"I was the prison girlfriend of car crash killer Mackenzie Shirilla – the chilling nickname she flaunted in jail"

THE convicted murderer who deliberately drove into a wall at 100mph — killing her boyfriend and their friend — later boasted behind bars about earning a chilling nickname, her alleged ex-girlfriend has claimed.

, who was just 17 when she survived the deadly crash in July 2022, is serving 15 years to life behind bars in Marysville, Ohio.

Shyann Topping has spoken out about her alleged relationship with Mackenzie Shirilla behind bars Credit: The U.S. Sun Mackenzie Shirilla gave her first interview since the crash in the Netflix documentary and was slammed by viewers Credit: © 2026 Netflix, Inc. Horror photographs show Mackenzie Shirilla’s Toyota Camry after the crash which was completely destroyed Credit: WKYC Mackenzie Shirilla was said to be staying in a plush jail building with flat screen TVs and sofas Credit: Norix

Prosecutors called her acts “methodical and deliberate,” as evidence showed she never took her foot off the gas or attempted to break before killing her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 21, and his friend, Davion Flanagan, 19.

Her case is back in the spotlight three years after she was found guilty of murder due to the success of , The Crash, which saw her speak out for the first time as she maintains her innocence.

Viewers were disgusted by her calm demeanor during the prison interview, as well as her parents’ continued support and attempts to excuse her previous behavior.

Now, an alleged ex-girlfriend has lifted the lid on what Shirilla is really like behind bars in an exclusive interview with The U.S. Sun, claiming she bragged about being given the nickname “Shirilla The Killer.”

She also detailed Shirilla’s alleged wild antics in prison, claiming she was frequently caught hooking up with female inmates — including one alleged incident involving two other women in a shower.

Shyann Topping, who was jailed for two years on drugs charges, served time in the Ohio Reformatory for Women with Shirilla, and claims she began dating her two weeks before she was released in 2024.

The U.S. Sun independently verified that Shyann was in the same prison as Shirilla after she was convicted and reached out to her lawyers for further comment.

Shyann, 27, alleged another inmate told her the murderer, now 21, liked her and wanted to get to know her.

“She was bubbly and happy and stuff, but she gave off the popular girl aura,” Shyann said, referring to her as being like Regina George from the movie Mean Girls.

“I was interested first, but later on come to find out she was interested, too.

“So we started talking, and she told me her nickname was ‘Shirilla the Killer’. That’s what her bunkmates called her.

“I did not know what she was in for at that time.”

Shyann also claimed, “She used to walk around and ask people if they wanted her autograph.

“She definitely was like, ‘I’m famous’. She told me, ‘My case is viral. It’s not what you think, though, but yeah, it’s viral famous.’

Mackenzie Shirilla had been dating Dominic Russo for four years and the pair lived together Credit: FAcebook/natalieshirilla Mackenzie Shirilla is seen makeup free with messy hair and wearing prison scrubs in a mugshot Credit: ohio.gov

“She wants to be famous no matter if it comes negatively or positively,” Shyann claimed.

“Nobody really wanted her autograph. She was trying to be funny, like, ‘I’m famous for the crash.'”

Shyann explained she asked her cousin to look her up and quizzed Shirilla about her case, but the 21-year-old – who a judge named “Hell on Wheels” – maintained she is innocent and just passed out at the wheel.

Shirilla, who has had multiple appeals rejected, claimed she a seizure as a result of POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome), a disorder of the autonomic nervous system.

But prosecutors insisted she never lost control of the car and there were no skid marks on the road.

Shyann said she didn’t have all of the facts while in prison and wanted to give Shirilla the benefit of the doubt but often grilled her about what happened.

“I’m like, maybe she’s wrongly blamed because no one can say that the justice justice system is perfect,” she said.

“And from the limited knowledge I had at that time, I’m like, okay, I can get out maybe see if it was an accident and, shoot, maybe even advocate for her.

“But what I got out of seeing the evidence, I’m like, whoa.”

She explained that Shirilla was housed in a different “cottage” to her called Wheeler – for lifers and “privileged inmates” – with flat-screen TVs, sofas, better tables and doors that closed.

“So we met maybe three times a day, first yard, second yard, third yard,” she claimed.

“You can be intimate in prison and [have] relationships, but it’s tougher when you’re in different cottages because automatically if you go into a cottage you’re not assigned to, you will go to the hole [solitary confinement].

“And at that time she did not want to go to the hole because she was still working on her appeal. [She] still really believed she was going to get out.”

She claims the pair would kiss and fool around on the yard, hiding from the guards, but she never have full sex with her as they were outside.

“After I found out about her case, I was like, okay, I don’t know how fast she would want to move because her boyfriend just died,” Shyann recalled.

“But second she’s like, ‘Why don’t you touch me? I want to be like loved all up on and stuff.’ And I was like, wow, okay.”

Shyann claims when she was released, Shirilla hooked up with one of her friends and she’s been told since that she is regularly punished for hooking up with inmates.

“They said she got caught in the shower with two other girls, that she’s always running around out of place,” she said.

Shyann also claims Shirilla was kicked out of Wheeler and moved to a “ghetto cottage” – and was told when one of her girlfriends is sent away or released, “she moves on to the next one.”

She said she was shocked to hear how Shirilla is often in trouble, believing she’s now “breaking her roots in there and just going crazy” after her appeals were denied.

Recalling one moment during their brief relationship, she said Shirilla looked stunned when Shyann asked her if she was going for dinner, telling her, “I don’t eat the prison food. I will never eat the prison food.”

Shirilla explained a friend cooked for her every day using the microwaves available in prison — an expensive routine that suggested she has plenty of money coming in from the outside.

Shyann explained: “To cook every day is expensive because, say you want to make a pizza, you have to buy wraps to make the dough, you have to buy pepperoni, you have to buy pizza sauce, you have to buy cheese, and then you have to buy plates and bowls and stuff.

“And all of that thrown together would add up to about a $20 meal. And to do that every day — you’re not only going to eat once a day.

“So if you think about it, two or three times a day, that’s $60 every single day in prison.”

These claims were later echoed by former inmate, Kat Crowder , who took to her TikTok account to claim Shirilla had her parents and strangers she met on a prison sugar daddy website send her money.

Texts between Shirilla and her boyfriend, which were used in investigative reports, also show her for a foot fetish act, and threatening to return to sugar daddies if they broke up.

Shyann claimed, “I wouldn’t be surprised if she has them now because every girl in prison does that. That’s just a way to get extra money.”

She said Shirilla would get up at around 6am every morning to do her makeup and hair and had her prison uniform professionally altered to flatter her figure.

Shyann said when she was released and learned more about the case, she questioned her further in messages, asking if she crashed the car deliberately, which frustrated Shirilla and led to them breaking up.

“I have never seen her cry once ever in prison,” she said.

“She was actually really happy and bubbly. That’s what first attracted me to her because it’s such a dark place in there. You just look for some happiness anywhere.

“And then when I found out about her case, yes, it was shocking to me because you’re so young and facing life in prison… and the love of your life, the one you claimed you were going to marry, is gone.

“I think she did it on purpose, but I don’t know if she thought like they weren’t gonna die and that it was just gonna be like, ‘Oh, I scared him.’ Or she just really wanted all of them to die that night.

“And I feel like it was God keeping her alive and making her live it out because that choice was just evil and sick, and now she has to serve her time for that.”

When the she says she barely recognized Shirilla who she believes was simply saying what she felt her lawyers wanted her to say.

“There was no real Mackenzie behind that interview,” she claims.

“That is not Mackenzie. That wasn’t even her voice. The way she was talking, she changed it. It’s crazy.”

She feels Shirilla loved being on camera as she wants to be famous, adding, “Mackenzie’s image to her is everything.”

Shyann has turned her life around since being released and is now working a job in manufacturing.

Since she began speaking about her time in prison on TikTok and her relationship with Shirilla in late 2025, she has gained more than 25,000 followers.

She says she wants to use the platform for good, encouraging young people to stay out of trouble.

“Hopefully it does reach other people because those felonies are not worth it,” she said.

She says she hopes Shirilla comes clean and tells the victim’s families the truth about the night of the crash.

“Their families deserve it,” she said. “They’re already laid to rest now. Just give [them] some peace.”

You can watch the full interview with Shyann Topping on The U.S. Sun’s YouTube account.