By U.S. Crime Desk

The families of Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan expected remorse.

What they heard instead, in newly surfaced jailhouse phone calls, was a young woman speaking about prison as if the greatest tragedy ahead was not two lives lost, but the future she might lose herself.

Mackenzie Shirilla, the Ohio woman convicted of murdering Russo and Flanagan in a 2022 high-speed crash, is facing renewed backlash after PEOPLE obtained jail calls in which she discussed her life behind bars, her sentence, and whether she believed prison was meant to change her.

In one undated call recorded after her conviction, Shirilla told her mother she did not believe she needed rehabilitation. PEOPLE reported that the call took place while Shirilla was being held at the Cuyahoga County Jail after she was convicted in the fatal Strongsville crash.

That detail has become one of the most inflammatory moments in the renewed public debate around the case.

Because to the court, Shirilla was not simply a teenager trapped in a terrible accident. She was convicted of intentionally driving a Toyota Camry into a brick building in Strongsville, Ohio, at nearly 100 mph, killing her boyfriend Dominic Russo and their friend Davion Flanagan. Recent reporting notes that she is serving two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life.

For the families, the word “rehabilitation” cuts deeply.

Prison, in Shirilla’s view during that call, appeared to be for people who needed fixing. But the judge had already decided that two young men were dead because of her actions. That contrast is why the call has triggered such anger: it seemed to show Shirilla still separating herself from the kind of person the justice system was designed to punish, correct, or contain.

The renewed attention comes after Netflix released The Crash on May 15, 2026, featuring Shirilla’s first public prison interview about the case. In the documentary, she continues to deny that she intended to kill anyone, while the court’s ruling remains unchanged.

The calls have also revived criticism of how Shirilla spoke about herself after the crash.

In another jail call reported by PEOPLE, Shirilla referred to herself as the “third victim,” a phrase that sparked outrage because Russo and Flanagan died while she survived. That statement has become a flashpoint for those who believe Shirilla’s private words showed more self-pity than remorse.

To her supporters, the calls may sound like panic from a young woman confronting the possibility of decades in prison.

To the victims’ families, they may sound like something far colder: a convicted murderer grieving the life she would miss, while two families were grieving sons who would never get another birthday, another holiday, another ordinary day at home.

That is the emotional wound reopened by the newly surfaced audio.

The public had already heard the courtroom version of the case: the vehicle data, the speed, the lack of braking, the prosecution’s argument that the crash was deliberate, and Shirilla’s claim that she did not remember the final moments. But the jail calls offer something different. They show what she said when she was not standing before a judge, not facing cameras, and not delivering a carefully shaped public statement.

And what people heard has only intensified the backlash.

The legal outcome is already settled. Shirilla was convicted. She is serving 15 years to life and could become eligible for parole in 2037.

But the moral question remains the reason this case refuses to fade.

Did Mackenzie Shirilla understand the scale of what was taken?

Or did she understand only what prison would take from her?

For the families of Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan, that may be the line they cannot forget.

Because two young men lost their futures in the crash.

And in the calls now drawing national attention, Mackenzie Shirilla sounded haunted most by the future she might never live.