Mackenzie Shirilla's prison ex-girlfriend claims she received threatening texts after ending romance
The prison ex-girlfriend of double-murderer Mackenzie Shirilla claims she received threatening texts after their break-up.
Mackenzie was jailed in November 2022 after a judge ruled that she'd purposefully driven her 2018 Toyota Camry into the wall of a building at 100mph four months earlier, killing her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20, and their friend, Davion Flanagan, 19.
The 17-year-old driver - who was airlifted from the car and underwent several surgeries - told police she'd blacked out ahead of the fatal collision, insisting this was a side effect of her Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) diagnosis.
Despite this, after police gathered enough evidence to prove she'd acted with intent to kill, Mackenzie was charged with four murder charges, four felonious assault charges, two aggravated vehicular homicide charges, one drug possession charge and one possession of criminal tools charge.
Advert
Investigators had used footage of the crash, forensic evidence, family and friend testimonials and controversial social media posts shared by Mackenzie following the incident to get her conviction over the line.
They also referred to break-up texts sent by Dominic in the weeks prior, as well as aggressive messages sent to him by Mackenzie, as proof that the crash had been premeditated.
Judge Nancy Margaret Russo branded the teenager 'hell on wheels' as she sentenced her to two concurrent 15-to-life prison terms, with the possibility of parole in 15 years, which she is currently serving in Ohio Reformatory for Women.
Shyann Topping had been an inmate in the Ohio Reformatory when Mackenzie received her sentence.
"I walked up to her and said, 'You look good'," she told PEOPLE this week. "When it started off, we were good.
"We were just walking the track, she was smiling, because in prison —two weeks in prison feels like two months. All you're doing is seeing the same people every single day, 24 hours a day."
According to Topping, Mackenzie was locked in quickly. She'd reportedly ask her, 'Why aren't you touching me?', and tell her things like, 'I want you to be all over me', and 'I want you to be out here for everyone in the yard to see me'.
By Topping's own admission, it wasn't until after she learned of Mackenzie's crimes that she began to have doubts about their relationship.
Mackenzie had previously told her she was just another victim of a crooked judicial system and doubled down on the claim that she'd blacked out ahead of the crash and couldn't remember a thing.
Topping had been unaware of the court proceedings, having been behind bars when the gruesome collision unfolded.
"When I was in [prison], I honestly believed maybe she's not guilty because of the limited information I had," she confessed.
The revelation of Mackenzie's true nature came after Topping was released.
"It was crazy because after I found out [the details] of her case and we stopped talking to each other and it fizzled out, people started texting me and saying crazy stuff to me," she recalled.
Some messages, Topping claimed, would simply read her mother's name or her home address.
She believes many of them were sent by other inmates for Mackenzie, who'd had access to phones.
Topping, who'd been an active social media user, became terrified of her now-ex's threats and removed herself from the internet for several years.
It wasn't until the release of The Crash that she felt confident enough to speak out again.
The former convict claims she left jail ready to 'fight for [Mackenzie's] release', and had planned to be an 'advocate' for her cause.
"When I first got out [of prison] I was like, 'Oh, they don't know what this girl's been through'," she admitted. "And then I started going through everything and seeing the evidence, and I started thinking about her and I realised, 'Oh my God, maybe she's not a good person'."
Topics: Crime, True Crime, Netflix, Documentaries, US News
Rhianna Benson