Just weeks before Dominic Russo’s tragic death, he attempted to break off his relationship with Mackenzie Shirilla through a text message.
On July 2, 2022, Russo allegedly texted, “Kenzie, you know I love you, but I don’t think we should be together right now. There isn’t much time on earth,” according to TMZ. He added, “I’d like to believe we could stop arguing, but it turns into a breakup fight every week. Neither of us deserves that.”
Russo expressed to his girlfriend of four years that they needed a break from each other.
“I don’t want you to think I’m abandoning you. I wish it could work, but I don’t believe it will, especially with the threats,” he explained. “We should just break up so we can both find happiness elsewhere.”
On July 31, the 20-year-old lost his life when Shirilla crashed her car into a brick wall at 100 mph, in what prosecutors determined was a deliberate act. Tragically, their friend, 19-year-old Davion Flanagan, also perished in the collision.
Mackenzie Shirilla Allegedly Threatens to “Kill Someone” in Text Message
The text exchanges leading up to the deadly incident revealed a tumultuous relationship, characterized by frequent arguments and threats of violence.
In January 2020, Shirilla—who is the subject of Netflix’s The Crash—became so upset with Russo after he didn’t give her a ride that she allegedly told him that she was “gonna kill someone,” adding “I’m mad as f–k rn [right now],” according to text messages obtained by People.
The heated exchange continued later that day after Russo didn’t give her a ride home from school.
“I F–KING HATE MYSELF IM UGLY AND YOU J[UST] ADD ON TO IT AND MAKE ME FEEL EVEN UGLYER,” she wrote, according to the outlet. “YOU MAKE ME FEEL LIKE IM WORTHLESS I DO SO MUCH S–T FOR YOU.”
Shirilla later texted Russo that she was at his house “breaking down” on his floor because she felt that she was trying to please him, but “it’s never enough.”
“I j[ust] want to bang my head on the wall till I’m dead,” she allegedly wrote at one point in the conversation, before adding that she thought he should “treat the girl who would die for you a little better.”
Mackenzie Shirilla, Dominic Russo Text Messages Reveal Threats, Alleged Violence
In another text exchange on Aug. 13, 2021, Russo alleged that Shirilla threatened to stab him in the eye after he said a joke she didn’t like.
“Maybe if u just had my back,” she allegedly replied, “u wouldn’t be threatened.”
Then on March 11, 2022, Russo accused Shirilla of getting physically violent.
“[You] didnt let me out the car,” he alleged in the messages obtained by People, “and then hit me and pulled the s–t out of my hair then tried to throw a rock at me and threaten to call the cops on me and key my car.”
When Shirilla asked him to stop texting her later that day, he allegedly told her that he couldn’t do that, “unless u show me that cops will never be involved, u wont try to ruin my life, key my car, or f–k up my house or somethin Or throw a rock at me.”
In response, she told him she only threw the rock because he took a video of her “freaking out.”
“If you didn’t take a video or a photo of me freaking out I would not have thrown the rock or anything,” she allegedly wrote. “I pulled your hair because you were trying to open my mothers car door and make it hit a f–king stop sign.”
Russo pointed to her temper in texts sent that day as one of the biggest issues in their relationship.
“If im being totally honest its your temper thats the main problem,” he wrote, per People. “u cant act on me hotheaded and then expect me not to react like if u controlled your temper we wouldnt be in any of this.”
In her reply, Shirilla admitted her anger issues did play a role in their problems.
“Obviously I have anger issues I’ve been working on in my whole entire life,” she allegedly wrote. “I need somebody that’s going to be there for me and D escalate my situation‘s when I’m going through a manic episode and you never do that you choose to escalate the situation all the time.”
Mackenzie Shirilla Accused Dominic Russo of Cheating
Three days later, Shirilla accused her boyfriend over text of being a cheater. When he apologized and claimed he was “changing,” she allegedly responded, “You are not sorry you are trying to manipulate me and lie to my face you know you do not care.”
She also described him as a “straight liar” and “pathological manipulator,” according to the text messages provided to the outlet by the Strongsville Police.
The text messages also revealed that the couple frequently talked about breaking up, with Russo writing in January 2022, “U cant go a day without threatening to breakup w me,” People reported.
In another text exchange shared in The Crash, Shirilla allegedly insisted on having her way.
“I told you it’s my way or the highway,” she allegedly wrote. “I would watch your back from now on. and your house. and your car. and your life. and any of your friends.”
Dominic replied, “Kenzie this isnt [sic] right and u know it.”
Dominic Russo, Davion Flanagan Killed in Fatal Car Crash
It all led to the fatal crash on July 31, 2022.
Though Shirilla insisted she had no memory of the crash and attributed the wreck to a medical emergency, prosecutors concluded that she had intentionally killed Russo and Flanagan after noting that the accelerator had been pressed “to its full extent,” according to a statement from the Cuyahuga County Office of the Prosecuting Attorney.
“I think Dominic and Davion were yanking on the wheel, grabbing at the gear shift, and it was just too late,” assistant prosecutor Tim Troup said in The Crash of their final moments. “One hundred percent gas pedal, no attempt at using the brake. The evidence all combines together to show this was not an accident.”
Shirilla was convicted in August 2023 of four counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault and two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide.
She is currently serving out a sentence of 15 years to life behind bars.
She still believes the wreck was caused by a medical emergency.
“I have no recollection of that morning. I’m not saying I’m innocent,” she said in the doc from prison. “I was a driver of a tragedy, but I’m not a murderer.”
