Mackenzie Shirilla’s Dad Steve says Mackenzie would not be in prison if just Davion had been in the car, says Dom sold drugs

📸 True Crime This Week/YouTube

In July 2022, Mackenzie Shirilla was involved in a high-speed car crash in Ohio that resulted in the deaths of her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and friend Davion Flanagan. Shirilla was later convicted of murder and sentenced to prison for 15 years to life for intentionally causing the crash.

In a new interview with “True Crime This Week,” Steve Shirilla says when he signed up for the Netflix documentary “The Crash,” he was promised it would be fair, but called that belief an “illusion.” He says he thought the documentary makers initially approached their family with a view that Mackenzie was a monster, but feels the family shared information that should have provided a more nuanced perspective.

When the documentary came out, Steve says it mostly focused on the prosecution’s narrative about Mackenzie’s intent and actions, including interviews with law enforcement and the families of the victims. He claims that many details and viewpoints from Mackenzie’s family were left out, such as their view of Mackenzie’s relationship with Dominic Russo, and their concerns about the handling of evidence and the fairness of the trial.

Steve claims that the only information they have about what happened in the care is “4.74 seconds” from the black box. In cars, the black box is an event data recorder that captures details like speed, acceleration, and braking in the moments leading up to a crash, and this data is often used as evidence in court to help determine what happened.

Steve says the black box in this case recorded the car information in a “non-linear sort of way” and had turned on because it thought the car had flipped over, which he believes affects how the events can be interpreted. He also says that two airbags deployed before the car crashed into the building.

His theory is that the airbags deploying caused disorientation in the car’s passengers, but he still can’t explain the speed.

Steve also said that Dom did not like going down Pearl road because, according to Steve’s understanding, Dom sold drugs, specifically marijuana, at that time. Steve explained, “ And if he got pulled over, and he had marijuana on him, he would go to jail. And there was lots of police. And so Dom would have Mackenzie hold the drugs.” Steve says Mackenzie told him this information.

He also claimed Dom would have Kenzie hold the drugs for him because she had no prior charges, and would get a “slap on the wrist,” if she were caught with them.

Steve also believes that Mackenzie would have never gone to prison if Dominic was not in the car that morning.

“This is a political family,” he says about the Russo family.

“I apologize to the Flanagan family [Davion’s family] right now,” Steve said. “If it was just Davion in the car, she wouldn’t be in jail, it would have never left juvenile court. This has to do with the boy’s last name.”

Steve went on to say that he believes the judge has a relationship with the Russo family because Dominic Russo’s sister Christine Russo once worked at the prosecutor’s office.

Steven says that while he’s not happy with how the documentary portrayed him, but still owns up to everything he said in the documentary. Some of his words caused real world consequences for him. He has currently been put on administrative leave at his teaching job.

Steve taught art and digital media at Mary Queen of Peace School. The school released the following statement: “The school acted immediately and placed the teacher on administrative leave. The safety, wellbeing, and trust of our students remain among our highest priorities.”

Some of Steve’s most controversial statements were around his opinions about Mackenzie’s marijuana use: “I don’t have a problem with her smoking dope,” he sai.d

He then added:
“If you’re going to smoke a drug, that’s the one I believe you should take.”

The shirt Steve chose to wear in his interview also drew negative attention. It had a large comic book style “BOOM!” on the front of it, which seemed insensitive while talking about a car crash that took two lives.

Steve explained the shirt in his “True Crime This Week” interview, saying that the shirt was from YouTuber Crime Circus, who has defended Mackenzie on his channel. He said he wore the shirt to say “thank you” to Crime Circus.

Full Interview: