prison in Marysville for killing her boyfriend and a friend in a high-speed crash in 2022.

While speaking with her mom, Natalie Shirilla, during a phone call from jail, Mackenzie expressed a desire to use her experiences to become a “life coach,” according to audio of the call obtained by TMZ. (It is unclear when the call took place.)

“All the things you have been experiencing. It’s so much. So many highs and lows, ups and downs. A pillar of strength, my love,” Natalie told her daughter, who has been pushed back into the spotlight following the May 15 release of The Crash, a Netflix documentary about Mackenzie’s case.

“Yes, like, man. Like, I just wanna come home and just like … I don’t even know,” Mackenzie then said to her mom, per TMZ.

Mackenzie Shirilla in 'Mean Girl Murders: Under the Influence'.
Mackenzie Shirilla.HBO MAX

As Natalie suggested that her daughter — who is eligible for parole in 2037, per the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction — use her “experiences” to “help” others, she continued, “You’re going to be able to help so many more people than you already were, you know what I mean? Just because of your experiences.”

In response, Mackenzie replied, “I’ma be a life coach and stuff. … I’m just going to be everything. I’ma do everything.”

On July 31, 2022, Mackenzie was driving her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20, and his friend, Davion Flanagan, 19, home from a party when she accelerated to around 100 mph and slammed her car into a brick wall, killing both Dominic and Davion.

In the months that followed, investigators determined that Mackenzie, who was 17 years old at the time of the incident, intentionally sped up the car. They said they learned that the accelerator pedal was pressed 100% down, with no indication of braking.

Mackenzie was arrested in connection with Dominic and Davion’s deaths and charged with four counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault, two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, one count of drug possession and one count of possessing criminal tools.

In August 2023, a judge found Mackenzie guilty of all counts and sentenced her to two concurrent 15 years to life terms. She continues to claim she cannot remember the crash, and she has attempted to ask Ohio’s highest court to appeal her conviction.

Natalie Shirilla in The Crash.
Natalie Shirilla in ‘The Crash’.Courtesy of Netflix

With the release of The Crash, interest in the case has soared, and several recorded phone conversations between Mackenzie and her family have since surfaced.

In one other call with her mother, Mackenzie spoke in coded language resembling pig latin, stating that her family should tell prosecutors she had suffered “a seizure” that caused the crash.

In another, she insisted she doesn’t “need to be rehabilitated” in prison, and she said she is the “third victim” of the 2022 accident.