Steve Shirilla said it “makes no sense” that his daughter’s friend was in the vehicle during the July 2022 car crash if she wanted to kill her boyfriend

Mackenzie Shirilla, Steve Shirilla in The Crash

(L-R) Mackenzie Shirilla, Steve Shirilla in ‘The Crash’.Credit : Netflix (2)

Steve Shirilla, the father of Mackenzie Shirilla, who killed her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and their friend Davion Flanagan after she slammed her car into a brick wall in July 2022, continues to state that the incident was not intentional.

Mackenzie was convicted of all 12 charges she faced in connection with the 20-year-old and 19-year-old’s deaths, including murder, aggravated vehicular homicide, felonious assault and drug possession in August 2023. She was sentenced to two concurrent 15-year-to-life terms.

Throughout Mackenzie’s trial, her dad Steve and mom Natalie maintained that their daughter passed out from a medical emergency and didn’t intentionally crash the car.

Mackenzie Shirilla.

Mackenzie Shirilla.Strongsville Police Department

In an interview with True Crime This Week that premiered on Wednesday, May 27, Steve further claimed that it “makes no sense” that Mackenzie would have purposely killed Russo with Flanagan in the car.

“I’ve asked her, ‘Did you do this on purpose?’ And she goes, ‘No,’ ” claimed Steve. “And I would think if my daughter was that mad, that mad at that boy to want to kill him that way, Davion would have never been in the car. This makes no sense.”

Prosecutors argued during trial that evidence — including black box data, surveillance footage and social media videos — points to intent to end her “toxic relationship” with Russo rather than it being an accident.

Steve, however, claimed that his daughter had “remorse” immediately after the accident.

“That’s another thing that’s huge,” he said. “I sat with my daughter for three months in that room right there. Three months watching her watch every video, every song, every picture about that boy.”

Dominic Russo and MacKenzie Shirilla.

Dominic Russo and MacKenzie Shirilla.Mackenzie Shirilla/Facebook

“There was a shrine to him in that room — shrine. [She] cried herself to sleep every night,” Steve said. “I know the trolls are going to go, ‘Good. ‘ She should cry herself to sleep.’ She has remorse. She was upset. If you would have heard her when she found out that Dom died, if you would have heard the sound that came out of her, it would have crushed you. She was 17. She’s a dumb kid. She wasn’t breaking up. She didn’t do it on purpose.”

Mackenzie was arrested in November 2022, four months after the crash, and days after she was scrutinized for dressing up in horror-style outfits for Halloween with her friends.

Mackenzie also said she was remorseful in The Crash after speaking to her attorney on camera.

“I just wanna make sure that I’m big on the ‘no intent,’ ” she said. “There was no intent whatsoever there. I have excessive amounts of remorse for Dominic, for Davion, both of their families. This was not intentional, and I will do everything I can to prove that to the world and the families.”

Dominic Russo; Davion Flanagan.

(L-R) Dominic Russo; Davion Flanagan.Courtesy of Netflix; Jardine Funeral Home

Steve emphasized near the end of his interview on True Crime This Week that he loves his daughter and is “never going to stop fighting for her.”

“I believe she was falsely charged,” he said. “No one’s ever going to be able to convince me unless you can put the evidence in front of me.”

Following the release of The Crash, Steve was placed on administrative leave from his position as an art and digital media teacher at Mary Queen of Peace School in Cleveland, according to 19 News and WKYC.

The school emailed parents to let them know that a teacher had been placed on administrative leave following allegations of “poor judgment,” 19 News reported.