Mackenzie Shirilla says 'I'm not a murderer' in first interview from prison for Netflix documentary

The driver of a car that crashed into the side of a brick building at 100mph, killing two of the three people inside it, has given her first interview from prison, where she is serving life.

During the morning of July 31, 2022, in Strongsville, Ohio, then 17-year-old Mackenzie Shirilla was at the wheel of the 2018 Toyota Camry that killed her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20, and his friend, Davion Flanagan, who was 19.

The black box recovered from the deadly collision, which saw Shirilla convicted for murder, revealed the final moments of the two friends who lost their lives that night.

In Netflix’s true crime documentary The Crash, directed by Gareth Johnson, Shirilla, who is serving two concurrent life sentences, claims she is ‘not a monster’ and ‘not a murderer’.

"I've never spoke before, and I never told my side of the story, and I understand there's many different sides to the story and different perspectives, but I just want to say my truth, and I just know myself, and I know I'm not a monster," the now 21-year-old says in the film.

“We were just two kids messing with each other, and then as the years went on and we stayed together and grew closer, we would have probably been married by now. He was just so protective and loving over me. I wanted to just heal him, and he wanted to heal me.

“We were partners. We just took care of each other. I mean, we argued, we got back together. We broke up, we got back together. It was rocky, but it was good. It was just, we were in love, young love.”

The trio had been heading home from a high school graduation party, but as police pieced together the scene and gathered evidence, they began to suspect the accident may not have been a tragic accident.

In a message on Russo's obituary post, Shirilla said he was her 'soulmate' and was 'the last person to deserve this'.

How Netflix secured the interview with Shirilla in prison

Direction Johnson told Netflix's Tudum: “She was never interviewed by the police either before or after her arrest. It would be unprecedented if she spoke to us, and luckily she said yes.”

According to Tudum, the crew only had one hour to film the interview in, and as seen in the documentary, Shirilla's lawyer was present, with producer Angharad Scott saying: “It was extraordinary, after months of research for the story, to finally sit down and put to Mackenzie all the questions everybody else has been asking."

Shirilla, was seriously injured in the crash, including a lacerated liver and kidney, and says in the interview she remembers “turning on the street, and then I'm waking up in the hospital the next day, and I don't, then my whole life is shattered.”

She adds: “The whole morning is just like nothing, and it sounds crazy, but I like, I can't, I'm not gonna, like, lie just because people want to hear a story, I have no recollection of that morning. I'm not saying I'm innocent. I was a driver of a tragedy, but I'm not a murderer.”

The high school student chose a bench trial in Ohio in 2023, which was overseen by Judge Nancy Russo, who described her as ‘literal hell on wheels’ and sentenced her to two 15-year-to-life sentences saying: "This was not reckless driving. This was murder."

What Shirilla says happened

According to Joslyn Law Firm, a bench trial has no jury, meaning the judge 'will listen to the evidence, hear arguments from both sides, and then deliver a verdict'.

During her trial, her legal team presented as part of their defence a 2017 diagnosis of POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), which the NHS website says is "when your heart rate increases very quickly after getting up from sitting or lying down, often making you feel dizzy or lightheaded."

When asked what she thinks happened, she tells Netflix: “The most logical speculation seems to be a medical emergency."

Pressed on how that would explain her 'retaining control of the vehicle' she adds: “I’m unsure, because I have no recollection of that morning, but I know nothing about it was intentional, because that’s not in my character.”

She goes on to later say: “It's really hard every day in here, I try to wake up and to be the best person I can be. Every day, stay out of trouble. There's not a moment that doesn't pass where I don't think about them, or I don't feel the pain in my chest that it's still like a void of losing them…”.

Addressing her lawyer, she says: “I don't want to force anything and just say too much or sound crazy", before adding: "I just want to just make sure that I'm big on the no intent. There was no intent whatsoever there. 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. That's it.”

Also featured in the documentary is Davion’s father, Scott, who with his wife Jaime, adopted Davion and his two younger sisters.

Scott says: “I have the capacity for forgiveness. I just want to know the truth of what happened that night, and I would be eternally grateful for her to actually tell us how those last few moments were, no matter how damaging to her they might be, to say, just to say the truth and let us know and let us grieve properly and have some closure.”

Shirilla's first parole hearing is scheduled to take place in 2037, when she will be in her early 30s.

The Crash streams on Netflix from May 15.