As we discussed on Friday, the recent release of the Netflix documentary The Crash has drummed up a lot of renewed interest in the case of Mackenzie Shirilla. Just after graduating high school in 2022, Mackenzie crashed her car into a brick wall, killing her boyfriend Dominic Russo (20) and their friend Davion Flanagan (19). The evidence supported that Mackenzie willfully and intentionally sped up the car to 99 mph, not once stepping on the brake. Mackenzie was convicted in 2023 and is currently serving two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life in an Ohio prison. Outlets like TMZ and People Mag have been busy getting their hands on Mackenzie’s recorded phone calls from prison, most of them with her mother Natalie. In one such call, Natalie encourages her daughter to think of using her personal experiences for good at some point in the future. Mackenzie piggy backs onto that suggestion with a declaration of what she’s gonna do if/when she gets out of prison: become a life coach. A LIFE COACH.
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.
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.”
…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.
I thought I was speechless when we learned that Mackenzie spoke to her mother in a pig latin-like language in front of cops to suggest an alibi, but this? This has me questioning my sanity. A life coach?? You guys, it hurts so much inside my head these days! All right, one step at a time, Kismet. So call me crazy, call me a syntax snob, but I don’t find this sentence to be a ringing endorsement for a wannabe life coach: “Like, I just wanna come home and just like … I don’t even know.” Ditto for, “I’ma be a life coach and stuff.” Also, let’s look at what her mother Natalie says. “You’re going to be able to help so many more people than you already were…” What is this “than you already were” business?! What “help” was Mackenzie bringing into the world in her former, spoiled life? The thing is, Mackenzie could actually be using this time in prison to better herself. She has the time and resources to grow into a person who could one day use her experiences as a force for good, for empathy, for improvement. But that would require actually doing the work of self-reflection and, most critically, taking responsibility. Mackenzie has done neither, and if she never gets to that point, a parole board will see right through her.
In our previous coverage, a lot of you mentioned Scott Flanagan, Davion’s father, in the comments. He comes across as such a heartbreakingly good soul in The Crash, and one of the things that’s stayed with me was something he said about Mackenzie and her family and accountability. In essence, Scott noted that Mackenzie’s parents coddling her was not helping her to become an adult. It struck me that of everyone we heard from in the film, Scott Flanagan seemed to care the most about Mackenzie Shirilla, his son’s killer, growing into an upstanding person. Scott is who you want for a life coach.
Photos courtesy of Netflix and via Instagram