Law&Crime Sidebar - Mackenzie Shirilla Blasted by Boyfriend’s Sister Amid New Allegations

Episode Date: May 23, 2026

Netflix’s “The Crash” has reignited debate surrounding Mackenzie Shirilla and the deadly 2022 crash that killed 20-year-old Dominic Russo and 19-year-old Davion Flanagan. Now, Dominic��s sister Christine Russo is sharing her reaction to the documentary, Shirilla’s recent statements, backlash surrounding the film, and how the families continue moving forward years after the tragedy. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber walks us through the documentary fallout and speaks directly with Dominic Russo’s sister about grief, accountability, and the lasting impact of this case.HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea, Alex Ciccarone, & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrimeTwitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I don't like to see that the Shirillas are not remorseful and that they just can't say they're sorry. We're continuing our coverage of this newly released documentary about the case of McKenzie Shirilla by speaking to the sister of one of her victims. I want her thoughts on this documentary, what McKenzie said, what she observed firsthand of this murderer, and how she and the families are doing and also sometimes gets lost in all of the legal cases, what was Dominic Russo really like? Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. We're talking about Dominic's girlfriend, McKenzie Shirilla, crashed that car into a wall at 100 miles per hour, killing them both.

And we're doing it in a special way today. We're bringing on the sister of one of the victims, Christine Russo, sister to 20-year-old Dominic Russo, because Dominic was in a Toyota Camry with his friend, 19-year-old Davion Flanagan, when the judge, driver of that car dominic's girlfriend mckenzie sherilla crashed the car into a wall at a hundred miles per hour killing them both this was back on july 31st 22 authorities said she did this intentionally on purpose they cited to a tumultuous relationship with dominic they looked at the car data they highlighted her odd behavior after the incident in which it appeared she showed no remorse and mackenzie shirilla she went to trial she opted for a bench trial instead of a jury trial meaning again that a judge

heard and saw the arguments and the evidence. And in the end, you know, that decision, it ended with her being found guilty. She was found guilty of all 12 counts, murder, felonious assault, aggravated vehicular homicide, drug possession, possessing criminal tools. And she was sentenced to two life terms in prison, served at the same time with the possibility of parole after 15 years. Now, something I got to mention before I go any further, everything about this case, everything you need to know, the case files on this case, okay, if you want to deeper dive on it, if you want to read the filing see the evidence? It's up right now on the Law and Crime Plus app under the case files. We built a case file for McKenzie Shirella. You can check it all out there. Okay. By the way, we did a

whole sidebar episode on this as well yesterday because there is this new Netflix documentary. It's called The Crash or premiered. And in it, you actually hear from McKenzie Sherella, okay, in prison. And she made certain comments, statements in this documentary that have, you know, it has made the news, like where she said, I'm not a monster. I'm not saying I'm innocent. I was a driver of a tragedy, but I'm not a murderer. She said that regarding Dominic, we would have probably been married by now. We argued. We got back together. We broke up. We got back together. It was rocky, but it was good. We were in love. By the way, I'm going to ask Christine about this. You'll see this interview. And again, how she doesn't remember anything

from the night of the crash. I remember turning on the street, and then I'm waking up in the hospital the next day, and my whole life is shattered. Now, I mentioned this yesterday. I'm going to mention again. Netflix's fan site. They wrote up an article about the film and they said this about, you know, big twist at the end. Quote, it's only after McKenzie finishes speaking that the filmmakers reveal

her attorney has been in the room the entire time. Her demeanor demonstrably shifts as she checks in on how she's coming across. I don't want to force anything and just say too much or sound crazy. This is what she apparently says to her lawyer before turning back to the camera to say, I'm big on the no intent. There was no

intent whatsoever there. I have excessive of amounts of remorse for Dominic, Davion, both of their families. This was not intentional, and I will do everything I can to prove that to the world and the families, and that's it. Now, she and her family have always maintained that it was an accident, that she's innocent, that this was caused due to her alleged Potts condition. It's a medical condition where you can become dizzy or faint. She said that she blacks out, and this was her defense at trial, by the way. Judge rejected it, and no medical expert was able to confirm these findings at trial. And we also discussed yesterday how her parents, who were featured in the documentary, they have taken a lot of heat.

A lot of criticism online, particularly from their reactions to what happened, to her mother's statement in court, to the odd jailhouse calls, and for what her dad said about marijuana use in the documentary, even though he claims his words were twisted, administrative leave from his job. Again, our episode yesterday went all over that. But before even go into my interview with Christine Russo, there's one thing that we didn't play yesterday. in her episode and it was this, okay? Body cam footage. This is when authorities first start talking to McKenzie while she's still in the car. Sarge, we're good to try to get her out. Oh, dude, I don't know. Yeah.

Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Can you see her, uh, breathing? She's breathing. She's breathing. Head's wedge. Let's see if we get some IDs guys. Are you guys?

You look younger? Oh yeah, they're all pretty young. Oh my god. You can find a... I don't feel anything. I don't feel pulse. She's breathing. I saw her stomach for some explore. Oh yeah. Yeah. We got two that are gone.

Yeah. She's moving a little bit. She can move her leg. She can move her leg. Mackenzie, can you hear me? Can you move your leg or your arm or anything? Is she talking? Yeah. She talking?

Yeah, she can hear me a little bit. I saw her moving her left leg. McKenzie, this is the police department. We're gonna get you out of here, okay? We got the fire department on the way. You're stuck in here pretty good. And then talking to her in the ambulance where she appears to answer a couple questions.

and then stops answering. Okay. Do you remember what were the names of the people that were in the car? Dom and David? Davian. Davian? Damien. Davion.

Deveon. Do you know his last name? Mm-mm. Do you know where he lives? Staying. Staying with her in town. So now, as McKenzie Shrilla is locked up at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Ohio, and yes, it's possible, she could be paroled as early as 20,

This is according to the Department of Corrections. I mean, she would be in her early 30s. I do want to get some perspective now. I want to get some context. I did this interview with Dominic's sister, Christine Rousseau, who hosts this podcast. It's called the Big Sister Unhinged Podcast. And she has been very vocal about this case, the documentary. Here's my interview with her. All right. Join right now by Dominic's sister, Christine Russo, who by the way, launched a podcast. I encourage everybody to check out. It's called The Big Sister Unhinged Podcast. And Christine, thank you so much for taking the time to come on here, particularly now. I know it's not easy talking about this. I know it's not easy to talk about this one. It's so in the news right now, but I think you're doing something incredibly unique.

And before we even talk about the documentary, Why did you want to launch your own venture here, your own podcast? Because when I'm listening to it, it does make me wonders at not only bringing attention to your brother in this situation and this case, but is it also therapeutic in a way? Does it help in a way? Yeah, actually I launched it for several reasons. Being therapeutic is just one. I knew that before this Netflix movie came out, for years, it's been a talk around the community. community, spent on the news, a couple of shows, but I had a feeling that this was going to be

so humongous. And I also have had to battle a lot of misinformation, a lot of lies spewing, and a lot of movements about freeing my brother's murderer. I've been dealing with that for quite some time. And I've always felt very, in my entire family, very helpless, being so small on the internet trying to correct misinformation. So I really just tried to establish some type of platform. So when this aired, they could hear our voices. What's the response been like to your podcast and your, you know, what you've had to say? So much support. There's, of course, going to be trolls here and there. But overall, I didn't, I was not ready to have so much support. I was like, wow, I didn't know that this would be so awesome.

You know what I'm saying? I've heard other stories of people sharing their grief with me, just how I've made people feel better. My family is very thankful for sticking up for Dom. Like, it's just been overall a better experience. And the only other option that I had was to sit back and watch everybody else online, talk about my brother and talk out the side of their neck, act like,

they know facts or, you know, that they're all medical experts or mechanical experts. And, you know, it was either sit back and watch the internet run wild with misinformation or do this. So did you watch the whole documentary? Did you sit through the whole, did you watch all of it? I got to preview it. They flew in. The producers flew in from the UK in January. And I previewed it then, helped make some edits. They took out some things that were not nice things that were said about my brother from certain people in the cast. And but since it's been out as of last Friday, I attempted to watch it for a minute or two and I can't get further than that. I just, I don't want to see it.

Is that because it's so difficult to revisit this moment or is it because there's information in there that you say is not true? I don't like to see that the shirillas are not remorseful and that they just can't say they're sorry. And it's more of, I'm really good with disconnecting and making this like a story sometimes where it's like not actually that my brother is gone in real life. It's like I'm kind of out of touch with reality a little bit. So watching it, it's too, it's just overwhelming. When you say misinformation, whether it's what you believe was in this project or online, what is. some of that misinformation that you're trying to correct? Right off the top of my head was, so, for instance,

Landon and Rosie, they make themselves out to be my brother and Davian's best friend. Like, they told the world on Netflix that they were best friends. And at the same time, they turn around and say very terrible things about my brother and his lifestyle and things like that. So I want to make it clear that they are not his friends. Then they weren't Davian's best friends. They were acquaintances. They say things like, oh, yeah, I was best friends with Davian or I was best friends with Dom, you know, but he was a drug dealer.

It's like, no, you're just, they're Kenzie's friends trying to make my brother look bad. Those are her best friends. And they just put my brother down. And that's where I draw the line is my brother's not here anymore. So now I'm going to defend him. So I just want to let the world know that they are liars. What about misinformation regarding the actual episode, the actual crash? You talked about, you said everybody that acts like they're mechanical experts.

Have you been trying to battle people who say that this was not what the judge found it to be? It's all over the place. So like one piece of misinformation or that people, you know, went left with was, let's say the 253. Did you see the movie? I saw, I didn't see the whole thing, but parts, but yeah. one of the pieces of it is Dominic texted my dad at 253 in the morning, I love you. Everybody was like, oh, that was suggestive that he knew this was going to happen or that he had something to do with it, completely left. I want everybody to know that my father texts all of his seven children, I love yous, all the time randomly, and that's something that we do back.

So it wasn't that that was Dominic knew this was going to happen or it was. was some type of piece of evidence. That was just, and it's not uncommon. We do it all the time. So stuff like that. I'm trying to think of, like, there's things that the world doesn't know, like, why we know she's guilty.

So when the crash first happened, I thought it was an accident for a while. So did my dad, so to my sister. Now, granted, there's seven siblings. So we were divided as to, what, you know, if it was an accident or not. And then some siblings knew other stuff. So McKenzie's mom, so Natalie actually, we thought it was in, a couple of us thought it was an accident.

You didn't want to believe it was murder right after the, right after the crash. Natalie Shurrilla actually told us for, it was like three or four days. She was telling me, my father, and my sister that McKenzie was unconscious and had not woken up. So we're sitting there praying for her crying. I mean, I was just as upset for her that I had lost my brother at that second. Okay. So for three or four days as we're praying that she wakes up from this coma or, you know, being unconscious, you know, and she's going on and on about how she's going to tell McKenzie Dom's gone and, you know, praying that she wakes up and come to find out just a few hours after she killed my brother in Davion. She's in the hospital bed,

herself making TikToks. And her mother sat there next to her trying to get modeling gigs all over Instagram within hours after killing two people. So things like that. And it's like, why would you lie to us? That's how you found out. You saw the social media post and that's how you found out? Yes, my cousin started telling us I have a very large family. So with screenshots and I'm like, something's not adding up.

So then it's like, why would you, why? As soon as after the crash, they tried, they started corroborating their story and lying. And, you know, I was like, why would she, why would she lie about this? You know, why won't she let her talk or why would she say she wasn't awake? You know, and now it makes sense. Now, even when the police came to her, just to give her back her phone, she looked at the police officer. She looked at her mom. She said to her, can I just tell them that I had a seizure?

So immediately it was storytelling, you know, so. What did you think about the way her parents were portrayed or what they said in the documentary? That is 100% them in real life. I've been with them. They were at my house after the crash. Like, I sat with them through the entire trial. That is how they are in real life. The dad has been very aggressive towards me, you know, in hearings and things like that.

And he shouts out certain things when it's not appropriate. Like, you know, no, no. they don't care about us grieving families. It's like there's no remorse or no guiltiness or like, I mean, I don't know. I would feel, if I were, if my children, knock on wood, God forbid, hurt two other people like that. And if it was an accident, like they say, I would be sending them flowers and baskets of fruit every week or like letters. I still wait for letters in the mail sometimes with an apology or something. And it's just it never happened.

They actually, it's like they don't care. So that is from the documentary. That's really how they are in real life. When was the last time you had contact with them? As soon as she was arrested. So November 4th, 2022 was the last time. As soon as she was arrested, never heard from them again. You know, Steve has been placed on administrative leave from his job after the documentary.

What do you think about that? I think the whole thing is the whole thing in general that my brother is gone and Davianner, gone. I think the whole thing is sad. So when I first heard, I felt absolutely terrible. I don't, life shouldn't be like this. Dom and Davian should be here. She belongs in prison. But to me, it's like, I just, I wish she wasn't born that way. I don't know if it was nature versus nature or what happened to her. But it to me, it's sad in general, but like at the same time, I don't, I don't like to hate. So, and I don't like to. Right. I don't know. Well, look, talking about McKenzie, you know, the big thing was what she had to say in.

this Netflix documentary where she said she's, you know, not a monster. She has remorse. She thinks about Dom and Davian all the time. She said it wasn't her intent. She was big to say it wasn't her intent. What do you make of those statements? It's a joke. You could hear the calls that, you know, they have all of her calls recorded. And it's a little bit on my podcast that I try to listen to and I'm just, it makes me sick. But you can hear online all of her jail calls and she's laughing at the victims, laughing at the family, laughing about getting famous. Like, she is just so full of it. It was completely rehearsed.

She couldn't make eye contact. She talked a lot slower than she did. Like, that was not, Ken, I don't, that wasn't Kenzie. It, in the trial, she cried after the victim impact statements were read, cried and cried, you know, and then come to find out, she went in the back, she called her mom. The calls were pulled. and she's sitting there making fun of us for reading the victim impact statements. Like she's making fun of Davian's mom laughing that why would she tell me to repent,

ha, ha, ha. And it's like there is something very wrong with that person. Well, she and her family have always maintained, right, her innocence, and they keep putting, you know, this defense of pots. In your experience with McKenzie, did you ever see any symptoms of pots? not myself nor anybody in my family had even knew that she had that neither was there any medical records indicating anything about pots i believe um because i was discussed in the trial as well but us as a family we never knew she supposedly had this i still don't think she does i think that they looked up

what kind of um what kind of ailment or something you can have to say that you passed out real quick that's not detectable i i don't believe she has that that. And I'm not a medical expert, but the way that it's infuriating, the way the street is that it happened on, it's a big, windy, like, it's a long, windy road, right? And in order to maintain your car on the street, you have to maintain full control of your vehicle. You have to be driving with two hands at 40 miles an hour. I've done it. I've went through this just to see. So at 40 miles an hour, You have to have your hands on the wheel and you're whipping your car if you're trying to go at 40. A hundred miles an hour, she would have been left, right, sideways.

Like, if she really did pass out and stuck her foot down on the gas, she wouldn't have made it to the end of the building to smack a building. She would have been off in a ditch on the left or the right. Or Dom or Davian would have grabbed at the wheel. Like, it's just, it's, it's, it's bull is what it is. It's just not accurate. I don't know if you saw this, but I did an interview. last on on my other show, my News Nation show, Jesse Weber Live, I was two nights ago. And in this

interview, I spoke with Kat Crowder, who actually was locked up with McKenzie. She said she didn't observe any symptoms of pots, basically characterized her as a mean girl in prison, basically said she never saw her show remorse, that there was almost this, I don't want to, I don't know if the word is like giddy, but like she was, you know, very like, not happy, but like kind of pleasant in the way. Like she was, you know, kind of smiling and happy and jovial. When you hear things like that, how do you interpret it? What do you think? Because it's kind of matching up to your description of, you know, you believe she doesn't show remorse and this idea of the image she's putting forward in the documentary is not accurate. When you hear

that from somebody who was locked up with her, what are your thoughts? I'm going to try not to get sad, but so the only, I try not to cry and get upset, especially in these interviews, but I had one with Jump Suit Pablo. It was like a week ago. And like the only time that I got upset, I went to say, he had told me in the calls that like she just doesn't show any remorse. And my thought was, oh my God, she doesn't care about my brother at all. She doesn't feel bad. She doesn't think about him. And to me, it's like he died. Like she didn't even love him. You know what I'm saying? He died for no reason. And that really just, that pulls my heart out, like that she just doesn't care.

You know what I'm saying? Like there's no anymore since she was tried and convicted in sentence. It's never in all her calls or her actions. I haven't gotten a letter of, I missed like nothing. You would have thought that she missed them, you know, but he's not talked about that she doesn't care whatsoever. So that really, it makes me feel like he died for no reason. What did you observe from their relationship? I mean, in the documentary, she says they were very much in love.

She was thinking about marrying him. What did you observe in their relationship? No. My sister, actually, Nikki, lived next door to him while they were dating for quite some time. And just like any narcissist and abuser, she very much hid that in front of people. and he did share with his very best friends. Like he did share it towards the end just that, you know, he was breaking up with her the last year. They had been broken up.

He was seeing other people on and off. She was seeing other people on and off. It was nothing but toxicity. He was trying to let her go. He was trying to move on. And she had nothing to, she had nothing to go for her. No job, no career, no schooling. like she had Dom and that was it. And so, you know, it's just she, it was, you're staying with me and or that's it. But I, I, I, to me, as a bigger sister, I'm 13 years older than him. I didn't really see much, but the isolation. She very much isolated him. It was always, you know, we're a very close family, holidays. He's the godfather of our children, um, baptist.

and every holiday, birthdays, and we're a very close, wonderful family. And once she became involved, it was all about her then. It was, you know, oh, sorry, I can't make Easter because, you know, I have to go with Kenzie or, hey, I can't come bowling because, you know, Kenzie's not ready. Or I can't meet you here today, even though I was supposed to meet you, because, Ken, something came up with Kenzie. It was like everything was about her. It's a textbook narcissist abuser.

I do want to ask a little bit more about dumb, you know, because sometimes we get in a position where we're focusing so much on the crime, we think so much about the defendant, that we lose sight at times about who was taken away. Can you talk to us about what he was like, what your relationship was like with him? I was 13 years older than him. So when he was,

was born he was like my baby you know um changed his diapers fed him woke up in the middle of the night with him like taught him how to walk you know had that relationship and then as he got older he was like you know my best pal and when i started having my own babies when i started um having my own kids sorry you don't have to apologize you don't have to apologize he yeah um he uh i don't know he he was he was he was really i can't talk anymore it's okay it's okay he was a really good uncle and he was fun and the kids loved him and he loved us but um yeah he was um he was a really good person ambitious funny, fun to be around his. You could see now after he's passed, like, how this really affected

so many people. Just goes to show how loved he was. Yep. I mean, that's what I see. That's what I see from following this case, from seeing it, universally loved. I mean, this is, it's such a special impact on all of you. And, you know, you get to see that. And I also understand right now that you have a special connection, a very strong connection with Davian's sister, right? I mean, can you talk to us about that? Because I also don't know what your relationship was like with him and his family. I had never met him, actually. Oh, wow. My dad just met him the day before that this happened. He was like a newer, he was, I talked to Divine and I recorded it on my podcast and it's on there.

But he was a football player and then he was injured. So then he started hanging out with a different group of friends and that was my brother. So he was more of like a newer friend, but good friends. I unfortunately didn't get to meet him. But after the fact, I've just felt so much guilt. Like if, you know, if it wasn't for Dom, like, obviously I got to stop thinking that because it was Kenzie who did this. But I feel like he was, if he wasn't with my brother, then this wouldn't happen.

So I feel a lot of guilt about that. I look at two young sisters who lost their big brother. I feel the pain. And I'm very empathetic, so I can only imagine what they go through. They were brought up in foster care. And they only had each other. So, like, I couldn't imagine, you know, what they're going through. So sitting and talking with her just because we're going through the same thing, you know,

two different families, but we're going through the exact same thing. So it's nice to sit down. And I don't know, I feel a super strong connection to her. She's amazing. I just, I love her. I do. Scott's a real nice guy, Jamie. Delia, they're just really nice people.

And I just, my heart breaks. I mean, that's so great to hear. That's so special. Before I wrap things up, I just want to know how you're doing, Christine. how your family's doing right now as you're trying to navigate this next chapter with so much attention

on this documentary and people I'm sure having a lot of comments and opinions like you said just how are you and your family doing right now? We're doing. There's no,

somebody asked me this the other day too and I'm like, we don't have a plan like at the end of the day that I'm still gone so this, the heart hype, I've learned to use the chaos to help me get along with my grief. But like just now as I broke down in tears, it hits you sometimes and you can't stop it.

So it could be randomly or it could be a song or I don't know, a feeling, but it hits us all. We are not, honestly, we're not good. None of us were all really, really sad all the time. Like he was a big loss. He was a big part of our life. So we are not doing that great. Well, Christine, let me just say, I'm so sorry. I'm really, really so sorry for what you and your family are continuing to go through.

This shouldn't have happened. I'm really wishing you the best of luck. And I hope that the Big Sister on Hinge podcast and the support that you're getting will help in some way. And it's so great to hear that you have this close relationship on the other side with the family that's going through the same. kind of thing. And, you know, I really appreciate you taking the time to explain how you're doing your thoughts on what's happening right now and just to talk a little bit more about your brother. So really appreciate your time and thank you. Thanks. And I really appreciate you allowing me to express that and, you know, using this platform to get, like I said, my goal is to battle the

misinformation and, you know, keep Dom's legacy in a good spot where it should be. So I I appreciate it. You got it. You got it. Thank you so much. And that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcast.

You can also check us out on NBC's Peacock as well. If you want to follow me, X Instagram, my News Nation show, Jesse Weber Live, 11 p.m. Eastern, Monday through Friday. I'll see you next time, everybody.