00:00It's really hard every day in here. I try to wake up and be the best person I could be
00:06every day, stay out of trouble.
00:09Three years after the crash, she finally spoke.
00:12I have excessive amounts of remorse for Dominic, Davion, both of their families.
00:20This was not intentional and I will do everything I can to prove that to the world and the families.
00:26I'm not a monster and I'm not a murderer. The car was traveling at 100 miles per hour. The accelerator
00:33was pressed to full capacity. The brakes were never touched. The judge called her actions five things. Controlled, methodical, deliberate,
00:42intentional, and purposeful. Netflix gave her an hour to explain. Her own words may have done more damage than the
00:50prosecution ever could.
00:51Mackenzie Schirilla was 17 years old, living in Strongsville, Ohio, a suburb where nothing ever happened.
01:02She'd been dating Dominic Russo since she was 13, four years together. He was 20, athletic, outgoing, and by every
01:10account, the center of her world.
01:12Davion Flanagan was 19. He wanted to be a barber. He was just getting a ride home from a party.
01:18On July 31, 2022, just after 5.30 in the morning, Mackenzie's Toyota Camry struck a brick building at the
01:26end of a quiet industrial road.
01:29Dominic and Davion were pronounced dead at the scene.
01:32Mackenzie survived. Barely.
01:34A lacerated liver, lacerated kidney, broken ribs.
01:38She told Dominic's mother she couldn't remember anything. In a message to his family, she wrote,
01:43I remember turning onto the street, and then my vision fades to black. It really kills me not to be
01:49able to remember anything. I promise you, I would tell you.
01:53For weeks, everyone assumed it was a horrific accident. A teenager driving too fast, too early in the morning, after
02:00a long night.
02:01Then, investigators pulled the data from the car's black box.
02:05The Toyota's event data recorder captured everything.
02:08In the final seconds before impact, Mackenzie's right foot was pressed to the accelerator at full force, 100 miles per
02:16hour, full throttle.
02:17And at no point, none, were the brakes applied.
02:21Security cameras captured the car's final moments.
02:24Investigators noted the steering wheel turned right, then sharply left.
02:28A navigational correction through a slight curve in the road.
02:32Not the movement of someone who had blacked out.
02:35A certified forensic mechanic examined the car.
02:38The vehicle was in perfect working condition.
02:41No mechanical failure, no brake malfunction, nothing wrong with the steering.
02:45The car did exactly what the driver told it to do.
02:48But the relationship between Mackenzie and Dominic wasn't simple.
02:52Dominic's own mother, Christine, testified that in the six months before the crash, the relationship had become volatile.
02:59Fighting, threats, breaking up and getting back together, over and over.
03:04Court records showed the conflict went both ways.
03:07Both were young, both were struggling, and both had said things they shouldn't have.
03:12The defense argued this was a toxic relationship, where both sides bore responsibility,
03:17and that the crash itself could not be definitively tied to intent.
03:21But Mackenzie never testified at trial.
03:24She never spoke to police.
03:25She never gave a single interview.
03:27Until now.
03:29I've never spoke before, and I never told my side of the story.
03:33And I understand there's many different sides to the story and different perspectives,
03:37but I just want to say my truth, and I just know myself, and I know I'm not a monster.
03:43In the Netflix documentary, her mother Natalie explained that Mackenzie had been diagnosed with
03:49POTS, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, a condition that can cause sudden drops in blood
03:55pressure, dizziness, and blackouts.
03:57The defense had argued this at trial, that a medical episode not intent caused the crash,
04:03that a 17-year-old girl with a documented condition blacked out behind the wheel.
04:08I'm unsure I have, because I have no recollection of that morning, but I know nothing about it
04:14was intentional, because that's not my character.
04:16She was 17.
04:17She survived injuries that nearly killed her.
04:20She lost the person she called her soulmate, and she'd never been given the chance to tell
04:24her side.
04:25It was almost enough to make you wonder if the judge got it wrong.
04:29But prosecutors had found something the defense couldn't explain.
04:32The route Mackenzie drove that morning wasn't her normal route home.
04:36It was an obscure industrial road, one that led to a dead end at a brick building.
04:42Phone data showed Mackenzie had driven to that exact location three days before the crash.
04:47The judge would later say she made a calculated decision to take that route, at 5.30 in the
04:53morning, when any reasonable person would expect few people to be nearby, to witness it,
04:58or offer life-saving assistance.
05:00There was also the matter of a witness.
05:03A family friend named Christopher Martin testified that weeks before the crash, he overheard Mackenzie
05:09and Dominic arguing.
05:10He said he heard Mackenzie say, I'm going to wreck this car right now.
05:14But it was what she said three years later, in her own Netflix interview, that changed everything.
05:21The interview lasted one hour.
05:23Netflix filmed it at the Ohio Reformatory for Women.
05:26What viewers didn't know, until the final moments of the documentary, was that Mackenzie's
05:31lawyer had been sitting just off camera the entire time.
05:35And then it happened.
05:37The cameras captured something the prosecution never could.
05:40As the interview wrapped, Mackenzie turned away from the camera and looked at her lawyer.
05:45I don't want to force anything and just say too much or sound crazy.
05:50She wasn't telling her truth.
05:52She was checking her script.
05:53I just want to just make sure that I'm big on the no intent.
05:58There was no intent whatsoever.
06:01Big on the no intent.
06:02The director, Gareth Johnson, said he deliberately kept that moment in the final cut.
06:07He said it was important that the audience understood the circumstances under which the
06:12interview was conducted.
06:13This was not a girl telling her story.
06:16This was a performance reviewed by legal counsel, three years after she never testified, never spoke
06:22to police, and never explained a single thing to the families of the two young men she killed.
06:28Go back to the beginning.
06:29She said she had no memory of that morning, but the car's black box recorded every fraction
06:35of a second.
06:35Full accelerator, zero braking, a steering correction through a curve that required a conscious driver.
06:42When police arrested her after she recovered, the body cam captured something small, but
06:47revealing.
06:48She asked the officer to be careful removing her handcuffs so he wouldn't break her bracelet.
06:54She was wearing six bracelets.
06:56She didn't ask about Dominic.
06:57She didn't ask about Davion.
06:59In the months between the crash and her arrest, prosecutors showed the court her social media.
07:05Concert videos, college parties, what the prosecution called a shocking lack of remorse.
07:10I feel like anybody's social media isn't really them.
07:14It's how they want the world to see them.
07:16And at the time, that's how my 17-year-old brain was wanting to be seen.
07:20She was right about one thing.
07:22Social media isn't really who you are.
07:25But neither, it turns out, was the Netflix interview.
07:28The director said there was a black hole at the center of this case.
07:32What happened inside the car in the seconds before impact?
07:35And after three years, one documentary, and one carefully managed hour on camera, the black
07:42hole is still there.
07:43Because Mackenzie Schirrilla has never once, not to police, not to the judge, not to the
07:49families, and not to Netflix, explained what she did.
07:52She just keeps saying she can't remember.
07:55The court said no.
07:57This was not reckless driving.
07:59This was murder.
08:00August 14, 2023.
08:02Bench trial.
08:03Guilty on all 12 counts.
08:05Four counts of murder.
08:07Four counts of a felonious assault.
08:09Two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide.
08:11Two concurrent life sentences.
08:13First eligible for parole in 2037.
08:16She will be 33 years old.
08:19And I know I'm not a monster.
08:21The accelerator was at full capacity.
08:23The brakes were never touched.
08:25She had driven to that exact spot three days before.
08:28The judge said she morphed from a responsible driver to literal hell on wheels.
08:34And when Netflix finally gave her the chance to explain, after three years of silence, she
08:39turned to her lawyer and asked how she should sound.
08:42Dominic Russo was 20 years old.
08:45Davion Flanagan was 19.
08:47Davion Flanagan family created the Davion Flanagan Memorial Scholarship to help aspiring
08:53barbers achieve their dreams.
08:54If this case made you question what you thought you knew, subscribe.
08:59We do this every week.
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