Mackenzie Shirilla's Father Reveals Daughter Could Have Used Boyfriend's Gun to Murder Him Instead — As He Claims 'Hell on Wheels' Killer Is Innocent
Mackenzie Shirilla's dad Steve does not think his daughter killed two friends on purpose.
May 30 2026, Published 5:50 p.m. ET
Mackenzie Shirilla's father says there is no way the former teenager murdered her boyfriend and another person on purpose when she sped her car into a brick wall at over 100 mph with the two trapped inside, RadarOnline.com can report.
Steve Shirilla insists his daughter is innocent of murder, and adds that if she wanted Dominic Russo dead, she could have killed multiple other ways.
Mackenzie was Just a 'Dumb' Kid
Mackenzie Shirilla was convicted of murdering boyfriend Dominic Russo and another friend.
Mackenzie was 17 when she murdered her 21-year-old boyfriend, Russo, and their pal Davion Flanagan, 19, in the horrific crash that took place on July 31, 2022.
She is currently serving two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life after being convicted in August 2023 of murder, aggravated vehicular homicide and other charges, but has long maintained that she suffered a medical emergency behind the wheel of her Toyota Camry, and drove it right into the building.
And her father believes her.
"She was 17. She’s a dumb kid. She didn’t do it on purpose," Steve said on the podcast True Crime This Week. "I’ve asked her, 'Did you do this on purpose?’ And she’s [said], 'No.'"
Steve insisted that even if she was angry at Russo, there was no way she would punish their mutual friend Flanagan as well.
"I would think if my daughter was that mad, that mad at that boy to want to kill him that way, Davion would have never been in the car," Steve added. "That makes no sense."
'Something Happened in That Car'
Steve Shirilla said there were many other ways Mackenzie could have killed Dominic if she wanted him dead.
Besides, if Mackenzie really wanted to kill her boyfriend, Steve revealed all she would have needed to do was grab one of the many guns he had lying around his home.
"If she was going to do that to Dom, there were guns all over that kid’s house," Steve explained. "If she was going to kill him, that would make more sense to me."
Mackenzie's dad is not denying his daughter had a role in the deaths of her friends, but says the murder charges were unwarranted.
"Something happened in that car. No one’s ever going to know. She’s innocent of the charges they put upon her," he said. "[It] should have been juvenile vehicular homicide, two counts, and we would have went from there."
Threatening Messages of 'End of Life'
Mackenzie Shirilla drove her car, along with Dominic and Davion Flanagan, into a brick wall at a high rate of speed.
Prosecutors argued the accident was a botched murder-suicide attempt, pointing to Mackenzie's fractured relationship with Russo, including threatening text messages made just weeks before the accident in which she eerily foreshadowed dying in a car.
Mackenzie and Russo had been fighting for months beforehand, and Russo had recently sent her a devastating breakup text.
The bickering apparently continued, culminating in a text exchange in which both lovers accused the other of "trying to end" their life.
"Now I have to look forward to you ending my life any time we argue like how am I not supposed to be afraid," Shirilla texted Russo on July 17.
It's not clear exactly what set off this particular argument, but Russo fired back, "Kenzie (you) f--king tripping is all ima say", before adding, "(You) threaten to end my life all the time."
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A Foreshadowing Text?
Mackenzie Shirilla mentioned death by vehicle in one text message.
Shirilla texted back a creepy hint of what was to come, only in this case, she accused Russo of planning to do the damage.
"All I care about is you trying to end my life and put it in your hand on the steering wheel and trying to end it," Shirilla shrieked, following that up with, "Nobody does that to somebody they love."
In the early morning hours of July 31, Shirilla sped her car into a building in the Cleveland suburb of Strongsville, killing her passengers. When first responders arrived at the scene, they found the car split in half, with Shirilla wedged between the driver's seat and the door. Russo and Flanagan were dead on arrival.
"This was not reckless driving, this was murder," a judge said when delivering her verdict in 2023. "She had a mission, and she executed it with precision. The decision was death."
