By U.S. Crime Desk

The courtroom had already heard the evidence.
The families had already described the loss.
And Mackenzie Shirilla, the young Ohio woman convicted of killing two people in a high-speed crash, was facing the moment that would define the rest of her life.

The question was no longer whether the crash happened.

It was whether the judge believed it was an accident, or an intentional act.

Shirilla was convicted in the deaths of her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20, and their friend Davion Flanagan, 19, after prosecutors argued she deliberately drove her Toyota Camry into a brick wall in Strongsville, Ohio, at nearly 100 mph in July 2022. Vehicle data presented at trial showed the accelerator was fully pressed and the brake was not used in the nearly five seconds before impact.

For the victims’ families, those seconds became the center of the case.

To them, this was not a teenage driving mistake. It was not a loss of control. It was not a medical blackout. It was a decision that left two young men dead and one driver alive.

Shirilla has maintained that she does not remember the moments before the crash and has claimed she may have blacked out because of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS. But according to PEOPLE, no medical records or expert testimony confirming that diagnosis were presented at trial.

That absence mattered.

The judge ultimately sided with prosecutors, concluding that the crash was intentional. Shirilla was tried as an adult and convicted of multiple charges, including murder. She was sentenced to two concurrent terms of 15 years to life in prison.

The final sentence did not satisfy everyone.

For the families of Russo and Flanagan, two lives were lost, yet the sentences will be served at the same time. That means Shirilla could be eligible for parole in 2037.

Recent renewed attention around the case has come from Netflix’s documentary The Crash, released on May 15, 2026, in which Shirilla speaks publicly from prison. In the documentary, she says she is “not a monster” and insists she did not intend to kill Russo or Flanagan. She also says, “I was a driver of a tragedy, but I’m not a murderer.”

But the court’s conclusion was already clear.

The judge did not accept the crash as a simple accident. Prosecutors said the relationship between Shirilla and Russo had deteriorated before the crash, and they argued that the timing, speed, and lack of braking showed intent.

A newly reported jail call has added another layer to public reaction. In the recording, obtained by PEOPLE, Shirilla spoke with her mother before sentencing and expressed fear that she might never leave prison, even worrying about the possibility of the death penalty or a very long life sentence.

That private fear contrasts sharply with the viral claim that Shirilla defiantly declared she would “not go to jail.” There is no verified court record showing that she made such a statement as a final challenge to the victims’ families.

What is confirmed is more severe.

She did go to prison.

She remains incarcerated.

And the judge’s conclusion turned the crash from a horrific collision into a murder case.

For the families of Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan, the sentence could never restore what was taken. For Shirilla, it means the earliest possible chance at release will not come until 2037.

The case still divides public opinion because Shirilla continues to deny murderous intent.

But the court’s answer was final:

This was not treated as a crash that simply happened.

It was treated as a choice.