Ohio inmate Mackenzie Shirilla plans to become life coach

Mackenzie Shirilla, a 21-year-old serving a prison sentence for a fatal 2022 car crash, has expressed aspirations to become a life coach if she is ever released, according to audio from a recorded prison phone call. The renewed attention to her case follows the release of a Netflix documentary and the surfacing of new details about her conduct while incarcerated.

Shirilla is currently housed at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville, serving two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life. She was convicted in August 2023 on multiple felony charges, including murder and aggravated vehicular homicide, for a crash that killed her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20, and their friend Davion Flanagan, 19. The crash occurred on July 31, 2022, in Strongsville, Ohio, when Shirilla, then 17, drove a Toyota Camry into a brick building at a speed investigators said exceeded 100 miles per hour. Officials stated there was no evidence she applied the brakes. Shirilla survived with critical injuries.

Tried as an adult, Shirilla has maintained she has no memory of the crash and disputes the murder conviction. She tested positive for marijuana after the incident, though her blood was negative for...