The shocking car crash that killed Shirilla’s boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and their friend, Davion Flanagan, is the subject of the new Netflix documentary, “The Crash.”

Mackenzie Shirilla’s dad says daughter’s friend ‘would have never’ been in car if she wanted to kill boyfriend

The shocking car crash that killed Shirilla's boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and their friend, Davion Flanagan, is the subject of the new Netflix documentary, "The Crash."

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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May 31, 2026 11:18 p.m. ET

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Mackenzie Shirilla and Steve Shirilla in 'The Crash'. Credit:

- Mackenzie Shirilla's father, Steve Shirilla, is speaking out in defense of his daughter, who was convicted of intentionally killing her boyfriend and their friend in a 2022 car crash.

- Steve claims in a new interview that it "makes no sense" that if Shirilla was "that mad" at boyfriend Dominic Russo," friend Davion Flanagan "would have never been in the car."

- The circumstances around the shocking incident are explored in the Netflix documentary *The Crash*.

Mackenzie Shirilla's father, Steve Shirilla, continues to defend his daughter after she was convicted of intentionally killing her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and their friend, Davion Flanagan.

Steve and his wife, Natalie Shirilla, spoke up for their daughter in the recent Netflix documentary *The Crash*, which renewed national attention in the 2022 car crash that killed Russo and Flanagan. It was Mackenzie behind the wheel of the car that raced at a speed of up to 100 miles per hour into a brick wall in Strongsville, Ohio, that summer. While the passengers were pronounced dead on the scene, Mackenzie survived and was put on trial for their deaths within a year.

She was ultimately convicted on all 12 counts stemming from their deaths, including murder, aggravated vehicular homicide, and drug possession. She is now serving two concurrent life sentences, with a possibility of parole after 15 years. But Steve still maintains his daughter's innocence, speaking on Wednesday's episode of the *True Crime This Week** *podcast to make the case once more.

"I've asked her, 'Did you do this on purpose?' And she goes, 'No,'" Steve told host James Renner. "I would think if my daughter was that mad, that mad at that boy to want to kill him that way, Davion would have never been in the car. That makes no sense."

"Something happened in that car. No one's ever going to know," he continued. "She's innocent of the charges they put upon her."

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Steve advanced a similar defense of his daughter in *The Crash*, in which he and Natalie participated. Mackenzie also gave her first on-camera interview since the incident to the film's producers.

"I don't have a problem with her smoking dope," he said in *The Crash *of her marijuana use. "If you're going to smoke a drug, that's the one I believe you should take." Mackenzie's marijuana use became a flash point at the 2023 trial, when it was found she had THC in her system at the time of the crash.

After the release of *The Crash*, Steve was put on leave from his job as a teacher at the Mary Queen of Peace School in Cleveland.

Mackenzie Shirilla and Steve Shirilla, featured in 'The Crash'.

"I sat with my daughter for three months in that room right there. Three months watching her watch every video, every song, every picture about that boy. There was a shrine to him in that room," Steve said on *True Crime This Week*, adding that his daughter "cried herself to sleep every night."

"She has remorse. She was upset. If you would have heard her when she found out that Dom died, if you would have heard the sound that came out of her, it would have crushed you," he continued. "She was 17. She's a dumb kid. She wasn't breaking up. She didn't do it on purpose."

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