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Mackenzie Shirilla, currently facing a prolonged prison term for causing the deaths of her boyfriend and a friend in a tragic car accident, insists she doesn’t require rehabilitation.
In a phone conversation recorded at the Cuyahoga County Jail, and later obtained by People, Mackenzie shared her views with her mother, Natalie Shirilla.
Natalie informed Mackenzie that her sentence of 15 years to life would include opportunities for visitation, educational programs, and other supportive services once she is transferred to prison.
Responding to this, Mackenzie expressed surprise at the effort to make prison life more bearable. “I appreciate that they try to make it somewhat enjoyable there,” she commented. “I don’t really want to find joy in that environment, but it’s just a sad situation. I don’t know what to make of it.”
Natalie reassured her daughter that these resources were intended to aid in her rehabilitation process.
“See, that’s how jail is supposed to rehabilitate people, but I don’t need to be rehabilitated,” Mackenzie responded. “Like I don’t know that.”
Natalie went on to clarify that prisons offered education and mental health programs to help people rebuild their lives so they are prepared for re-entering society, adding, “Not you, but people that have been convicted of crimes like actual criminals.”
Meanwhile, Mackenzie lamented that she may not be able to have children because of her sentence.
“I feel like I want to live off the grid,” she said, according to People. “I’m thinking about like how I’m just gonna be like old when I get out of jail and like, I don’t know, like I’m not gonna be able to have kids or like a family and s–t like that.”
What Happened to Mackenzie Shirilla?
Mackenzie was found guilty in August 2023 of four counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault and two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide after a vehicle she was driving slammed into a brick wall, killing boyfriend Dominic Russo, 20, and their friend Davion Flanagan, 19.
Though her family has contended that Mackenzie suffered a medical episode, prosecutors said the vehicle’s event data recorder showed the then-17-year-old pressed the accelerator “to it’s full extent” and never applied the brakes, reaching speeds of 100 mph, according to a statement from the Cuyahuga County Office of the Prosecuting Attorney.
One witness also testified at her trial that Mackenzie had threatened to “wreck this car right now” while she was driving with Dominic just weeks before the fatal crash, per court records filed in the Ohio Supreme Court.
Mackenzie Shirilla Maintains Innocence, Insists She’s “Not a Monster”
Mackenzie spoke out about the fatal crash, insisting that she was “not a monster” and had no memory of the crash.
“I remember turning on the street,” she said in Netflix’s The Crash, “and I’m waking up in the hospital the next day, and then my whole life is shattering.”
She believes a medical emergency is the most likely explanation for the crash and said she never would have hurt Dominic or Davion intentionally.
“I have no recollection of that morning. I’m not saying I’m innocent,” she said. “I was a driver of a tragedy, but I’m not a murderer.”
Fellow Inmate Says Mackenzie Shirilla Showed No Remorse, Wanted to Be Regina George
Fellow inmate Kat Crowder—who served about six months in prison alongside Mackenzie—told NewsNation that Mackenzie never seemed to show remorse behind bars and allegedly told others she had been high at the time of the crash.
“I do say that she wanted to be like Regina George,” Kat said, referencing the notorious Mean Girls’ character. “I mean, just the way that she did her makeup, the way that she, I mean, it was like she was going out to a club or something.”
Mackenzie is currently serving out her sentence at the Ohio Reformatory for Women and won’t be eligible for parole until 2037, according to jail records reviewed by Oxygen.