Mackenzie Shirilla's mother defended her double murder charges, and claimed that her daughter spent three months crying and wearing her boyfriend's clothes.
Mackenzie Shirilla is all over the news ever since her case was documented in Netflix's documentary, The Crash, which was released on May 15, 2026. For those who don't know, Mackenzie has been serving a jail term for brutally murdering her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, who was 20 years old and his friend, Davion Flanagan, who was 19, in 2022. But her mother never considered her to be the murderer and, in fact, she did her best to defend her.
Mackenzie Shirilla was charged with murdering her boyfriend, but her mother, Natalie Shirilla, tried giving a 'victim speech' during her trial. In Netflix's true crime documentary, a short clip was shared of Natalie Shirilla trying to portray her daughter as a victim. The thirty-second clip was taken from a six-minute speech, wherein she defended her daughter's social media use, her Halloween outing, after the car crash.
In the first part of her speech, Natalia tried to address the fatal car accident. She shared that she is broken, lost, and her heart hurts for everyone who was involved in it. She further stated that Davion was her good friend, and her daughter's boyfriend, Dominic, was the love of her life and a part of the family. She is sorry and heartbroken at how things panned out. She was quoted as saying:
"I just want to say to the families that I am broken, lost, and my heart hurts for everyone, okay. Davion was her good friend, and Dom was the love of her life, and he was part of our family, okay. I’m just so sorry that this happened, and we are heartbroken."
Natalie further revealed that her daughter has no memory of the terrible incident. She stated that Mackenzie cannot emotionally or physically recover from it, as she almost died with the two of them. She pleaded with the court not to run the sentences as they were family. Talking about the Instagram brand deal, Halloween outing and Mackenzie's other outings, Natalie revealed that her daughter is not a murderer.
She then talked about the Instagram brand deal, Halloween outing and the concert. She revealed that her daughter has not been herself after the accident and has been only wearing her boyfriend's clothes, and would only eat the snacks he ate and would only listen to the music he wrote. Natalie was quoted as saying:
"For three months after the accident, she would only wear his clothes. She would only eat the snacks he ate, and she would only listen to the music he wrote. She was lying in bed for three months crying, there was a shrine of him next to her with photos and things that he liked. Her friends asked her if she wanted to go trick-or-treating for Halloween, and it was at OU. And she didn’t even want to go, she couldn’t even walk yet, barely. So I was like ‘Baby, please go. It’s Halloween, you’ve been lying for three months crying, and you have just a moment of fun’. She just needed a second of fun after losing her whole world. That was us."
However, the judge didn't believe her and stated that she wasn't saying much about the two who died but only about her daughter. Natalie shared that she was just asking to be linient with her then-seventeen-year-old daughter.
What do you think about Mackenzie's mother's statement trying to defend her daughter after gruesome crime?
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