Mackenzie Shirilla’s father, Steve Shirilla, has remained one of his daughter’s most vocal defenders since her 2023 conviction on 12 felony counts, including murder, in the deaths of her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and friend Davion Flanagan.
Mackenzie is serving two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life at the Ohio Reformatory for Women after driving her Toyota Camry at approximately 100 mph into a brick building in Strongsville, Ohio, on July 31, 2022. She was 17 at the time and the only survivor of the crash.
Her case returned to national attention with the May 15, 2026, release of Netflix’s documentary The Crash, which reignited public interest in the case and featured Steve prominently as he continues to argue his daughter is innocent. Mackenzie has maintained she has no memory of the incident, and her father has taken that argument public through podcast appearances, documentary interviews and pointed criticism of the prosecution.
Here’s a look at everything Steve Shirilla has said about the case, from his early confrontation with police to his most recent podcast appearances.
Steve Shirilla’s Confrontation With Police After the Arrest
Body camera footage obtained by People and resurfaced in 2026 shows Steve arriving at the Strongsville Police Department less than an hour after Mackenzie’s November 4, 2022, arrest and spending roughly three minutes berating officers.
When one officer noted that Mackenzie, then 18, could legally speak for herself, Steve responded, “Yeah, but she’s a dumb 18-year-old.”
He demanded to see his daughter, citing instructions from her lawyer. “I need to speak to my daughter because you guys aren’t allowed to speak to her at all,” he said. “That’s from the lawyer, he does not want you speaking to her at all.”
Steve also criticized the timing of the weekend arrest and questioned why police hadn’t called him to bring Mackenzie in. “It’s unbelievable, I mean she’s 18,” he said. He went on to accuse officers of stationing “a creeper out on the front lawn watching” his home, though he did not clarify what he was referring to.
After officers explained that Mackenzie was not allowed to speak to anyone and would need to invoke her Fifth Amendment rights, Steve began to leave — but not before offering a warning.
“She’s not allowed to speak to you guys, I’m telling you that,” he yelled. “Don’t ask her any questions.”
Steve Shirilla’s Comments About Marijuana in ‘The Crash’
Steve appears throughout Netflix’s The Crash, where he addressed the fact that cannabis was detected in Mackenzie’s system at the time of the fatal crash.
“I don’t have a problem with her smoking dope,” Steve said in the documentary. “If you’re going to smoke a drug, that’s the one I believe you should take.”
The remarks drew immediate backlash and led to Steve being placed on leave from his art and digital media teaching job at Cleveland’s Mary Queen of Peace School.
Steve later clarified the comments in a May 19, 2026, interview with TMZ, saying his statement had been mischaracterized.
“I wasn’t in support of marijuana or wasn’t saying I’m smoking marijuana,” he shared. “What I was saying is that who am I to say who can smoke and who can’t smoke? Now, I never allowed my daughter to smoke marijuana.”
He continued: “How was I stopping her? You know, she was …I couldn’t lock her up in her room. I’m not quite sure why there’s a problem with what I said. It was never, ‘Hey, everybody go smoke marijuana.’”
Steve Shirilla’s Defense of Mackenzie’s Innocence
On the May 27, 2026, episode of the podcast “True Crime This Week,” hosted by James Renner, Steve shared his theory that the prosecution’s case doesn’t add up — pointing specifically to Flanagan’s presence in the car as evidence that Mackenzie could not have been planning to harm anyone.
“I’ve asked her, ‘Did you do this on purpose?’ And she goes, ‘No,’” Steve said on the podcast. “I would think if my daughter was that mad, that mad at that boy [Russo] to want to kill him that way, Davion would have never been in the car. This makes no sense.”
He added: “Something happened in that car. No one’s ever going to know. She’s innocent of the charges they put upon her.”
Steve Shirilla’s Ongoing Advocacy Alongside Wife Natalie
Steve’s public defense of Mackenzie has been echoed by his wife, Natalie Shirilla, who has also emerged as a consistent voice for her daughter in the media. Together, the couple has granted interviews, sat with documentary filmmakers and pushed back on the prosecution’s version of events.
Appearing on the June 25, 2026, episode of Chris Cuomo’s “Crime Time” podcast — two days after the Ohio Supreme Court declined to hear a second appeal — Natalie said her daughter has never reviewed the evidence in her own case.
“She’s never seen the evidence. She’s never seen the discovery. She’s never seen anything,” Natalie said. “She’s almost trapped in a nightmare that she has. All she knows is that the boyfriend that she loved with her whole, whole heart is gone and Davion is gone and she was the driver in a car accident, and has no memory of it.”
Mackenzie’s defense team has argued there is “medical evidence” she may have “suffered from a pre-existing medical condition that could have caused her to black out while driving,” pointing to a prior POTS diagnosis. Her legal team has attempted to appeal three times, with the Ohio Supreme Court denying the most recent request on June 23, 2026.
What’s Next for Mackenzie Shirilla?
Mackenzie was convicted of four counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault, two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide and one count each of drug possession and possessing criminal tools. She is not eligible for parole until October 2037.
Records obtained by Us show Mackenzie has faced multiple disciplinary actions while in prison, including for a 2025 NSFW video call during which she allegedly showed her breasts to a visitor. Other alleged incidents included the 2024 possession of altered clothing and four “nude magazine pictures.”
Despite the disciplinary record and failed appeals, Steve has continued to insist his daughter’s story has not been fully told.
“Something happened in that car,” he said on “True Crime This Week.” “No one’s ever going to know.”
This story was compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists.
