Mackenzie Shirilla Didn’t Show ‘Remorse’ in Jail, Claims Former Inmate: She ‘Wanted to Be Like Regina George’

NEED TO KNOW

• A woman who was previously in prison with Mackenzie Shirilla is speaking out about what she was like behind bars

• Kat Crowder, who spent six months in jail with Shirilla, told NewsNation, “From my observations, there was never any, you know, behaviors that looked like somebody who was remorseful”

• There is renewed interest in Shirilla’s case after the release of Netflix’s The Crash, which examines the July 2022 car crash that killed her boyfriend and friend while she was driving

Mackenzie Shirilla didn’t appear to show any “remorse” while living life behind bars toward the beginning of her sentence, a former fellow inmate has claimed.

Speaking to NewsNation on Wednesday, May 20, Kat Crowder, who spent six months in prison with Shirilla, insisted her “jaw dropped” when she first saw Shirilla in the Netflix documentary, The Crash.

Renewed interest in Shirilla’s case follows the release of Netflix documentary The Crash, which examines the July 2022 car crash that killed her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20, and friend Davion Flanagan, 19, while she was behind the wheel.

Mackenzie Shirilla
Credit: Strongsville Police Department

Crowder admitted that she and Shirilla — now 21 and currently housed at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville following her double-murder conviction — were not necessarily friends while behind bars together, telling NewsNation that their conversations were “limited.”

“When Mackenzie first walked out in the documentary, my jaw dropped because that was not the person that I saw in prison when I was with her. She walked around in a very light demeanor,” Crowder — who shared proof of her time behind bars at the Ohio Reformatory for Women alongside Shirilla on TikTok — told the outlet.

The content creator, who was sent to jail in April 2024, added of Shirilla, “It was never this dark, smug, tough girl act that was in this video trying to portray some sort of remorse … from my observations, there was never any, you know, behaviors that looked like somebody who was remorseful.”

Crowder, who has been open about her time in prison on TikTok, also said that she got the impression that Shirilla wanted to be like the Mean Girls character, Regina George.

“I do say that she wanted to be like Regina George. I mean, just the way that she did her makeup, the way that she, I mean, it was like she was going out to a club or something,” she told the network.

PEOPLE has contacted Crowder for comment.

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Shirilla is currently serving two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life in prison after being convicted of murder, vehicular homicide and other charges.

Prosecutors argued during her 2023 bench trial that she intentionally crashed her sedan into a brick wall in Strongsville, Ohio, at nearly 100 mph after her relationship with Russo had become strained. Although she was 17 at the time, she was tried as an adult. The judge in her case described her in court as “literal hell on wheels.”

Shirilla and her family have always maintained that she suffered a medical episode and that the crash was an accident. She will become eligible for parole in 2037.

Dominic Russo, Davion Flanagan
Credit: GoFundMe; Jardine Funeral Home

In a jail call obtained by PEOPLE, which was recorded while Shirilla was being held at the Cuyahoga County Jail following her conviction in the July 2022 crash, she could be heard telling her mother, Natalie Shirilla, that she did not believe she needed rehabilitation.

During the undated call, the mother and daughter discussed what prison life could look like after her conviction, including visitation, school programs and other resources available to inmates.

“I like how they try to make it, like, enjoyable there,” Shirilla told her mom. “Like, I don’t even like, I don’t want to enjoy life there, but, like, it’s just sad. Like, I don’t know.”

Natalie Shirilla on ‘The Crash’
Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

Her mother responded that prison was meant to be rehabilitative.

“See, that’s how jail is supposed to rehabilitate people, but I don’t need to be rehabilitated,” Shirilla responded. “Like I don’t know that.”

Natalie Shirilla went on to say that prisons are intended to help inmates rebuild their lives through education, work opportunities, mental health support and other programs ahead of their eventual return to society.

She told her daughter, “Not you, but people that have been convicted of crimes like actual criminals.”

The Crash, which features interviews with both Shirilla’s family and the victims’ loved ones, was released on Netflix on May 15.

Read the original article on People