A former inmate who served time with Mackenzie Shirilla at the Ohio Reformatory for Women claimed that she didn’t show “remorse” behind bars and wanted to “be like” the Mean Girls character Regina George.
Mary Katherine “Kat” Crowder shared claims about what Shirilla, 21, was really like in prison following the release of Netflix’s The Crash on Friday, May 15, which explored Shirilla’s crime. She is currently serving two concurrent life sentences after her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and their friend, Davion Flanagan, were both killed from the impact while she was driving her Toyota Camry in July 2022.
While speaking to NewsNation on Wednesday, May 20, Crowder, 27, admitted her conversations with Shirilla were “limited.” However, Shirilla did leave a lasting impression on Crowder during the six months they overlapped in prison.
“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 recalled. “It was never this dark, smug, tough girl act that was in this video trying to portray some sort of remorse.”
Real Housewives of Potomac’s Karen Huger Sentenced to Jail in DUI Case
In the documentary, Shirilla expressed her regrets over killing Russo, 20, and Flanagan, 19. However, Crowder said that from her “observations, there was never any, you know, behaviors that looked like somebody who was remorseful.”
Crowder went on to claim that she believed Shirilla wanted to be like the queen bee Mean Girls character in the 2004 film.
“I do say that she wanted to be like Regina George,” she said. “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.”
In July 2022, Shirilla was driving home in the early morning hours with Russo seated next to her in the front passenger seat and Flanagan in the back seat. Investigators later discovered that she accelerated up to 100 mph, not once pressing the brake, when she crashed into a brick building in Strongsville, Ohio. Shirilla went to trial in 2023 and was convicted of 12 felony charges, which included murder, felonious assault and aggravated vehicular homicide.
While speaking from prison in The Crash, she speculated that her diagnosed medical condition, particularly postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), caused the car crash.
However, Crowder also cast suspicion on the theory while speaking to The New York Post. “Never one time did I ever see Mackenzie Shirilla go for a blood pressure check, take any type of medication or go to sick call, ever experience dizziness,” she said, alluding that Shirilla didn’t have major health problems. “In fact, Mackenzie Shirilla would go out in 100-degree heatwaves with baby oil on her and sit in the prison yard and tan … the girl does not have any medical issues.”
Gizelle Bryant, Andy Cohen Texted ‘All Day Long’ About Karen Huger DUI Case
In addition to speaking to the outlets about her time with Shirilla, Crowder has also shared several TikTok videos about her time in prison.
In one clip, Crowder claimed that Shirilla “has had multiple girlfriends” while behind bars. “She was walking around with hickies on her neck,” she alleged. “She’s gone to ‘the hole’ [solitary confinement] for being intimate with girls in prison.”
Shirilla’s attorney did not immediately respond to Us Weekly’s request for comment regarding Crowder’s claims.
