Mackenzie Shirilla reveals surprising career plan if she's released from prison in phone call
Topics: Mackenzie Shirilla, Crime, Netflix, True crime
Kiesha Dosanjh
Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: Mackenzie Shirilla, Crime, Netflix, True crime
Mackenzie Shirilla may not be eligible for parole until 2037, but she’s already thought of a career plan, should she be released.
Shirilla is currently serving life in prison, after being found guilty of crashing her car into a wall at 100mph, killing both her boyfriend, Dominic Russo and friend, Davion Flanagan.
She was convicted of 12 felony offences, including murder and aggravated vehicular homicide in 2023. The case has recently resurfaced after Netflix’s documentary, The Crash was released recently.
The 21-year-old is currently serving time in an Ohio women's prison in Marysville. Now, a prison phone call with her mother, Natalie, has been released - in which she appears to be talking about her career aspirations.
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In the call, obtained by TMZ, Natalie can be heard telling her daughter she’s a ‘pillar of strength’ and would be able to ‘help so many people’ should she be released.
“All the things you have been experiencing. It's so much. So many highs and lows, ups and downs,” she can be heard saying in the call.
Shirilla, who is currently serving two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life, adds: “Yes, like, man. Like, I just wanna come home and just like … I don't even know.”
She then announces that she wants to be a life coach, telling her mother: “I'ma be a life coach and stuff. I'm just going to be everything. I'm [gonna] do everything,” as per the outlet.
It is not clear when this call took place.
It’s not the first phone call between the two that has been released. Recently, PEOPLE obtained a phone call in which Natalie and her daughter, Mackenzie, were heard speaking in their ‘secret language’.
The ‘gibberish’ language was reportedly first used during Shirilla’s first interview with a detective while she was in hospital, following the crash - footage which was not used in the Netflix documentary.
However, it came to light when featured in an episode of A&E’s true crime series, Killer Cases.
The police were later able to break down the code language - and communications were used as evidence in Shirilla’s 2023 trial, where she was allegedly heard asking her mom: "Can we tell the police I had a seizure?"
In another jail call, obtained by PEOPLE, Shirilla was heard saying she wanted Kim Kardashian to be her attorney. However, a source close to the reality star told TMZ the case ‘does not fall within her focus.’
July 17 2022 - Mackenzie Shirilla and her boyfriend Dominic Russo get into an argument. A friend overhears Shirilla tell him: “I will crash this car right now.”
July 31 2022 - Shirilla is driving Russo, 20, and their friend Davion Flanagan, 19, from Russo’s home to a friend’s house. At around 5.30am, she crashes the car into a Plidco Building in Strongsville, Ohio, travelling at 100mph without braking. Police arrive on the scene 45 minutes later. Russo and Flanagan are pronounced dead and Shirilla is transported to MetroHealth Medical Center.
August 2022 - 200 people attend a vigil for Russo and Flanagan. Shirilla remains in critical condition. When a detective visits her in hospital, she is said to be speaking a ‘unique language’ similar to pig Latin.
October 2022 - Shirilla attends a Halloween party wearing fancy dress which resembles a corpse, which Davion’s father considers in very poor taste. He says in Netflix’s The Crash: “Dressing up as corpses three months after she killed two people, it just sickened us to the very core.”
November 4 2022 - Shirilla is arrested and faces 18 charges, including two counts of aggravated murder. She also faces charges for allegedly breaking into the Columbia Church of God in Columbia Station days before the crash, along with drug trafficking and possession charges.
August 7 2023 - Shirilla’s trial begins. Her defence team argue she may have passed out at the time of the crash due to postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), but no medical records or expert testimony confirms the diagnosis.
August 14 2023 - Shirilla is found guilty on all counts. Judge Nancy Margaret Russo calls her ‘hell on wheels’, and the court concludes she intetionally crashed the car in a premeditated act.
August 23 2023 - Shirilla is sentenced to two concurrent 15 years to life sentences. Her legal team later lose an appeal and relief petition. She remains incarcerated in Ohio Refamatory for Women.
May 22 2025 - Mackenzie’s parents insist that she’s innocent. Her father Steve tells WKYC: “Show me one piece of evidence - one - that says she did this on purpose. Show it to me, then she's right where she belongs and she's guilty of it. But there isn't any.” Her mother Natalie claims there are texts in which Shirilla says Russo was ‘trying to end her life’.
May 15 2026 - Netflix’s The Crash premieres. In it, Shirilla insists she is ‘not a murderer’ and has no memory of the crash, continuing to blame POTS.
May 18 2026 - Steve Shirilla is placed on administrative leave from his job as an art and digital media teacher at Mary Queen of Peace School in Cleveland following allegations he had ‘demonstrated poor judgement’. Viewers of Netflix’s documentary objected to his attitude towards Shirilla’s marijuana use and his dismissal of claims she told a classmate to end their life.
September 2037 - This is when Shirilla will be eligible for parole