Gypsy Rose Blanchard is weighing in on Mackenzie Shirilla, the Ohio woman who was convicted of intentionally crashing her car and killing two passengers when she was 17 years old.
“I don’t think she’ll get early parole,” Blanchard, 34, said of Shirilla, 21, on “The TMZ Podcast” on Thursday, May 28, explaining that Shirilla did not seem to show any remorse for her actions in Netflix’s recent documentary on the case, The Crash.
Shirilla is currently serving two concurrent life sentences, with the possibility of parole after 15 years, after she was convicted of murdering her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and their friend Davion Flanagan in July 2022.
Though Shirilla was found guilty in a 2023 bench trial, she has maintained her innocence, claiming the crash was accidental. Her legal team has filed two appeals, both of which were denied. Shirilla is eligible for parole in October 2037.
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Gypsy — who was released from prison in December 2023 after serving roughly eight out of 10 years for her involvement in the 2015 murder of her mom, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard, and has since completed her parole — explained that a parole board looks at inmates’ “behavior in prison” when assessing whether or not they should be released early.
“But most importantly, remorse,” she continued. “And family. So, if the victim’s family writes against her parole, she will automatically be denied. I’ve seen it happen time and time again with different women [who were] in my prison. They prioritize the victim’s family above everything.”
When asked whether Shirilla would be able to sway the parole board “if and when” she does show remorse, Gypsy responded, “It’s gonna take a lot of work on her part. She’s gonna have to do a lot of extensive therapy.”
Gypsy pointed out that Shirilla is “young” and that remorse probably would not “sink in” for several years.
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“But what’s going to happen is, she’s going to go in front of the parole board. They’re gonna keep setting her back in five-year increments. I think that needs to happen,” Gypsy continued. “The time that she’s in prison right now, she needs to grow up and take accountability. Remorse is something that maybe is not coming natural right now because maybe it’s something she hasn’t dealt with internally and emotionally.”
Gypsy concluded, “But it’s going to hit her like a train. And when that happens, she needs to take those steps to do what she needs to make amends with the victim’s family. It’s on them if they want to forgive her. They don’t have to forgive her by any means.”
