She was convicted of murdering her boyfriend Dominic Russo and their friend Davion Flanagan in a July 2022 car crash.

Mackenzie Shirilla of The Crash was worried about death penalty, call from jail reveals

She was convicted of murdering her boyfriend Dominic Russo and their friend Davion Flanagan in a July 2022 car crash.

By Marina Watts

Marina Watts

Marina Watts is a news writer for with seven years experience covering entertainment, pop culture and celebrity news. Her previous work appears in PEOPLE, Bustle and Newsweek.

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May 21, 2026 8:45 p.m. ET

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Mackenzie Shirilla in 'The Crash'. Credit:

- Mackenzie Shirilla was worried about facing the death penalty during her August 2023 trial, a jail phone call revealed. - She was convicted of murdering her boyfriend Dominic Russo and their friend Davion Flanagan in a July 2022 car crash. - *The Crash *is available to stream on Netflix.

Mackenzie Shirilla was worried about the death penalty while on trial for murder.

Mackenzie, who is the subject of the Netflix documentary *The Crash*, expressed concern while she awaited sentencing in an undated phone conversation between Mackenzie and her mom Natalie obtained by PEOPLE.

"We'll see because they're just trying to f--- me," Mackenzie, who was being held at Ohio's Cuyahoga County Jail at the time, said of the prosecutors. "I'm just scared they're gonna be like, you have the death penalty or you're going to life for 40 years."

Dominic Russo and Mackenzie Shirilla in 'The Crash'.

Courtesy of Netflix

Natalie tried her best to comfort her daughter over the phone. "Well let us, let us fight, let us do what we're doing, OK? Just living right now that's what I want you to do. Focus on right now because what lives in the future, do you remember?"

Mackenzie said she didn't know, to which Natalie replied, "Anxiety and fear," and reminded her to "stay grounded."

In the same call, Natalie said that Mackenzie should anticipate a harsh sentence but reassured her that she had the support of her family if she was behind bars or otherwise. "Just prepare for crazy sentencing though, OK?" Natalie said. "We're fighting out here."**

Former inmate speaks out about Mackenzie Shirilla and 'The Crash': 'Nothing like who I saw in there at all'

Mackenzie Shirilla's dad put on administrative leave from school after participating in Netflix doc 'The Crash'

*The Crash *has reignited interest in the July 2022 car accident involving Mackenzie, her boyfriend Dominic Russo and their friend Davion Flanagan in Strongsville, Ohio.  Per prosecutors, Mackenzie drove her Toyota Camry at 100 mph into a brick building. Russo and Flanagan were pronounced dead at the scene.

Mackenzie suffered a broken femur, three broken ribs, a lacerated liver, and a lacerated kidney, according to her father. She also allegedly had THC in her blood at the time of the crash that was higher than the state legal limit, per Cleveland.com, but investigators said it did not contribute to it.

As authorities looked into the crash, the probe turned into a crime investigation, and prosecutors alleged that Mackenzie intentionally accelerated as she drove into the brick wall and witnesses would claim she and Russo had a  "toxic" relationship in the months leading up to his death.

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In November 2022, she was arrested and charged with two counts of murder.

Though she was 17 at the time of the crash, she was tried as an adult. In August 2023, Mackenzie was convicted of murdering Russo and Flanagan.

"There is no doubt that this happened because of the relationship with Dominic, and the defendant's intent was clearly to end that, and she took everybody that was in the car with her," Tim Troup of the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office said, per WKYC.**

Dominic Russo and Mackenzie Shirilla in 'The Crash'.

Mackenzie is serving two concurrent 15-to life sentences at the Ohio Reformatory for Women. In the documentary, she maintains that she doesn't remember what happened in the early morning hours of July 31, 2022.

"I have no recollection of that morning, but I know nothing about it was intentional, because that's not in my character," she says of the deadly accident in *The Crash*.

Her first parole hearing is in 2037.

*The Crash *is available to stream on Netflix.

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