CLEVELAND, Ohio – The household of one of many younger males killed when Mackenzie Shirilla deliberately plowed her automobile right into a brick wall is combating to make sure the convicted double assassin by no means income off the crime that shattered their lives.
Christine Russo mentioned her household has been “ruined” since Shirilla, then 17, killed her brother, Dominic Russo, 20, and their good friend, Davion Flanagan, 19, within the horrific July 2022 crash.
“He was simply nothing to [Shirilla], however clearly to not us in our household,” a tearful Russo, 37, instructed The Submit from her household house about 6.5 miles from the deadly website. “We’re actually, actually unhealthy.”
With renewed curiosity within the case fueled by Netflix’s new No. 1 documentary “The Crash,” Russo and her household have launched a petition urging Ohio lawmakers to strengthen the state’s Son of Sam regulation.
The regulation was initially enacted following public outrage over convicted serial killer David Berkowitz posing to revenue off his crimes from e book and film offers within the Nineties.
Russo needs the Buckeye State’s statute modernized for the social media age, increasing it past conventional media to cowl on-line affect, together with Instagram followings, sponsorships, model offers and different Web-driven alternatives.
“That is all she’s ever wished was consideration,” Russo mentioned of Shirilla, who often posted on social media and had desires of changing into a mannequin earlier than touchdown behind bars.
Shortly after her arrest, the “Hell on Wheels” killer and her mom, Natalie Shirilla, had been heard in a recorded jail name cackling over the worldwide consideration surrounding her double-murder case – and gleefully predicting that A-listers would quickly come calling.
Former inmates at Ohio Girls’s Reformatory, the place Shirilla has been serving two concurrent phrases of 15 years to life since August 2023, have instructed The Submit she confirmed zero regret behind bars.
As a substitute, she handled lockup like a “reputation contest,” pranced round just like the queen bee of “Imply Women” and often snapped selfies together with her prison-issued pill.
“Inside hours – not days – of killing two younger males, she’s sitting on her cellphone [taking] selfies, capturing TikToks and making an attempt to get modeling gigs,” Russo claimed. “That’s all she’s ever cared about.”
Now, with the Netflix movie thrusting the case again into the highlight, Russo fears Shirilla may in the end get precisely what she has at all times wished.
“With this film, I simply know the way, if she ever does get out….how simple it’s going to be for her to get Instagram well-known, or, you understand, what she’s at all times wished,” she defined.
Russo additionally worries that present legal guidelines go away room for Shirilla’s embattled mother and father to financially profit.
“There aren’t any legal guidelines stopping her household from profiting off of this after which sending her the cash,” Russo mentioned. “So we’re simply trying into sure loopholes like that as properly.”
The web petition, titled “Dom’s Regulation: Victims Earlier than Influencers,” has amassed greater than 145,000 signatures.
Ohio lawmakers already took steps to increase the regulation, introducing laws in 2025 that might broaden the regulation to incorporate on-line fundraising via websites like GoFundMe.
Russo described Shirilla as a “spoiled, rotten, nasty particular person” and mentioned she would “worry for society” if she was ever launched from lockup. Shirilla is presently interesting her conviction for a second time.
The grieving sister additionally pointed blame at Shirilla’s mother and father, Natalie and Steve, for his or her seemingly permissive strategy to parenting, in addition to their daughter’s crimes.
“I feel they have to be reminded that we’re the victims right here and that they aren’t, you understand what I imply?” Russo mentioned.
“Some persons are simply born narcissistic and self-absorbed…after which blended with how she was raised and never ever being held accountable.
“She was a monster.”
Her criticism echoed these of Shirilla’s former pal Jayna Mainard, who beforehand instructed The Submit that Natalie and Steve had been extra involved with profitable their daughter’s approval than elevating her proper.
“From what I see, they didn’t actually care about her. They cared extra to have her approval,” mentioned Maynard, who met Mackenzie in center faculty.
“Kenzie runs the present — she runs her mother and father,” the 21-year-old added. “They shouldn’t have been her good friend. They need to have been her mother and father.”
Russo additionally ripped Shirilla’s declare within the Netflix doc that she and Dominic might need been married by now, had the lethal crash by no means occurred.
“No, honey, you simply got here in for a few years…you’re delusional,” Russo mentioned. “They’d not have been collectively.”
Life with out Dominic, she added, has felt like “a nightmare.”
