When the parents walked into the hospital waiting room, all they knew was that their daughter had been airlifted after a violent crash. They didn't know who else was in the car. They didn't know what caused the collision, and they certainly weren't prepared for what the officer was about to tell them. >> To a building, two deceased in the vehicle, cars driving. >> In an instant, what everyone assumed was just a tragic car accident became something far darker. a potential double homicide involving a 17-year-old girl from Ohio. Most people thought it had to be a mistake, but that assumption would collapse piece by piece once investigators dug into phone data, surveillance footage, messages, and the behavior leading up to the crash. Hours before the collision, 17-year-old McKenzie Sharilla, her boyfriend Dominic Russo, 20, and their friend Devon, 19, were simply enjoying a party. McKenzie's 18th birthday was just 2 days away. The group was out celebrating, laughing, smoking, hanging out, as seen on surveillance footage. But friends later said something felt off. McKenzie didn't seem like herself. She was experimenting with drugs, acting unlike the girl they thought they knew. Around 3:30 a.m., they left the party. They went to another friend's house, watched TV, and eventually decided to call it a night around 5:00 a.m. And this is where the first red flag appeared. Dominic normally drove, but this time, McKenzie insisted on taking the wheel. When Devon asked for a ride home, McKenzie refused at first and only agreed after Dominic convinced her. A small moment barely noticeable, but later it would matter a lot. As they left, the car should have gone toward Devon's house. Instead, a CCTV camera caught the car turning onto Progress Drive, a deadend industrial road that stops at a brick wall. Another camera recorded what followed. 30 mph, 40, 60, then nearly 90 mph. No brake lights, a sharp correction at the last second, and then a direct impact into the wall. The wreck wouldn't be found for 45 minutes. When officers arrived, Dominic and Davon were already gone. McKenzie, the only one wearing a seat belt, was still breathing. No one's free. >> Bust that window out. >> All right. >> Oh my god. See? Oh, Wilson, hear my vulgar. >> Who's in here? >> Drivers. >> Oh [ __ ] >> Hey, >> this is bad, guys. >> She's alive. We got to get her out. >> All right, >> reach up and unlock the door. >> Let me see your knife. Let's cut this thing out. >> Jesus Christ. pistol horse I've ever seen. How old is Dominic Russo? 17 19. >> Rest in peace, buddy. >> It's >> I don't feel anything. I don't feel a pulse. >> She's breathing. I saw her stomach. Her stomach's >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. >> We got two that are gone. Yeah. >> The officer arrived at the home of Dominic's mother, Christine, carrying an unimaginable task to shatter her entire world with a single sentence. >> Deep breath. >> Christine. Christine, look at me. Take a deep breath. >> Yeah. Just take a deep breath. >> Take a deep breath. Okay. >> Right now, all we know is that the driver who is McKenzie is at Metro, >> right? >> Okay. Yeah. Just >> just stay seated. Please take your time. >> Please just relax. Take a deep breath. Take a deep breath. >> That's okay. You're good. Take your time. >> Take a deep breath. >> Okay. [laughter] >> The other two passengers, like I said, were was DaVon >> and well, who we believe is Dominic. Okay. From what Mackenzie told us. >> Okay. >> Okay. Both DaVon and Dominic are deceased. >> Oh god. >> Yeah. Sit down. >> Oh god. OH GOD. >> [screaming] >> THE INITIAL CRASH REPORT suggested extreme speed, no panic-breaking drug paraphernalia, a possible fainting condition. Officers leaned toward a horrible accident, not a crime. But as McKenzie recovered, her behavior raised eyebrows. She didn't attend the funerals. She showed up at a Halloween party dressed as a corpse. She posted jokes, bragged about drugs, flashed stacks of cash, and went back to social media like nothing had happened. None of it proved intent. But Dominic's family sensed something was wrong. Dominic's family handed police a recording from his phone filmed 10 days before the crash. It showed McKenzie outside his door, furious, pounding, threatening. >> He never broke up with me. work because you are a little weak. >> You broke up with me earlier. You literally broke up with me earlier. >> This is your last chance to open the door or you are not coming out of this house all night cuz I will not leave. >> You literally broke You literally broke up with me earlier. Like like what what is the point you're trying to like you broke up with me like earlier? Like what? >> No. No, I didn't. I didn't. I didn't. I didn't. >> You did. You said not to. You literally said that. Like you literally broke up with me earlier. Like what are you trying to make? Like like why would I just let you in my house if you break up with me? You're threatening to break my >> like you're threatening to key my car. Threating to break up. >> I will key your car if you do not let me in the house. >> You're going to key my car if you if I don't let >> If you don't let me in the house. Yes. >> What the? >> Yeah, I know. So just let me in the house. >> No. Like why why can't you just be like like calm at least for a second and I can feel comfortable in the house. >> I am calm. I don't think you get to decide that with your weird like threatening problems. You really threatening >> to keep my car and what? What else you threatening? >> John, I'm going to give you one last chance to open the door. I'm going to leave and do what I said I was going to do. Open. >> What? Kenzie, look. Look. Let me go to dinner. >> No. No. No. >> You can let me go to dinner. Then I can let you come over later. >> No, you're not. Cuz I'm coming to dinner, too. I'm coming to dinner, too. >> Why you want You should have told me you wanted to come. >> You [ __ ] She already put me on the reservation, so open the door, you dumb. >> Dumb. You do not open like You think I'm joking. You think I'm joking. You think I'm joking. Like I'm dead. >> What do you mean? What do you mean? >> You know that's exactly what I mean. It doesn't 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 problem. >> I can't. No, you can't keep You can't keep making all your starters. I can't open. >> You can't keep kicking out me out of a place that you say is my home. >> Cuz I didn't kick you out. You took all your dicks and said we were done. >> I did not say we are done. >> You can't keep making all these threats. >> Stop being a little >> I can't let you in my house with how you're acting. Like, it's as simple as that. >> Or there's going to be a serious problem. The full 15-minute video was filled with yelling, manipulation, demands. Then came more evidence. Threatening text claims she told Dominic she would crash the car. An incident where she reportedly hit him while he was driving. Dominic calling relatives because he feared she'd cause a wreck. This wasn't teenage drama. This was a pattern. Investigators reopened the entire case. Police began conducting systematic interviews with everyone who had known McKenzie, from former friends to ex-boyfriends. From these accounts, a clearer picture emerged of a girl who had been showing troubling psychological warning signs for months leading up to the crash. >> Describe the relationship. What what was what was she like as your girlfriend? >> Um I mean like she's kind of just like how you would explain any girls really. You know what I'm saying? Like they're all over the place in some ways and like they don't know what they want. You say stuff like I don't even be a high anymore. Stuff like that. Like she was crazy. >> She like mentally just not all there. I mean >> Yeah. I I don't think she's just mentally all there. Like I personally feel like she was trying to end that crash and she uh failed on doing so is what I feel like. And I feel like she had no regard for DaVon. And I feel like they got in an argument, her and Dom, and she threatened to kill him was disrespectful to Don in my eyes. >> Why did Dom put up with this? Do you know? >> Personally been told that she did voodoo on him. I mean, I personally don't believe that, but she has told people that she's put a spell on him saying that he couldn't break up with her. She would tell people that that she had like grabbed a piece of his hair and that she had a doll in her room for Dom and that she literally put a spell on her. But she would tell everyone like she truly believed in that kind of stuff. And she also uses the pendulum I know too to try to get answers to she tries to use it now to talk to Don. >> When investigators asked Tyler directly whether he thought McKenzie had the capacity to drive a car into a wall deliberately, his response was immediate and definitive. I feel like if she thinks that she can just drive the car into the wall and not feel nothing, you know, like 100 to the wall. I feel like the only reason she survived is cuz of how small she is, like feel like she got insanely lucky, but at the same time not lucky to have her survived that cuz like she killed two people. That was what she was trying to do. But it's like I I kind of feel I feel like that's what she was trying to do was crush the car into the wall. There was an instance literally a couple days before the crash that she was hitting him on the highway while driving and he had to pull his car over on the side of the highway. Not in a very safe parking spot either. >> You mentioned that anytime Dom would kind of want to break up with her, she kind of would go crazy. Describe crazy. Like what kind of crazy? >> Like there is times where she called Dom and said, "If you break up with me, I'm going to word for word." That was just priorus the day before the actual crash. Dom tried to break up with her multiple times, even in July. I kept not like working out, whatever. They kept making back up. Kenzie's known to be the kind of person that she's like, she's let us know she will never let go of Dom. And if she has to let go of Dom, she will not go on living herself. She's pretty much let that be known. >> When detectives decrypted her phone, the results were alarming. Reckless driving videos. She filmed herself speeding, smoking marijuana, letting go of the wheel, even crashing for fun. Photos with large amounts of cash, no real job, messages offering paid meetups and explicit favors, and most critical, GPS history. In the days before the crash, she drove down the same dead-end road seven different times. Investigators believed she was practicing the route. This wasn't an accident. This was planning. The car's event data recorder revealed accelerator 100% from start to impact, zero braking. A violent steering input just before the crash. No mechanical problems, no malfunction. The car didn't fail. The driver made deliberate choices. 3 months later, shortly after McKenzie turned 18, detectives arrived with an arrest warrant. I'm McKenzie. Step off for me. I'm Detective Jesu. I'm the one who's been investigating the crash. You're under arrest for aggravated murder times, too. Okay. Nobody's going to ask you any questions. Nobody's going to bother you. Can I have your key, please? >> Could you please be careful taking this one off so it doesn't break the bracelet, please? >> You got it. You got it. >> You want me? >> No. >> Thank you. >> You got it. Yeah, just keep your hands right here. I'm not going to I'm not going to tighten these, okay? Cuz they don't want to hurt you. You good? Are they good? We're going to your head going in. It isn't the collard. Make sure that the juvenile fact sheet that gets filled out in the jail is the county one, not the SPV one. Stam right by that black net. >> Straight forward >> all the way. >> Yeah, you hold that door on that yellow line. Just face the wall. Yeah, Mackenzie. >> Okay, Mackenzie, I'm going to take your hands off and like all the jewelry and everything from up. Okay, >> I can't wear any of it. >> No, I need you to take it off while you're in the jail right now. >> I can't wear this. Now, unfortunately, everything's going to come off right now once we know when uh the detective comes back and we know for sure what's going on. Um everything's going to be bagged up here. It's not going anywhere. >> Sorry. This is just like one of those. It's just really hard to get off. >> That's fine. Take it down. Okay. >> [clears throat] >> What are the green are those extensions clips or you just take those out? They're like in my like they're like >> flyers. We can get them out. >> About that. Sorry. Um, [clears throat] I'm going to hold off and see what I It's kind of weird. I don't know. I thought >> All right, Mackenzie, just think that walking. During trial, prosecutors highlighted GPS practice runs blackbox data surveillance footage, threatening messages, videos, and behavior her actions after the crash. The defense argued she fainted. She was confused. A passenger grabbed the wheel. She remembered nothing. But the surveillance video showing her driving normally just moments before entering Progress Drive contradicted every claim of lost consciousness. After reviewing all evidence, the judge stated, "This was not reckless driving. This was intentional. The car became a weapon." The difficulty for sentencing today, honestly, is whether or not I believe you should get consecutive sentences. I'm troubled that should I give you a concurrent sentence that people will believe that somehow I'm being disrespectful to one of the victims. And on the other hand, I have to weigh the punishment. 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. That will be up to the pearl board, and that will be up to you to a great extent. I understand that the pain in this room wants me to impose the harshest sentence, but I don't believe that would be the appropriate sentence because I do believe that McKenzie will not be out in 15 years. So, she's sentenced on count the murder of DaVon Flanigan, 15 years to life. She sends on count one, the murder of Dominic Russo 15 years to life to be served concurrent to each other with credit for time. I'll wave fines, fees, and costs and your appel counselor will be assigned. Are there any questions from the state? >> No, your honor. Thank you. >> Any questions? >> No, your honor. >> All right. Thank you. On August 14th, 2023, McKenzie Sharilla was convicted of four counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault, two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide drug possession, possessing criminal tools, sentence 15 years to life. Eligible for parole in 2037.