New text messages released by law enforcement following the release of the Netflix documentary The Crash are bringing renewed attention to Mackenzie Shirilla’s case. In the messages, Shirilla accused her boyfriend Dominic Russo of trying to kill her just weeks before the fatal crash in Strongsville, Ohio.
What do the newly released text messages reveal?
according to tmzConvicted murderer Mackenzie Shirilla, 21, accused her own boyfriend of trying to kill her, just weeks after she deliberately crashed her car into a brick wall at nearly 100 mph, killing her and her friend.
In the messages, Shirilla accused her 20-year-old boyfriend Dominic Russo of endangering her life after a heated argument about reckless driving. She wrote to him, “Do you think I would have started my car with you on it, knowing you tried to kill me?”
He also sent graphic texts threatening harm to himself and others. “I’m going to kill someone,” “I want to bang my head on the wall until I die,” “I hate myself… Now I’m in your house and breaking down on your floor,” she wrote to Rousseau.
Meanwhile, additional messages obtained by TMZ show that Russo was trying to gently end the relationship in the weeks before his death.
“Kenzie, you know I love you, but I don’t think we should be together right now, Jacob, we don’t have much time on earth,” he wrote. “I don’t want you to think I’m giving up on UI, I wish it could work out, but I don’t think that’s going to happen at this point, especially with the threats,” he added, adding that both of them should find happiness elsewhere.
Prosecutors argued that Schirilla wanted to murder Russo after the breakup of their troubled relationship and that the act was completely premeditated.
Also read: Ex-girlfriend reveals Mackenzie Shirilla’s creepy prison nickname after fatal crash case; ‘She is not a good person’
What happened on 31st July 2022?
On July 31, 2022, the then-19-year-old Shirilla crashed his Toyota Camry into a brick warehouse in Strongsville, Ohio, at nearly 100 mph, killing Russo, who was sitting in the passenger seat, and his 19-year-old friend Davion Flanagan, who was sitting in the back. Both were declared dead on the spot. Shirilla was found unconscious and admitted to hospital with multiple injuries. New York Post.
According to court documents cited by People’s, investigators found that the accelerator was fully depressed without applying the brakes in the final seconds before the crash and experts ruled out any defects in the car. A family friend also testified that he had heard Shirilla say, “I’m going to destroy this car right now” a few weeks before the accident.
After the accident, Shirilla messages Russo’s mother, claiming she has blacked out and doesn’t remember anything. Court documents revealed she also posted loving messages on Russo’s online obituary and asked Russo’s brother to put photos of the two of them in Dominic’s casket “so he can be with me forever.”
Also read: Mackenzie Schirilla sent heartbreaking message to boyfriend Dominic Russo before fatal crash: ‘I’m going to kill someone’
What happened to Mackenzie Shirilla after she was found guilty?
In August 2023, Judge Nancy Margaret Russo found Shirilla guilty on all 12 charges and sentenced him to two concurrent 15-years-to-life sentences. At the time of conviction the judge called it “literally hell on wheels”. Shirilla will not be eligible for parole until 2037. According to WKYC, all of his appeals have been denied. She is currently incarcerated at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville, Ohio.