Episode 274

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Speaker 14 Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.

Speaker 15 Freda, we got at least two occupants in here. No one's moving.

Speaker 15 Oh my God.

Speaker 14 Hello and welcome to season 11, episode 274 of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that the worst monsters are real.

Speaker 14 So when I started this podcast, I didn't realize I was actually starting a small business. Yikes.
There's nothing small about a small business. You're working all of the time.

Speaker 14 Thankfully, though, I have a partner with all the tools that I need to be successful. You may have heard of them.
Their name is Shopify.

Speaker 14 Shopify's point-of-sale system is a unified command center for your retail business. It brings together in-store and online operations across up to a thousand locations.

Speaker 14 Imagine being able to guarantee that shopping is always convenient. Endless aisle, ship to customer, buy online, pick up in store.

Speaker 14 All these things are made simpler to customers so they can shop how they want. And staff have all the tools to close the sale every time.

Speaker 14 And let's face it, acquiring new customers is expensive.

Speaker 14 With Shopify POS, you can keep shoppers coming back with personalized experiences and first-party data that give marketing teams a competitive edge. In fact, it's proven.

Speaker 14 Based on a report from EY, businesses on Shopify POS see real results, like 22% better total cost of ownership and benefits equivalent to an 8.9% uplift in sales.

Speaker 14 on average relative to the market set surveyed. So if you have a retail or online business, then I'll tell you what: Shopify is a fantastic partner to have on your side.

Speaker 14 Get all the big stuff for your small business right with Shopify. Sign up for your $1 a month trial and start selling today at shopify.com/slash sword and scale.
All one word.

Speaker 14 Just go to shopify.com/slash sword and scale and sign up. You'll thank me later.
You will shopify.com slash sword and scale.

Speaker 14 Have you ever been unfortunate enough to have seen HBO's show Euphoria?

Speaker 14 No?

Speaker 14 Good on you.

Speaker 16 Well,

Speaker 14 if you haven't, let me uh let me break it down for you, unfortunately. It's relevant.
It's relevant. Just follow along.
Trust me.

Speaker 14 Euphoria is a show about a bunch of American high schoolers and all the drama in their lives, which, you know, is always a lot. So plenty of material.

Speaker 14 The show dives into each teen's dirty laundry, let's say, connecting them together along the way to create a shocking representation of American teenage life in the 2020s.

Speaker 14 It's a show that seems to almost rely on shock value, in an age where it's difficult to shock most people, even if they're sitting on an electric chair.

Speaker 14 It's meant to be an over-dramatization, and viewers know that.

Speaker 14 What some people may not realize is that though it's shocking and hyperbolic, it seems to accurately represent many American teens these days.

Speaker 14 Just maybe the shockingly adult content in Euphoria is depicting reality.

Speaker 14 Art imitating life.

Speaker 14 And vice versa. But forget about the cast of Euphoria for a sec, because we're going to replace them with some real-life examples, real-life people.

Speaker 14 This case is much much more shocking and much more horrible than any story HBO could come up with.

Speaker 14 And it takes place in a little place called Strongsville, Ohio.

Speaker 14 It was the summer of 2022.

Speaker 14 The feeling of freedom and newfound maturity was still fresh in the minds of all the new graduates of Strongsville High School.

Speaker 14 Ohio tends to only have a few good months of really nice, warm weather out of the year, otherwise, it's just a miserable place.

Speaker 14 You know the feeling of those hot, muggy summer nights? Yeah, Ohio doesn't get too many of those. Not like Texas.

Speaker 14 During the very last weekend of July, the new graduates continued to take advantage of all the quote-unquote grad parties their friends had invited them to.

Speaker 14 In other words, they were going to your average house party. The kind where no parents are around, the kind of

Speaker 14 risky business type shenanigans occur. I don't know why that movie stuck out with me so much as a kid.
Probably because it was about dirty adult things.

Speaker 14 I don't know.

Speaker 14 For Paul, a new graduate, this weekend was the perfect time to host a party of his own.

Speaker 14 His parents were out of town, and though he says it wasn't a party per se, there were seven rowdy teens in the house all night with no supervision. That kind of sounds like a party to me.

Speaker 15 So it was already pretty late. I was pretty tired.
Most of us were pretty tired. Kind of didn't really want to hang out that night, but my parents weren't home, so we were going to anyway.

Speaker 15 And I had six people over, so in my opinion, that was not a party. There was no party activities going on because I don't have enough friends to throw a binger, I'm gonna be honest.
So at around 11,

Speaker 15 Rosie, Nina, and Landon

Speaker 15 show up together. They show up first because Rosie lives nearby, so she picked them up.
So they showed up. And then

Speaker 15 Kenzie, Dom, and Davion, They were late. They were late to come here.

Speaker 15 They came around midnight, maybe, somewhere around that time, because they were already at a grab party, but they were already there. They weren't there for long.
I don't know what they did there, but

Speaker 15 they weren't there for long.

Speaker 14 Here's Landon, one of the kids who arrived earlier in the night. He's talking about 19-year-old Davion Flanagan.

Speaker 15 a boy who arrived closer to midnight alongside the other two kids, 20-year-old Dominic russo and 17 year old mackenzie shrilla we weren't like the closest back in elementary i i were yeah we weren't the closest i'd say about middle school that's when we got really we got really close in middle school and then high school year he decided to join football so that brought us even closer I think what made us the closest was COVID.

Speaker 15 COVID made us really close.

Speaker 15 We would stay up all night, me, him, they would all stay up playing my

Speaker 15 warfare all the time and just talk about school and talk about football, all that stuff. That's where, I guess that's where we got really, really close at.

Speaker 15 And that's when we started hanging out every day. I started treating him like a brother to me.
He was one of my best friends.

Speaker 14 Landon was closer friends with Davion than the host of the party, Paul. Paul knew 17-year-old Kenzie the best.
She was the one that he had invited.

Speaker 14 But of course, she knew she was welcome to bring along her boyfriend, Dominic, and their friend, Davion, who lived with them at the time.

Speaker 15 So I started being, I started being actual friends with Kenzie a senior year because we both did homecoming court together.

Speaker 15 And I thought, if I was going to win Homecoming King, she'll win Queen with me.

Speaker 15 We didn't win, so Dominic.

Speaker 15 But yeah, she just made me, she like... made me actually confident in myself that year.
So yeah, that's when we kind of became friends.

Speaker 15 I was never really really friends with Dom, but like she could bring her boyfriend anywhere. I don't mind.
And then Davion, you probably know this. Davion lived with them, so they could bring Daviona.

Speaker 15 Everyone loves Davion.

Speaker 15 Like, whenever he walked in the room, no matter if he was down or not, he was making you smile. He was, you loved the kid to death.

Speaker 14 19-year-old Davion Flanagan was popular and well-liked. At home, though, he was starting to have some issues.

Speaker 14 He and his sisters were adopted by the Flanagan family when they were young kids, and as teenagers tend to do when they reach a certain age, Davion started to butt heads with his parents.

Speaker 15 So he came to me one day and he was asking me, I was like, hey, could I stay at your house for a week? And I was like, yeah, like, no problem. I got a whole extra room for you.
Don't worry about it.

Speaker 15 And when he came,

Speaker 15 he stayed there, ended up saying he ended up signing it was going to be a lot more long term. And

Speaker 15 I knew he got kicked out

Speaker 15 we would always be out we'd always go out I mean somebody would take my mom's car I got caught for doing that one time but we would take my mom's car and they would take my car my dad's car we'd go out and we'd just drive and just talk talk about life talk about his struggles talk about my struggles he was he was a very very very mentally mentally down person he was down mentally bad like he everything in his life he thought he was going against him he he just he felt like that nobody was there for him like he had no like no one had his back a lot of the time.

Speaker 15 So he knew that I had his back forever. He knew we'd always have his back.

Speaker 15 But he just felt like, I can't remember what he would say about it, but

Speaker 15 him being a domestic party, it was a big factor in it. He felt like he just didn't belong in the house.

Speaker 15 I know that Dom knows Davion. They know each other through parties like that.
Kenzie and Davion have always been close. They know each other.
I know they've known each other since middle school.

Speaker 15 I knew before, right before I found out they were living together, i knew that they were kind of hanging out they were kind of talking together because another reason why they were cool is dom had a studio in his house dom liked to make music and davion loved freestyle davion loved making music that was his dream was to be a rapper and so davion would always go over to dom's house to record in the studio i know proctor has a studio so they had all like not like a studio like proctor doesn't have a full studio he just has like a little mic on a computer and stuff but dom actually has like a whole room with a microphone and like stuff on the walls to keep the sound in has all like the special programming and stuff?

Speaker 15 And so I knew they got really close off of that, like trying to make music together and stuff like that.

Speaker 15 So

Speaker 15 I think ultimately that's how Davion ended up staying at Doms because Davion knew he would go over there and be able to use the studio whenever he wanted to and just be cool with Dom.

Speaker 14 20-year-old Dominic Russo was a quote-unquote businessman and rapper. I don't know what the fuck that means, but that's what he was.

Speaker 14 While his girlfriend, 17-year-old Mackenzie Shrilla, worked long, hard hours as a stay-at-home girlfriend when she wasn't posting content to further her Instagram modeling career.

Speaker 14 So really just a solid pair of entrepreneurs here.

Speaker 15 They got at my house at around midnight. We chilled there for a while.
And then

Speaker 15 around like 1 a.m., I kind of was calling, I wanted to call it a night because my car broke down. Wasn't having much of a good night, obviously.

Speaker 15 And right before I went to sleep, Kenzie said, you should go to sleep because I'm probably going to go to sleep too. So I was like, okay, that's not that bad.
So then I go upstairs at around 1.

Speaker 15 They're still up and they're still watching. I remember hearing South Park playing really loudly.
And then

Speaker 15 I went downstairs again at

Speaker 15 2, 3 a.m. to peek, sometime like that.
And

Speaker 15 I saw Kenzie asleep asleep on my couch in my front room. I remember walking in, and that man was cuddling her.
She was sleeping, her head was on his lap.

Speaker 15 She was wrapped up in this big, fuzzy green band blanket on the front couch in the front room. It's a big L-shaped couch because I was sitting in the corner, and Dave was sitting down by my legs.

Speaker 15 Kenzie was sitting here, and then Dom was sitting at the end here. And so she ended up sprawling out, and he was sitting there cuddling her head, petting her head, making sure she was sleeping good.

Speaker 15 Like,

Speaker 15 me and him were laughing all night. We, I know, um,

Speaker 15 Paul, he wasn't around all night. He was upstairs.
He wasn't even around all night. He, me, and Davion were in the front room watching

Speaker 15 it. It was a great white documentary about great white sharks in the front room.
I know back in the back, all the girls were back there.

Speaker 15 I think they were watching high school musical or something like that. Because they were all screaming, laughing.
But me and Davion were up there.

Speaker 15 I remember Kenzie got mad at me because I ate all of her popcorn. She walked away and ate all of her popcorn.

Speaker 14 The teens smoked weed and apparently discussed doing shrooms that night, but decided against it. Everyone seemed to be having a good time.

Speaker 14 Eventually, people started to fall asleep, and when Kenzie, Dominic, and Davion awoke early in the morning, they gathered their things and left.

Speaker 15 Kenzie and Dom walked out together. Dom grabbed all of her bags for her, and Dom came and dabbed me up.

Speaker 15 Kenzie was like, hey, say bye to everyone, because Rosie and Nina and them were sleeping in the back room. I was up in the front room still.
And she was like, Hey, say bye to everyone for us.

Speaker 15 And we're like, Okay, we will. And that's when Rosie came walking up, gave Kenzie a hug, gave Dom a hug, and was like, Bye.
Like, they, I know they're. Why should they leave so early?

Speaker 15 They usually do that. Like, that's like a common thing with everyone.
Like, I mean, how many times have we had people over our house? Like, it's just a common thing with us younger teenagers.

Speaker 15 I guess it's like as soon as you get up, it's like you're gone. Like, you were just leaving like 5:30 in the morning.
Yeah, I gotta go to work at 5 o'clock in the morning. Really?

Speaker 15 The room, couch is cleared. I'm like, they got up.
Wow.

Speaker 15 It's like, like, we'll end up asleep, and then like, as soon as you wake up in that early morning, it's I'll move back to my bed.

Speaker 15 So that is, that is common.

Speaker 14 One thing struck Landon as odd. As the trio left, Davion said something not quite out of character for him, but something he didn't say very often.

Speaker 15 It didn't seem like there was anything wrong with him, nothing crazy. The only thing that really got me was when he left.
He left, he was like, I love you. And I was like, I love you too.

Speaker 15 And that was the first time he said that to me since he lived with me. So that's what, like, that's what kind of threw me off.
I was like, all right, I love you too. You know what I mean?

Speaker 15 Like, come here, come up. We gave, I give him a hug, and he walked out the door.

Speaker 14 They got into McKenzie's black Toyota Camry and headed home. It wasn't 10 minutes after the trio left Paul's house that tragedy struck.
And it hit them with a swift vengeance.

Speaker 14 It was just after 5:30 in the morning. They drove for only a few minutes and found themselves on Progress Drive.
And at the end of that road was a building called Plidco,

Speaker 14 P-L-I-D-C-O.

Speaker 14 It's a piping company. Instead of turning either right or left onto the road that paralleled the Plidco building, the Camry went straight.

Speaker 14 barreling through the company's large sign and into the corner of the massive brick structure. Davion was on his phone responding to a Snapchat just moments before impact.

Speaker 14 The three kids sat there in the mangled car until the sun came up. With the help of the morning light, someone noticed the partially hidden wreck.

Speaker 18 yes are you familiar where uh progress

Speaker 19 coincides with albion road there in strongville yep yeah just across the street from frost from progress the building there's a car that smashed up against a building

Speaker 19 i didn't go up to it because i was on my motorcycle i don't know if i get sucked but they ran the curb i can see the

Speaker 19 they smashed the sign and hit the building the cars crashed did you tell someone was in it?

Speaker 19 I didn't go up to it. I was on my motorcycle.

Speaker 18 How long ago was this?

Speaker 19 Uh, two minutes.

Speaker 15 Radio.

Speaker 15 This car is split in two.

Speaker 15 Radio, there's an occupant inside. Send us a squad now.

Speaker 15 We gotta bust the window out.

Speaker 15 Send us some more units.

Speaker 20 Any more units to try right now, Nita?

Speaker 15 No!

Speaker 15 16 on the west foot, I'm gonna 3 on Alamita.

Speaker 15 This is not a fresh accident either. She's been here for a while.

Speaker 15 Radio, we got at least two occupants in here. No one's moving.

Speaker 15 Oh my god.

Speaker 15 Oh my god. Times three, guys.

Speaker 15 Radio, three occupants.

Speaker 15 No one's conscious.

Speaker 15 No one's breathing.

Speaker 15 Oh my god, dude.

Speaker 15 Who can hear my voice?

Speaker 15 Drivers

Speaker 15 radio. The driver

Speaker 15 is breathing unconscious.

Speaker 15 Radio, they're gonna need full extraction on all three.

Speaker 15 Come here, follow the plate.

Speaker 15 Let him call it in.

Speaker 15 Holy shit, man.

Speaker 15 Not good, not good.

Speaker 15 Let me see uh let me see your knife cut this thing out

Speaker 15 This is bad guys

Speaker 15 We she's alive. We got to get her out somehow.

Speaker 15 Oh my god

Speaker 15 Oh my god Sarge we're good to try to get her out

Speaker 15 Oh dude, I don't know if we can

Speaker 15 she's breathing. She's breathing.
her head's wedged

Speaker 15 Let's see if we can get some IDs guys

Speaker 15 I don't feel anything

Speaker 15 She's breathing I saw her stomach her stomach's splitting

Speaker 15 We got two that are gone

Speaker 15 What about

Speaker 15 some more for reconstructionists?

Speaker 15 Yeah, we're gonna have that

Speaker 15 Holy smokes It's the last thing you expect to see.

Speaker 15 Came.

Speaker 15 How do you find a track, guys? Come through here, up the roadway, behind your car.

Speaker 21 I have a 17-year-old female Mackenzie.

Speaker 15 Come through the sign.

Speaker 15 Okay, that might be the driver.

Speaker 15 She's talking? Yeah.

Speaker 15 Device of Radio.

Speaker 15 She's talking a a little bit. Advise fire to step it up.

Speaker 15 Driver, 17-year-old female, still breathing, wedged in there. Two are going to be deal with.

Speaker 15 They're all young.

Speaker 15 Possibly teenagers.

Speaker 15 Oh, Jesus Christ.

Speaker 15 Life flight. Life flight has to come.
We'll help set up a perimeter for it, right? They'll guide us.

Speaker 15 Come here and hold the phone. Hold it open.
We want the driver out. She's still breathing, fellas.

Speaker 15 It's the last thing I thought we'd be pulling up to, man.

Speaker 15 This is the worst crash I've ever seen. I'm not a bunch of whoppers.

Speaker 14 Mackenzie was barely conscious, slumped over to her right because of the extensive damage to the car.

Speaker 14 The dashboard was crunched up and was trapping her.

Speaker 14 They didn't have identification for the other two just yet, but they did know that they'd need the help of the fire department and the jaws of life to remove all three from the crumpled hunk of metal.

Speaker 15 Did you try to pocket to them?

Speaker 15 No, I didn't force the police to get them.

Speaker 15 Okay.

Speaker 15 Jesus Christ. That's the worst I've ever seen.

Speaker 15 There's nothing we can do right now, guys, other than hope fire hurries up.

Speaker 15 I don't think the uh

Speaker 15 no, they're gone. They're breathing out of the ears right

Speaker 14 in case you couldn't understand that the officer whose body cam footage we're listening to said they're bleeding out of the ears before another officer replied the driver has a chance

Speaker 14 just a few minutes later fire trucks arrived with their hydraulic rescue equipment and they got to work right away

Speaker 15 What's your name, dear?

Speaker 15 Mackenzie. Okay, that's our driver.

Speaker 15 She said one of her friends, his name is Don.

Speaker 15 I don't know which one it was.

Speaker 15 Doc Donald's.

Speaker 15 Don't tell her.

Speaker 15 I need to get IDs. We need to get IDs on all of these people.

Speaker 15 Any wallet on him, fellas? Yes, let's get him right pocket. I'm gonna grab it.

Speaker 15 Unless you guys want to grab it.

Speaker 21 Heavy 19-year-old male ball in this.

Speaker 15 This is Davion Flanagan, I'm assuming. This is him.
Go over, man.

Speaker 15 Put his ID on top of him.

Speaker 14 Dominic, who had been in the front passenger seat, passed away on impact.

Speaker 14 The right side of the car took most of the damage. Davion, who was originally sitting in the back seat, was found partially on the lap of Dominic.

Speaker 14 The Camry sat in a grassy area right next to the building they had sideswiped.

Speaker 15 How did it get split in half from hitting the building here?

Speaker 15 It looks like this is where it's split.

Speaker 15 And to be honest with you, when you're coming there, you can barely see it from the sign.

Speaker 15 You can't barely see it.

Speaker 15 And how the person just called and kept going, I'll never know. You know what I mean? Like, oh, that car looks really bad.

Speaker 15 Life flight's here and thinks he's here for her.

Speaker 14 It was still early in the morning, just after six.

Speaker 14 As Alameda Drive descended into organized chaos, Paul and his friends were still sleeping off the party.

Speaker 14 Mackenzie, Dominic, and Davion's parents were all asleep in their beds, too, blissfully unaware of the terrible news they were about to receive.

Speaker 14 So when I started this podcast, I didn't realize I was actually starting a small business. Yikes.
There's nothing small about a small business. You're working all of the time.

Speaker 14 Thankfully though, I have a partner with all the tools that I need to be successful. You may have heard of them.
Their name is Shopify.

Speaker 14 Shopify's point of sale system is a unified command center for your retail business. It brings together in-store and online operations across up to a thousand locations.

Speaker 14 Imagine being able to guarantee that shopping is always convenient. Endless aisle, ship to customer, buy online, pick up in store.

Speaker 14 All these things are made simpler to customers so they can shop how they want. and staff have all the tools to close the sale every time.

Speaker 14 And let's face it, acquiring new customers is expensive.

Speaker 14 With Shopify POS, you can keep shoppers coming back with personalized experiences and first-party data that give marketing teams a competitive edge. In fact, it's proven.

Speaker 14 Based on a report from EY, businesses on Shopify POS see real results, like 22% better total cost of ownership and benefits equivalent to an 8.9% uplift in sales on average relative to the market set surveyed.

Speaker 14 So if you have a retail or online business, then I'll tell you what, Shopify is a fantastic partner to have on your side. Get all the big stuff for your small business right with Shopify.

Speaker 14 Sign up for your $1 a month trial and start selling today at shopify.com/slash sword and scale. All one word.
Just go to shopify.com slash swordandscale and sign up. You'll thank me later.
You will.

Speaker 14 Shopify.com slash sword and scale.

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Speaker 14 Early in the morning of July 31st, 2022, 17-year-old Mackenzie Schrilla, her boyfriend 20-year-old Dominic Russo,

Speaker 14 and their friend 19-year-old Davion Flanagan headed home from a party.

Speaker 14 It was a short drive, and they didn't make it very far before Plutco Piping Company's surveillance cameras caught footage of their vehicle barreling into their company sign and into the building itself.

Speaker 14 While paramedics waited with Mackenzie and the ambulance for a life flight helicopter to land, another deputy called the coroner.

Speaker 14 After making a call and reporting the two fatalities, the officer told the paramedics not to say anything to McKenzie about the status of her friends.

Speaker 15 We got a call about a car into a building. When we got here, the car was split in half and three people were trapped inside

Speaker 15 he put this back in his wallet sorry guys

Speaker 15 two

Speaker 15 two are gone one is being life-blighted as we speak

Speaker 15 this is this is gonna be just a nightmare of a day for this whole department

Speaker 14 mckenzie was transported to the hospital and The families of all three kids were notified about the accident.

Speaker 14 Soon, the news spread to the rest of the town, including all of Mackenzie's classmates.

Speaker 14 Several things then happened in relatively quick succession. The crash scene and the car itself were both investigated.

Speaker 14 Police found evidence on Dominic's cell phone, and some students came forward with evidence of their own from an app called Life360.

Speaker 14 For those of you who have not heard of it, It's a family location sharing app. It's kind of like the Find My phone app on your iPhone.
But it's actually much more precise.

Speaker 14 It sends out a notification to your inner circle in case you need help or if your phone detects you've been in a car crash.

Speaker 14 Davion had this app on his phone and the friends in his circle sent photos of the data to police.

Speaker 15 I don't know if you got like good screenshots of the Life 360. Yeah, we have those.

Speaker 15 I guess.

Speaker 15 stations.

Speaker 15 But if you zoom in, like they were driving perfectly fine from Paul's house to the scene.

Speaker 15 So if you zoom in, zoom in, and like I can put this on like satellite auto, you can see them.

Speaker 15 So if they're on the road, right? They're just driving casually.

Speaker 15 And then it's like normal. Like you're just driving normal.
And then you will start to see them swerving this way onto the grass.

Speaker 15 And then now they're on the wrong side of the road. So if you're on the wrong side of the road, your first instinct is, let's get on the right side of the road.

Speaker 15 They're not, though. They stay on the wrong side of the road.
So it kind of looks like road rage to me. And if you go down this road, it's bumpy.

Speaker 15 Like it's not, like, you're going 25, it's still bumpy.

Speaker 15 They go over this curb, and they're on the curb, they get off the curb, they get started to straighten up, they're going better, and now they get on the grass.

Speaker 15 They go over this whole overpass on the grass even deeper,

Speaker 15 Get off the grass, on the curb,

Speaker 15 still driving, on the curb, on the grass again, on the grass, stop signs right there, over here.

Speaker 15 And to me, right here, if you looked at the tracks, and you guys probably have pictures of them, it looks like the person in the front seat tried to turn the wheel because of the fact they were going to go straight into a wall.

Speaker 15 So what?

Speaker 15 And it doesn't say she heartbroke once. It was 90 miles per hour down that whole road.
The only time she heart broke off of Life 360 is when the collision happened to the wall.

Speaker 15 What?

Speaker 15 I mean, what do you guys think happened?

Speaker 15 I think that, I don't know if they're arguing or if it was just carelessness. It might have just been she was going fast.
She could have tried. She was probably just being careless.

Speaker 15 I mean, I know she had some like big, I don't know if it was on her car, but I've seen like on her Snapchat store, some like big ass, like fuzzy steering wheel cover.

Speaker 15 And who knows if she just tried to like whip it around the turn, going super fast and it just didn't turn.

Speaker 15 But it probably, like, I assume it was just a careless mistake, and it was just a preventable thing.

Speaker 15 I mean, I think that obviously the drug report's going to come back positive because they all smoke weed, so she was she was just known for being that kind of girl in high school and as well out of high school.

Speaker 15 And her issues, yeah, they called her baby cushion, yeah. I want to say that just because she smokes so much.
She smokes weed, and there's pictures on her Instagram, but I'm sure she took it down now.

Speaker 15 Yeah, certain cars smoking weed.

Speaker 15 So we were thinking from that standpoint. I also think that if they were on psychedelics and they took a nap, that can also still be a factor because psychedelics is roughly six to twelve hours.

Speaker 15 And I also think because of Kenzie's and Dominic's history that they were fighting, because if Davion was on his phone at 5:35 before he died, not even like 30 seconds, why would he be responding about a view and not helping the car get back on track?

Speaker 15 Because if you knew something was up,

Speaker 15 I think Davion went on his phone to distract himself from the fighting. Although they were on drugs, they can also still be fighting with being on drugs.

Speaker 15 I don't know if they're like fighting. No one will probably ever know if they're fighting or not.

Speaker 15 But

Speaker 15 it could have just been like careless mistakes. I don't think Kenzie, even if she was at rogue rage, if she was arguing, I don't think her intention was to kill two people no matter what.

Speaker 15 So, I mean, I don't know. No, she tried to kill her boyfriend or Davion, but I think she was rogue raging down the road.
100%.

Speaker 15 When I finally passed away, I called my friend EJ, freaking out, and I drove, sped up to EJ's house, and I was talking to him. And EJ's like, that's our football group.

Speaker 15 Like, that's like a Damion's football group. And so, like, all those football dudes ended me and EJ's house were talking.

Speaker 15 So, then I went back to Paula's house because that's where Rose, you know, all of them were at. And I was talking to them.
Then, as I was, I went to drop my mom's car back off there.

Speaker 15 I picked up my truck and I stopped at the memorial where they crashed at.

Speaker 15 And as soon as I got there, that's when Proctor is saying, like, Proctor, Joey, a bunch of these kids are saying, oh, they're fighting. Kenzie's crazy.
Kenzie puts voodoo on him.

Speaker 15 They're fighting all the time. They're fighting.
I'm like, they weren't fighting.

Speaker 15 I don't know. Y'all just got this out of thin air.
Like, they were not fighting. I can promise you that they weren't fighting.
Okay.

Speaker 14 Police officers recovered weed, a scale, and some shrooms in the car.

Speaker 14 And there were rumors swirling that kids planned to take acid on the night of Paul's house party, but no mention of shrooms.

Speaker 14 The other partygoers had confirmed that they'd be smoking weed, as per usual.

Speaker 14 They even sent texts to Dominic and McKenzie about the amounts each person wanted.

Speaker 14 These two had quite the reputation for being, as Paul later put it, evil Cosmo and Wanda.

Speaker 15 The eve of the crash at 10.28 p.m.

Speaker 15 She says

Speaker 15 she receives a text from one of the people at the party saying, so we want $40 worth of butt, and Baba wants three, and I want two and a half, Nina wants one and a half, Paul wants two and a half.

Speaker 15 So we're talking about marijuana here, okay?

Speaker 15 But if we go back earlier, okay,

Speaker 15 she talks about

Speaker 15 grams.

Speaker 15 Bring enough shrooms for all of us. He's gonna take under a gram.

Speaker 15 A gram of what? Yeah, we discussed that if we were going to do shrooms, but we did not end up doing them. Do you know if after you went to bed, they did acid shrooms? I do know.

Speaker 15 I don't know in that scary. Okay.
And like I said, my concern, it's not accusing you of anything. It's just, well, did they do something and then they got on the road?

Speaker 15 Because as you've already heard, you're on social media, right? Yeah.

Speaker 15 Okay, on the the app that Tyler and some of Davion's friends have shared with the families and with the public, we have her going 90.

Speaker 15 She might tell you stuff about her,

Speaker 15 maybe her relationship with Dom, maybe some of her struggles. And we're not trying to expose her secrets, but in that car that day, there were three people.
Two are dead who can't tell us.

Speaker 15 And so we... And she's not talking to us, right? Her lawyer is not going to let her talk to the police.
Fifth Amendment, that's your constitutional You don't have to talk to the police.

Speaker 15 So she's not breaking the law by not talking. She's actually protecting herself.
And so we have to piece everything together based on what the friends are saying.

Speaker 15 How many times have you talked to Kenza since the accident?

Speaker 15 I only got to see her once. You got to see her once? Yeah.

Speaker 15 What was she like?

Speaker 15 Not happy.

Speaker 15 In the hospital, but

Speaker 15 I mean, my

Speaker 15 takeaway from having visited her twice was she didn't seem to care too much that she killed her boyfriend, another guy.

Speaker 15 Did she have the same feelings? When I walked in, she was broken. She was absolutely devastated and she wouldn't shut up about that.
Like she would only talk about that.

Speaker 15 So that really concerns me that she would be very different.

Speaker 15 And it could have been that we were law enforcement. You're her friend.
So she, you know, she was kind of nervous to talk to us or, you know,

Speaker 15 so that makes sense.

Speaker 14 Except it didn't make sense.

Speaker 14 Once police had enough pieces of the puzzle to see the bigger picture, they were beginning to think that they were dealing with an out-of-control teen who had no sense of accountability or remorse, and not someone whose vehicle innocently malfunctioned.

Speaker 14 The officers talked about their own experience with McKenzie. and how it conflicted so much with Paul's experience.

Speaker 14 And we can only assume this is one of the occasions those officers are talking about.

Speaker 15 So, by law, I have to give you, this is your phone. So, here's back to you.
Thank you so much. Okay.

Speaker 15 Now, this is a search warrant.

Speaker 15 The judge, Tyoga County, Judge Russo, signed it. Can we pause for a minute?

Speaker 23 You had search activity and you downloaded the data. Everything now, nobody's looking at it.

Speaker 15 Nobody's looking, but we mirrored the phone. We're going to look through the phone.
Right, but everything she does now. No, now she's on her own.
Okay,

Speaker 15 all we care about is pre.

Speaker 15 Right now, I'm not concerned what she does, she's she's free to do whatever she wants. But by law, this is the receipt of what we did, which is a download of the data, and this is the search warrant.

Speaker 15 Now, the search warrant lists the crime we're investigating as an aggravated vehicular homicide times two, okay?

Speaker 15 Because two people were killed in a car price. It does not mean

Speaker 15 I'm gonna make this very clear, We're not charging you with aggravated vehicular homicide.

Speaker 15 So, right now, I'm not going to interview her. She's obviously not in a good place to be interviewed.
She has an attorney. Once she's released, I gave you my contact info.

Speaker 15 Have your lawyer give me a call or give me your contact, your lawyer's contact info, and then I'll call him. And if he wants her to cooperate, that's his decision.

Speaker 15 If he doesn't want her to cooperate, that's his decision. I do want you to know that a lot of people are coming to us and reporting things.
And so usually,

Speaker 15 usually the most accurate information we're going to get is from her. So whether or not she chooses to cooperate on advice of counsel, that's up to her.
I'm not going to coerce her.

Speaker 15 What are people coming in and saying? I cannot tell you that. That's the investigation.
It doesn't matter if it has nothing to do with the crash. Well,

Speaker 15 we don't know. We have to put everything together.
But this is a copy of the search warrant with the affidavit and everything that the judge looked at.

Speaker 15 Okay? I'm going to take my paperwork back. Do you have any questions for me at this point?

Speaker 15 I have one. Were they able to pull video? I know you off the building across the street.

Speaker 15 Again, I cannot comment on the investigation, but

Speaker 15 we have some evidence for the.

Speaker 23 Are you going through my snapchat to like opening stuff?

Speaker 15 We did not. We just mirrored your phone.

Speaker 23 I see like two of like three of them open.

Speaker 15 We did not. But either way, even if we did, we have a a search warrant.
So

Speaker 15 we're gonna look at the car tomorrow. We're gonna download the black box from the car so we know if there was any type of error.
We're gonna have OSP, they're sending a reconstruction

Speaker 15 trooper to look at it and download the material. We also got a search warrant for that as well.
This is a very difficult situation, and you can put this on the record.

Speaker 15 I am not here to try to interview your daughter and get some incriminating information. I'm not.

Speaker 15 At this point, we are investigating.

Speaker 15 I am, I want to protect her constitutional rights, so it's very, very important that your lawyer gets in contact with me or I get in contact with him so we can say, hey, sir, are you going to let her cooperate?

Speaker 15 If he says, we're not saying anything, then we have to build our case based on everything else.

Speaker 23 I really know if anybody's pressing charges.

Speaker 15 If anybody presses charges, it's the county. It's not the families.

Speaker 23 Can I say something to her room? Yes.

Speaker 15 I do have a lawyer talk to her.

Speaker 15 My daughter was living with Dom

Speaker 15 at his house. Well, basically,

Speaker 15 most of her time there. I believe her purse is already in the middle of the purse.
So is

Speaker 15 Davion. Her purse is with us.
Yeah. Is it what's your purse?

Speaker 24 It's Christian Dior.

Speaker 15 Okay, not the Michael Kors.

Speaker 14 If If you were really confused just now, and not sure if you're hearing English at the end there, that's because Mackenzie turned to her mother to speak some variation of pig Latin before asking the officer if she could just, you know, have her license revoked for 10 years or something.

Speaker 14 But just wait. It gets worse.

Speaker 15 We got sent to this call. Here's what we find out.
Here's, you know, the evidence we have. Whether it's for her or against her, we just give them everything.

Speaker 15 Everything that I have, every piece of paper that I write on, he will get all of it. I'll see my notes, my reports, all the other officers' reports, body cams, everything.
Okay.

Speaker 15 And then they count it.

Speaker 23 They had body cameras on when they.

Speaker 15 Oh, every single officer's wearing a body camera. Please see it.
Oh, no. Not at this point.

Speaker 23 Why can't I see it?

Speaker 15 Not right now. Because it's not going to be proven.
Right now, this is all evidence.

Speaker 15 Everything's evidence, okay? This is just a mess. So after it's evidence, am I able to see?

Speaker 15 After the evidence, after this is all over,

Speaker 15 you'll be able to see whatever you want. It's all public record.
You can come get a copy of everything we do.

Speaker 14 Yes.

Speaker 14 Lying in the hospital bed, she really asked the police officers investigating the crash if she could see the body cam footage. Her father responded, no, because it's not going to be pretty.

Speaker 14 How cold does your soul have to be to act this way?

Speaker 14 You've just accidentally, or maybe not accidentally, killed your boyfriend and your friend, and you want to see the body cam footage of these poor police officers discovering the whole mess?

Speaker 14 Why?

Speaker 14 So you can cover your ass?

Speaker 14 This isn't the only instance of McKenzie's odd behavior after the deaths of Davion and Dominic.

Speaker 14 Dominic's family had been having strange interactions with McKenzie since the crash. Here's Dominic's mother, who happens to be be a defense attorney herself.

Speaker 15 She did say something that was pretty

Speaker 15 damning the other day.

Speaker 15 Have you seen her in person or just I've just seen her twice at the cemetery? Twice at the cemetery. How does she get there? Can she drive? How much? Her mother takes her.

Speaker 15 Is she in a wheelchair still? Yeah, she can only put weight on her left leg. Okay.
And then she's supposed to start some physical therapy.

Speaker 15 And then I've also kept in touch because she's dangling photos, she's dangling videos, you know, but she just pieces one or two out instead of saying, I think you'd enjoyed it.

Speaker 15 Like we were at the cemetery and we had this bee problem between the two of us. I still have the bee problem.
The few people are coming today.

Speaker 15 But Dom had called me about the bees, and I don't know what she was recording, but it's all his voice, at least I, you know, because it has his voice. And so she finally sends me that one.

Speaker 15 But it's like

Speaker 15 every single time we try to get a picture, she's all over my son. So I can't even get one without her in it.
He catered to her. She claimed she had a gluten-free problem or something.

Speaker 15 And I would make dinner and I would be questioned on,

Speaker 15 was the stuff okay for her diet because her stomach. And if I didn't have everything that would have complied with her stomach diet, whatever it was, I never believed it.

Speaker 15 He would cook for her supper, always.

Speaker 15 And she's a slob. She never cleaned.
Her mother's house is a slob. My house isn't the greatest either.
But I'm just saying, it's just, you know, if Dom's going to cook for you, do the dishes.

Speaker 15 Clean up after yourself. Do you know what I mean?

Speaker 15 That sort of a thing. But everything was always about her.
I mean, like I said, even with her parents.

Speaker 15 So while Kenzie was in the hospital, they were already making up stories. Right, right.
Okay, as to what happened. But the deer, the epilepsy, the seizure.
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 15 And the point of all of that is the fact that the mom never said, Are the kids home? She never checked in with me ever.

Speaker 15 The only time they would ever come over would be once on a blue moon to drop something off or to take pictures for some event. Do you know what I'm saying? But Kenzie, I mean, Dom took her to Polaris.

Speaker 15 Dom made sure she made it to school.

Speaker 15 Mom didn't do any of that. Okay.

Speaker 15 So it was all Dom.

Speaker 15 But the girl had no problem sitting with me, looked me in the eye. A lot of these girls can't look me in the eye.
That right there bothers me.

Speaker 15 You can't look at me and you can't talk to me. I feel that there's something more.
Kathy was always okay with that, you know, came and wet, had no problems walking my house.

Speaker 15 And it was, you know what I mean? And I just.

Speaker 15 That means you're going to like her.

Speaker 15 She was always right. And she came over for holidays and

Speaker 15 they'd, you know, they'd include me and

Speaker 15 things like that, you know. And

Speaker 15 I just maybe she just needs to grow up. She's young.
I mean, do you know what I'm saying? You don't think that it's going to come to this?

Speaker 15 I do. I mean, I mean, I feel bad, know the girl forever.
I mean, I can't imagine what she's feeling like, whether she did it on purpose. She claims she knows nothing, she remembers nothing.

Speaker 15 And

Speaker 15 even say that all Dom's problems were because of her and

Speaker 15 being upset.

Speaker 15 And I needed to realize that she wasn't as sweet and innocent as I

Speaker 15 thought she was.

Speaker 15 It's heartbreaking to me because, like, the day before I went to Florida, which is the last time I seen him face to face, he was really just talking to me about,

Speaker 15 yeah, about like

Speaker 15 how he can't keep letting Kenzie

Speaker 15 like won his life. But not even an aspect like that.

Speaker 15 Like he said like uh all right for example, you know how I was saying how he can't go to like he can't go out with even me occasionally because she's upset about it and this and that.

Speaker 15 He said that she holds him back.

Speaker 15 Like, I think he was really honestly finally getting to the point to where like even if she was like saying oh I'm gonna hurt you he would have like maybe even taken that chance because he was getting it was it's more like two years.

Speaker 15 He'll be like dude, he would be so nice and as accommodating as possible to stop the fight. And she'd be one of those people that is just petty, petty, petty, petty.

Speaker 15 He's just like, I remember times him like expressing to me how frustrated that he was, saying, I do every single thing I can for this girl.

Speaker 15 I ask her, what's upsetting you don't make it better, this and that, blah, blah, blah. And she finds like any single thing just to be mad at me about.
You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 15 Like, it's like, I witnessed it a lot, too. Like, um,

Speaker 15 I don't know.

Speaker 15 Did you ever see her hit him? Put her hands on him?

Speaker 15 Her hit him. Like, just go, you know, or throw stuff at him.

Speaker 15 Actually, now that you say that, I remember several times now, because my memory's getting jogged, that he would say, Mom, can you get Kenzie out of here?

Speaker 15 She's

Speaker 15 refusing to leave. She's out of control.
She's hit me. I do remember that.
And

Speaker 15 I would get on the phone and say, just leave and go home there's times there's multiple times even pretty like recently before all this that Don would have to call Kenzie's parents call her call her mom and stuff and say hey you need to come get Kenzie out of here that she's refusing to leave my house she's being crazy and it'd be a situation where they'd be in a fight keep in mind something stupid that she started and he's like listen he's like just go home He's like, well, we'll hang out tomorrow.

Speaker 15 It'll be like a whole like new thing. He finally, if they get her out, she'd be the type to show back up at his house.
Pound out his window. No, I'm coming in.
Blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 15 We're talking this shit out right now.

Speaker 20 Like before, you lied. You lied and said you would never lock me out of the house again.
That is why we got back together last time we broke up.

Speaker 20 But I forgot.

Speaker 15 You can never broke up with me at your word.

Speaker 20 Because you are a little fucking weak bitch.

Speaker 20 This is your last chance to open the door or you are not coming out of this house all night because I will not leave.

Speaker 15 Let me go to dinner. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Can let me go to dinner, then I can let you come over later.

Speaker 20 No, you're not, because I'm coming to dinner, too. I'm coming to dinner, too.

Speaker 15 Why? You want you should have told me you wanted to come.

Speaker 20 You fucking retard, you already put me on the reservation, so fucking open the door, you dumberist.

Speaker 15 Alright, wait, let's just go next door then.

Speaker 20 No, we're not going next door.

Speaker 15 No, we're not letting you into the house.

Speaker 20 We need to talk first, no? Because you thought you just, like, betrayed me.

Speaker 15 Alright, we can talk outside.

Speaker 15 Cut it out.

Speaker 15 Don't try to come in.

Speaker 20 Dom, if you do not open it. Like you think I'm joking.

Speaker 15 You think I'm joking.

Speaker 20 You think I'm joking. Like I'm deadass.

Speaker 15 What? What are you deadass about?

Speaker 20 You know exactly what I mean. You don't know exactly what I mean.
You're going to come open this door right now? Or there's going to be a serious fucking problem.

Speaker 15 Kenzie, I really don't think I can. Like, why can't we just do this shit? Like, why can't we just die? We're not doing it later because I'm coming to dinner.

Speaker 20 You have five seconds to open.

Speaker 15 Would you want to come to dinner with us?

Speaker 15 You want to come to dinner with us? Is that what you're saying?

Speaker 15 You can come to dinner with us if you want.

Speaker 20 Open the door.

Speaker 15 Kenzie, if you want, you can come to dinner with us.

Speaker 20 Dom, if you don't open the door, I'm keying your car.

Speaker 20 Alright, is the door unlocked? About to test it.

Speaker 15 No, Kenzie, it's not alive. Like, why are you acting like this?

Speaker 20 Dom, I'm gonna give you one last second or I'm gonna have to key your car.

Speaker 15 Why? Why? Why would you why would that ever be like an option?

Speaker 20 I'm broken up if you don't let me in the house. I'm breaking up.
I will break up with you. I'm going to break up with you if you do not open this fucking door.

Speaker 15 You literally took all your shit and left. I thought like you didn't want to be here.

Speaker 20 Okay, I'm gonna break into your house then.

Speaker 15 Bro, what the actual fuck?

Speaker 20 Well, I just broke your fucking key thing, so that sucks.

Speaker 15 What key thing?

Speaker 15 Come in. Dom, I will break shit.

Speaker 20 I will break shit. Do I have to like call the police?

Speaker 15 Why? Why would you call the police? Do I have to call the police?

Speaker 20 Are you not going to let me into my house?

Speaker 15 This is not your house. I don't call my mom.
I'm calling my mom. No, you're not.

Speaker 15 I'm calling.

Speaker 15 You're not doing this. And we're going to break up.
This is my house, you huge.

Speaker 15 And we are done.

Speaker 20 If you do not let me in the house that I sleep in every night, we are done.

Speaker 14 Just listen to this narcissistic, entitled, childlike brat that has apparently never been told no in her entire fucking life.

Speaker 14 She's just hearing that word for the first time, just now.

Speaker 14 The verbal kicking, the stomping, the crying, the way.

Speaker 14 Like a toddler angrily making noises and stomping their feet because their pacifier fell to the ground. and screaming is the only way to combat the force of gravity.

Speaker 14 She's literally threatening to call the police whilst committing a crime. What a fucking moron.

Speaker 15 She'd make threats.

Speaker 15 He'd definitely say that she's the kind of person to follow through with those threats. He believed she would follow through?

Speaker 15 Yeah, not like.

Speaker 15 I mean,

Speaker 15 obviously everybody makes false threats and empty threats and stuff like that.

Speaker 15 But

Speaker 15 some of the stuff he would say would say, I do remember him telling me, yeah, because he's crazy, she would actually probably do that shit. I mean, that's the problem.

Speaker 15 You know, she threatened him constantly. I told you, it was one week before we had to pick him up on the highway when she threatened to crash the car gun.

Speaker 15 Okay, it's not, I was on with Dom. Dom, she sat there and texted me.
Dom was out of control. Dom was very calm.
Said, Mom, you need to come get me. Kenzie's threatening to crash the car gun.

Speaker 15 We did see those.

Speaker 15 Yeah, that's one of the things we wanted to bring up was that. Right, they were on the side of the road, and she said, I'm calling the police if you don't get him.
And I said, you can

Speaker 15 I'm on the phone saying she can call the police all she wants, but we are on our way. What are the police going to do?

Speaker 14 If she had called the police the numerous times she apparently threatened to, maybe these kids would have been forced to break up a long time ago. Maybe Mackenzie would be in Juvie.

Speaker 14 and Dominic and Davion would still be alive. McKenzie was known for making threats, though, most of them empty.

Speaker 14 The police from the forensic vehicle inspection came back and showed that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the car. It worked fine.
Well, not after the crash, but you know what I mean.

Speaker 14 Images of McKenzie trapped in the car that day with her fuzzy Prada slipper pressing the accelerator to the floor suddenly looked even more suspicious.

Speaker 14 We don't have details about this, but it's on record that McKenzie drove that exact route a few days prior. She was casing the joint.

Speaker 14 Investigators also knew that McKenzie had threatened to crash the car with Dominic in it just a few weeks before, and it seemed increasingly probable that this was a threat she followed through with.

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Speaker 14 In the months following the tragic car wreck that claimed the lives of 20-year-old Dominic Russo and 19-year-old Davion Flanagan, detectives in Strongville, Ohio diligently conducted interviews, reviewed evidence, and methodically built their case.

Speaker 14 As they pieced together the puzzle, the evidence increasingly pointed towards the driver, 17-year-old Mackenzie Schrilla,

Speaker 14 leaving little room for doubt.

Speaker 15 So, since the

Speaker 15 crash and the passing of Dominic, has

Speaker 15 Has she been in contact with you? Has she reached out to you? She texted me multiple times. I could read you the text word for word.
She never once, never once said, I'm sorry for your loss.

Speaker 15 She never once said, I'm so sorry for what happened. She never once took any responsibility.
Not even having to take any responsibility, just saying, I'm sorry, Dom's gone, like anything.

Speaker 15 But she asked me for forgiveness about 10 times. Saying, I hope that you forgive me.
I still want to be a part of your family. Listen, I'll just show you the text to make it easy.
Jesus.

Speaker 15 She texted me on August 6th, okay? Before that, the last time she texted me was May 7th. Okay, so May 7th was the last time she texted me, and it was just to say Dom's phone died.

Speaker 15 The last time she texted me before that was she was asking me if I could do homework for her because she was too lazy to do her math work. Wow.
And I mean, honestly, like

Speaker 15 May 7th, and then when was the next time after May 7th? What was the date? August 6th.

Speaker 15 After the crash.

Speaker 15 That was the day she got her phone back. And you could read it.
This is what she said word for word. August.

Speaker 15 Hey, Angelo, I don't know if you hate me, but tomorrow for the funeral, would you be able to go in Dom's room and grab some photos from his desk for me and him so I could put them into the casket so he can be with me forever?

Speaker 15 Doesn't say sorry, doesn't say nothing, doesn't say anything.

Speaker 15 It says, hey, Angelo, I don't know if you hate me, but can you go grab pictures of us and put them in his casket so I could be with him forever? How, like, honestly, how psychotic does that sound?

Speaker 15 That sounds fucking twisted she texts me again after that and all just to say please let me know then she texts me again

Speaker 15 August 23rd. Actually, she did say sorry one time first time that she ever said this

Speaker 15 She said

Speaker 15 here what you read if you want says hi Angelo.

Speaker 15 I just wanted to say I'm so sorry I know you probably think this is all my fault and I'm not asking you to feel bad for me But I just wanted to say I'm so sorry and I know you miss him so much.

Speaker 15 I wish he was here too. This should have never happened.
He loves you so much, and IK you, I know,

Speaker 15 you know that I don't even know what to say to you or just feel so bad. I hope you guys can forgive me because I always look at you guys as family.
You don't even need to respond to me.

Speaker 15 I just wanted you to know I'm so sorry. Okay, but see, even

Speaker 15 these texts

Speaker 15 that she sent me, even even in this one, okay, it maybe would have been something if it's like, hey, if it was just, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, you know, but then she has to go just one line.

Speaker 15 It's one sentence of I'm so sorry, and then it goes, I know you probably think this is all my fault, and I'm asking you to feel bad for me. Why would I feel bad for you in this situation?

Speaker 15 How would it take you one sentence of saying sorry, and then

Speaker 15 just to go to that? It should literally be like, I'm so sorry. Like, I bought the paint.
It should all be about

Speaker 15 who you're texting. She's worried about what you think of her.
So she's using the I'm sorry to

Speaker 15 Like the whole, the whole, like the whole entire,

Speaker 15 like, the whole entire consistency of her is just self, it's just, she's just

Speaker 15 self-absorbed and self-centered. Everything that she texts me, even if she's finally saying, I'm sorry,

Speaker 15 it's about her. It's not even about me.
So

Speaker 15 I know since we gave her the phone, she's been back active on social media and all that. Any of your friends screenshot you anything?

Speaker 15 Have you, you know, we've received some photos of her in the wheelchair out and about i could definitely get some screenshots the i'm not on social media much at all okay but the first thing i did hear of at the time we didn't even know if this was her mom or her or what because we didn't even know if she was even awake to use the phone we didn't know how severe her injury was or anything you know and um the first thing i seen from her She didn't text my mom.

Speaker 15 She didn't text me. She didn't text my dad.
She didn't text anybody in my family.

Speaker 15 The first thing I seen from her contacting anybody she texted a modeling agency that reached out to her and said something is she not too honest

Speaker 27 here's what the company commented on one of mckenzie's photos we love this look kenzie sharilla can we use this post on our website and emails we'll make sure you're credited reply to this comment with hashtag community if so

Speaker 14 Most of us have probably gotten comments like this in our own Instagram accounts. And we all know it's spam.
We should ignore.

Speaker 14 But Mackenzie's mother, Natalie, jumped at the opportunity and replied to the comment with her own account, typos and all.

Speaker 25 She said, Thank you for this amazing opportunity.

Speaker 25 Hello, this is her mother. She would love if you would use that.
She's actually been trying to contact you guys for PR email.

Speaker 25 It was a tragic accident and she did not purposely mean put an end to any of her close friends' life.

Speaker 25 This is just just as painful as it is for her as it is for everybody else or maybe even a little bit more painful heart emoji ben mckenzie chimed in from her hospital bed and commented thank you for the comment i would love to work with you guys i've been emailing you guys a lot such a great opportunity thank you

Speaker 15 But that was before even like you're gonna go and reach out to a major

Speaker 15 on Instagram about the one use your picture before texting several people on this

Speaker 15 many many people in between that should have gotten that text beforehand you know what i mean and then

Speaker 15 like her mom her dad has still never even texted me once i already had i already previous to this had somewhat of a relationship with her mom talking about her daughter's issues or whatever and what i think or whatever and you know and it wasn't like we never talked before you know what i mean i'd come say hi to her in the driveway but she's dropping off and uh before she was driving was a while ago but but she definitely has your super issue she's never said not even a word word, not a pee, neither from her dad or nothing.

Speaker 14 Some people, not very many, but a few, still wanted to defend Mackenzie and her lack of remorse. They're called the enablers.

Speaker 14 And

Speaker 14 a lot of bad people have a lot of those people in their life. One of those people was her friend Paul, the host of the party.

Speaker 15 This is all speculation, but at this point, you know, yeah, Kenzie,

Speaker 15 if you're on social media, did you see Kenzie talking with this modeling company after the crash, after we give her a phone back?

Speaker 15 I saw people talking about that. Yeah, what did you see?

Speaker 15 Just people really enraged. Enraged about what? That she is talking to the modeling company.

Speaker 15 Yeah, did you see how happy her mom was that she's that the modeling company is trying to help her plan her future? She just killed her boyfriend, another kid with a very bright future.

Speaker 15 She killed two people.

Speaker 15 And the reaction is, I'm worried about my modeling career. Instead of that's where I'm saying, weigh all that.

Speaker 15 As you know, as the time comes, you know, that people can put on a really good show about how devastated they are, but then you look at their social media and you're back talking about your career and your future plans.

Speaker 15 If I kill my friends, or if I'm responsible for the death of somebody, it's devastating.

Speaker 15 You know, and I hope you never ever have to experience that.

Speaker 15 But the reaction that you saw and that we saw is something that is intriguing.

Speaker 14 All this evidence was certainly intriguing enough for the county prosecutor to pursue charges against McKenzie.

Speaker 14 And after a very slow and secretive investigation, she was officially charged in November of 2022.

Speaker 14 Mackenzie would face four counts of murder and felonious assault, two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide and one count of drug possession. Oh, and also one count of possessing criminal tools.

Speaker 15 Where is she?

Speaker 15 Right there, pal.

Speaker 15 I'm Mackenzie. Step out for me.

Speaker 15 I'm Detective Jazoo. I'm the one who's been investigating the crash.
You're under arrest for aggravated murder times too. Okay?

Speaker 15 Nobody's going to ask you any questions. Nobody's going to bother you.
Can I have your key, please.

Speaker 15 Could you please be careful taking this one off so it doesn't break the bracelet? You got it. You got it.

Speaker 14 Mackenzie and her defense attorneys decided a bench trial would be the best route. This meant that she would skip the whole jury trial and the judge alone would hear her case and decide her fate.

Speaker 14 It's quite a gamble. You got to get a good judge in there that you think you can

Speaker 14 get on their side somehow. This is just a hunch, but perhaps her defense attorneys knew that she'd be be perceived pretty badly by a jury.

Speaker 14 A jury that's probably had plenty of experience with bratty children and

Speaker 14 have maybe taught them better.

Speaker 14 Anyway, they probably hoped they would get lucky if they only had to convince one person.

Speaker 14 If that was their plan, it turned out to be a bad one.

Speaker 24 In a bench trial, the judge sits as the jury and the finder of fact, as well as the ruler of law. And it is a reminder of just just how difficult a job it is to serve as a finder of fact.

Speaker 24 Whether it's a bench trial or a jury trial, the rules of law are the same.

Speaker 24 I have done what I have sworn to do. I have carefully and deliberately considered all the evidence in this case, including the testimony of the witnesses, the science, the expert opinions offered,

Speaker 24 the medical evidence, the physical evidence, the photographs, and the video evidence. This trial is a culmination of decisions made by one person, the defendant.

Speaker 24 Those decisions have forever altered the futures of three families and of you also, Mackenzie.

Speaker 24 And your decisions forever robbed Dominic and Tavian of the futures that they had before known.

Speaker 24 If there is one thing that can be taken away from this case, as painful as it is, it is this.

Speaker 24 Every decision we make is important.

Speaker 24 Every action we make is important.

Speaker 24 Regardless of whether the decision is a good one or a bad one, or the actions are good or not, the result is the same.

Speaker 24 The consequences ripple through time and affect many more people than one might think at the time of the decision.

Speaker 24 And at this point, I would like to comment specifically on exhibit 802, the crash video.

Speaker 24 This is the type of evidence you can never unsee. You can never forget the visual or audio of this exhibit.
It was chilling and tragic.

Speaker 24 As you review that exhibit, you know that you are watching the oncoming death of two people, and there is nothing that will stop it.

Speaker 24 The video clearly shows the purpose and intent of the defendant. She chose a course of death and destruction ahead.

Speaker 24 The exhibit 802 crystallizes the deadly decision-making of the defendant. She morphs from a responsible driver to literal hell on wheels as she makes her way down the street.

Speaker 24 Mackenzie alone made the decision to drive the car, to drive an obscure route, a route she visited a few days before, and a route opportunity taken by her.

Speaker 24 Mackenzie alone chose the time to make the drive early in the morning. when any reasonable person would expect that few people would be nearby to witness it or offer life-saving assistance.

Speaker 24 She made these decisions despite knowing, as any reasonable person would, that her mission of death could have involved others, not even in the car with her, other people, other cars, pedestrians.

Speaker 24 She had a mission and she executed it with precision. The mission was death.

Speaker 14 The difference between this and a jury trial is that when the verdict is read in a jury trial, it happens all at once.

Speaker 14 Mackenzie had to listen to this judge's speech and slowly piece together where she was going with it. Kind of like Alec Baldwin, if you saw that happen.

Speaker 14 Boy, what a clusterfuck, huh?

Speaker 14 Anyway, before she even got to the verdict, Mackenzie knew what it would be.

Speaker 14 She sobbed and listened as this judge read out guilty verdicts for every single count.

Speaker 14 Her parents sat behind her looking, shocked, apparently, that

Speaker 14 there was going to be some accountability, a word that they had apparently never heard of before.

Speaker 14 When it came to her sentencing hearing in August of 2023, just like any other defendant, Mackenzie's friends and family were permitted to speak on her behalf.

Speaker 16 My name is Natalie Shergila.

Speaker 16 I just want to say, am I allowed to address them at all?

Speaker 16 I just want to say to the families that I'm broken, sad, and lost, and my heart hurts for everyone. Okay? Davian was her new friend, and Dom was the love of her life, and he was part of our family.

Speaker 16 Okay, I'm just so sorry that this happened. I'm heartbroken.

Speaker 16 Okay, and then, Your Honor, this was a terrible, tragic, nightmare accident to have happened that she has no memory of, and she will never emotionally or physically recover of it, recover from it.

Speaker 16 She almost died too. And we're asking that you please not run the sentences consecutive.
He was family, and we all loved each

Speaker 16 In the hospital, that Vitality post, I commented on that because somebody had called her a murderer, okay?

Speaker 17 And

Speaker 16 she's not a murderer. So she didn't even have her phone at that point because the police had still had it, okay?

Speaker 16 So I jumped on and I was like, you know, she's not a murderer. She's more sad than her than most of these people commenting.

Speaker 16 I had called them asking if they could shut down social media because people were calling her a murderer and making death threats and organizing groups to take her out when she got out of the hospital and stuff.

Speaker 16 So I didn't even want her phone. I don't care about her phone.
I don't care about social media. I just wanted them to stop calling her a murderer so that when she did come to, and she did come out of

Speaker 16 surgery, multiple surgeries, that she wouldn't see all these people calling her a murderer because she would never, ever, ever murder the love of her life. Okay.

Speaker 16 Everything she did after the accident was either in honor of him, to be close to him, or just to be by him any way that she can.

Speaker 16 She's like devastated and tragic. He was the air that she breathes.
Okay, and they went with his cousin.

Speaker 16 We spent all kinds of time with him after the accident.

Speaker 16 What was the other thing?

Speaker 17 I'm hearing an awful lot about your daughter. I'm not hearing very much about the chief daily.

Speaker 16 Dominic, okay, I'm asking you for a leniency because this was a tragic accident that she does not remember. And Davion,

Speaker 16 we don't,

Speaker 16 he's a new friend. I'm so sorry.

Speaker 29 Does that mean his wife is worthless?

Speaker 16 No, no, no, no.

Speaker 18 No.

Speaker 16 God, no, not at all.

Speaker 16 They all loved each other. They all spent every day together.
You know what I mean? I don't know too much for him. Isn't that part of the problem with Mrs.

Speaker 29 Schmuck? Sorry? Isn't that part of the problem that they all

Speaker 24 trusted each other?

Speaker 16 Isn't that part of it? It's not a problem at all. It was wonderful.

Speaker 29 It's a problem of how they all ended up in the car together and she's not in the directory.

Speaker 16 I understand. I understand what it looks like.

Speaker 16 I'm saying that it was a tragic accident. She would never.

Speaker 24 We're going to have to disagree with that.

Speaker 16 I understand.

Speaker 16 And I respect your position.

Speaker 16 I understand. But anyway, that's it.
I just wanted to address those. We told her to go to those things, and then she did go with Dom's family.
So look at that. Don't look at him with the...

Speaker 16 Look on that with different eyes if you can, please.

Speaker 24 Those things are not relevant.

Speaker 16 Not at all. Not at all.
Not at all. But she's a good.
If you would, if you have a moment, all you would need is five minutes of a conversation to have with her to learn who she is.

Speaker 16 Just that you would just need five minutes to learn who she is and what she's capable of not doing and doing, and you would see for yourself.

Speaker 18 That's all.

Speaker 16 I'm so sorry, guys.

Speaker 18 I'm sorry. I love you.

Speaker 14 The apple does not fall far from the tree.

Speaker 14 Mackenzie spoke after her mother.

Speaker 14 I'm so deeply sorry. I hope one day you could see.

Speaker 24 I would never let this happen or do it on purpose. I wish I could remember what happened.
I'm just so sorry. I'm heartbroken.
I love to have Nandavia. We were all branded and died with my soulmate.

Speaker 24 I wish I could take all your pain away.

Speaker 18 I'm so sorry.

Speaker 24 And to my family, thank you for the support and all the love you guys did. Thank you for fighting with me.
I love you all so much.

Speaker 14 The victim impact statements from this case are a tragic juxtaposition to the empty excuses and late apologies offered by Mackenzie and her family. Here's Davion's little sister.

Speaker 29 Hi, Your Honor. My name is Devine Flanagan.

Speaker 29 Davion was my older brother. The captain of Davion Rartell Flanagan has been very difficult for me.
We have gone through everything together since David Born.

Speaker 29 Davion was a big brother to me and my mother, Spring Julia. We all got adopted together in 2012.
After Davion passed away, a lot of trauma and past pain came into my life.

Speaker 29 He was the person I trusted the most because he made me feel safe. I hate the fact that he has gone because someone decided to take his life.

Speaker 29 Now that Davion is gone, I feel stuck. I feel as if I can't move forward.
I feel lost. He was the one who picked me up when I fell.

Speaker 29 He was my best friend and the only person that has stayed with me since I was born.

Speaker 30 Christine Russell, Dominic's mother.

Speaker 30 No one wanted this to be a murder.

Speaker 30 Or to punish Mackenzie Shirilla for this accident.

Speaker 30 This was not a car accident.

Speaker 30 Evidence and signs proved that Mackenzie Shrilla murdered my son, Dominic, Dominic, as well as David.

Speaker 30 There's no fix put in in this case as the Schmiller is like to proclaim.

Speaker 30 I want to thank the Charlesville Police Department and the state of Ohio for seeking the truth behind this crash.

Speaker 31 Thanks to them, we all know what happened in that car that day. What we don't know is why.

Speaker 30 I wish I could change this every day. I lost three children in that crash.

Speaker 30 Not a minute goes by each day that I don't think about my son.

Speaker 30 Well, Savion, my heart is rubber broken.

Speaker 30 The cries

Speaker 30 heard from the Shrill family and friends after the verdict

Speaker 30 are nothing more than a lack of remorse.

Speaker 30 Kency Shirley had a choice. Domino Davion did not.

Speaker 30 We were all left here to mourn.

Speaker 30 July 31st, 2022, I called Mackenzie's mother hysterical with the loss of her son in ABM.

Speaker 30 I knew Mackenzie was in the hospital. And the first statement said to me was,

Speaker 30 oh, please don't listen to what everyone's saying on Facebook.

Speaker 30 Yeah,

Speaker 30 my son's dead.

Speaker 15 His friend is dead.

Speaker 30 I'm checking every books.

Speaker 30 Social media is important.

Speaker 29 Social media is made a game.

Speaker 30 It's part of the life of Mackenzie and is making a game out of this heart-reaching tragedy. No one can imagine the pain of losing a child unless they've lost one themselves.
The pain is forevermore.

Speaker 30 Time does not heal this wound.

Speaker 30 Mackenzie went to prison because you did this.

Speaker 30 Be thankful that Jira is still alive and in the future, whatever that may be, Don and Damion were robbed of their futures, futures, their hopes, and their dreams.

Speaker 30 Defensive showed no mercy on Dominic nor did she on Davion.

Speaker 30 Only God, at this time, can have mercy on our soul.

Speaker 15 Thank you.

Speaker 17 If any reasonable person reviews Exhibit 802,

Speaker 17 there can be no doubt in your mind what happened this night.

Speaker 17 There can be no doubt of the absolute terror of the two people in that car.

Speaker 17 The defendant controlled all the events. She chose the day.

Speaker 17 Specifically, she chose a day just before her 18th birthday. She chose to drive the car, the time to drive the car.

Speaker 17 She chose an obscure, previously scouted route through an industrial parkway. She chose the target to hit and the victims.
She chose the means and the method to follow through.

Speaker 17 And she planned and purposefully executed the events of July 31st, 2022.

Speaker 17 In the testimony of the BMV official who provided evidence, that not only did the defendant deny any medical condition when applying for her license, which her mother co-signed and attested to, but also that just after the accident, McKenzie renewed her driver's license and again denied any medical condition.

Speaker 17 In fact, the defendant was so concerned about driving that, as the state mentioned during the investigation, she asked if they could just suspend her license for 10 years.

Speaker 17 It is hard to fathom how a person could be concerned about their driving privileges, having just been responsible for the deaths of two people.

Speaker 17 It is also important to remember that even if McKenzie intended to also die in this crash, that is irrelevant. A failed suicide attempt is not a defense to murder.

Speaker 17 And even in a murder-suicide attempt, when the perpetrator executing the plan survives, the other other death or deaths are still murder.

Speaker 17 There's only one person who's responsible for the pain of everyone in this room, and that person is you, McKenzie. Nobody else is responsible.

Speaker 17 This isn't the fault of Dominic's family or Davion's family or your family.

Speaker 17 There's a very good likelihood, Mackenzie, that you will spend the rest of your life in prison. That won't be up to me.

Speaker 17 That will be up to the Pearl Board, and that will be up to you to a great extent.

Speaker 17 I understand that the pain in this room wants me to impose the harshest sentence,

Speaker 17 but I don't believe that would be the appropriate sentence because I do believe that McKenzie will not be out in 15 years.

Speaker 17 So she's sentenced on count two, the murder of Davion Flanagan, 15 years to life.

Speaker 17 She's sentenced on count one, the murder of Dominic Russo, 15 years to life, to be served concurrent to each other, with credit for time served.

Speaker 14 As far as we're aware, Mackenzie and her family still claim her innocence to this day.

Speaker 14 Some people just never learn.

Speaker 14 We have no doubt that she will exhaust her appeal efforts. 17-year-old Mackenzie Schrilla's mission was death, literally.

Speaker 14 As the judge said, she changed the course of history with one decision,

Speaker 14 and now

Speaker 14 she'll have to pay

Speaker 14 Well, that does it for another one. If you like the show, head on over to the old website, swordandscale.com.
There's a brand new episode of Sword and Scale Television there waiting for you.

Speaker 14 It's episode 7. You might like it if you're into this whole true crime shenanigans business nonsense.

Speaker 14 Check it out and stay safe.

Speaker 14 When you need a break, skip the scrolling.

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