Mackenzie Shirilla Jail Calls: “I Was a Model,” NBC Attention and What the Audio Really Shows
- Reporting Live
- Aug 23
- 6 min read
The phrase that made me stop this time was not some dramatic courtroom statement. It was Mackenzie Shirilla casually telling her mother about a dream: “I was a model.” And y’all, coming in the same set of jail calls where national media attention, outside messages and legal preparation are also floating around, it is one of those moments that makes you sit there and go, okay... what exactly are we listening to here?
That does not make the dream evidence of anything by itself. People have weird dreams every night, including yours truly. What makes these calls interesting is the larger pattern around them. Shirilla and her mother move from ordinary jail-life details to talk about NBC contacting the family, men writing to her, a speech that apparently needs to be reviewed, and the growing public attention surrounding the case.
The recordings give us a window into conversations from this period, and Paul’s video reacts to those conversations in real time. They do not prove why the July 31, 2022 crash happened, diagnose Shirilla’s mental state, or establish what a future parole board will do. Those are very different questions, and we are keeping them separate.
Watch the Full Video Breakdown
YOUTUBE VIDEO LINK: https://youtu.be/QQa8nBWperM
In the companion video above, I listen through the calls with y’all and stop at the moments that made me raise an eyebrow, especially the NBC conversation, the outside messages and that “I was a model” dream.
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The Case Behind the Calls
Mackenzie Shirilla was 17 when, on July 31, 2022, she drove a Toyota Camry carrying her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and his friend Davion Flanagan into a commercial building in Strongsville, Ohio. Russo and Flanagan were killed. Shirilla survived.
Prosecutors argued at her bench trial that the crash was intentional. The defense disputed that conclusion and raised alternative explanations, including impairment and a possible medical episode. In August 2023, the court convicted Shirilla of murder and other offenses. She received concurrent sentences of 15 years to life for the two murder convictions.
In September 2024, Ohio’s Eighth District Court of Appeals affirmed the convictions. That court record is what controls the legal background here. The jail calls we are discussing are separate material. They may give viewers context about Shirilla’s conversations and behavior during this period, but they are not a substitute for the evidence that produced the convictions.
That distinction matters because it is easy to hear a strange conversation and start working backward from it. I am interested in what these calls show, but I do not want to turn every odd comment into proof of the crime. That is not how any of this works.
Mackenzie Shirilla jail calls: What the Audio Actually Shows
One of the first things that jumps out is the discussion about NBC. In the call, Shirilla’s mother says NBC contacted her and wanted to talk. Shirilla immediately sounds interested in the possibility of speaking with the news. Her mother repeatedly tells her, in effect, to slow down and wait until they have legal guidance.
That exchange is interesting because it shows the family dealing not only with the criminal case, but with the attention surrounding it. Paul’s reaction in the video is less about the existence of media interest, which is not surprising in a nationally followed case, and more about how quickly the conversation seems to turn toward publicity, interviews and even the possibility of a book.
Then there are the outside messages. Shirilla reads or discusses messages from men who appear to have contacted her after learning about the case. Paul points out something important here: whatever anyone thinks about Shirilla, an incarcerated person with a highly publicized case can also be vulnerable to strangers who want access, attention or proximity to notoriety. The call itself establishes that people were contacting her. Motives attributed to those people beyond what they actually said would be speculation.
“I Was a Model” and the Ordinary Conversation Around It
The line that became the video’s title comes in a quieter call. Shirilla says she had a vivid dream and describes herself as being a model. Paul’s reaction is immediate because, in the context of everything else surrounding the case, the word “model” lands with a certain irony.
But here is the line I do not want us crossing: a dream about being a model is not evidence of a psychiatric condition, delusion or lack of remorse. It is a dream. The value of the moment is not that it proves something clinical. It is that it contributes to the strange contrast running through these recordings, serious legal circumstances sitting right beside conversations about appearance, messages, food, showers, movies and daily jail life.
The same call also includes discussion of a speech Shirilla expects to give. Her mother asks her to write it down and says it apparently has to be turned in or submitted. In the video, Paul interprets that as likely connected to attorney review before sentencing, while also making clear he does not know the exact procedure from the call alone. That is the responsible limit of what we can say from this recording.
That uncertainty is part of why the full video is useful. You can hear the audio, hear my reaction, and also hear the places where I stop and say, essentially, I do not know exactly how this process works from this one conversation.
Paul’s Take: The Pattern That Keeps Bothering Me
For me, the larger question is self-reflection. As I have gone through the jail calls and the separate text-message material on the podcast channel, I keep coming back to the difference between how Shirilla talks about herself and how Dominic Russo sometimes appeared to challenge her or push her to look inward. That is my interpretation of the material, not a court finding.
What bothers me is not one dream, one message from a stranger or one conversation about NBC. It is the accumulation of moments where the attention seems to stay outside herself: what people are saying, who is contacting her, what the media wants, what somebody wrote, what somebody might send. I keep waiting for the conversation that sounds more inward-looking.
Now, could there be conversations we have not heard? Absolutely. Could the edited material fail to capture other private moments? Of course. That is why I am not turning my reaction into a factual claim about what Shirilla feels or does not feel. I can only tell you what stands out to me in the material we are actually reviewing.
What This Does and Does Not Establish
These calls support a limited conclusion: during the recorded conversations, Shirilla and her mother discussed media interest, outside contacts, jail routines and preparation for a speech connected to the legal process. Shirilla also described a dream in which she was a model. Those statements are part of the audio Paul reviews.
The calls do not establish Shirilla’s motive for the crash, do not clinically diagnose her, do not independently prove remorse or lack of remorse, and do not tell us how a future parole board will evaluate her. The phrase “delusional” in the video title is commentary, not a medical diagnosis. The underlying convictions rest on the trial record, not on these later reactions to jail-call audio.
The Bottom Line
The reason these Mackenzie Shirilla jail calls keep pulling me back in is not because every sentence is explosive. A lot of them are not. It is because ordinary conversation can reveal the things people are focused on when they are not standing in front of a judge or giving a prepared interview.
This batch gave us NBC, outside messages, a speech for the legal process, and yes, a dream about being a model. None of those things rewrites the case. Together, though, they give us more material to think about as we try to understand the person behind a case that has generated an enormous amount of public debate.
Watch the full video above for the complete audio breakdown and my real-time reactions, because some of these calls really do require the full cup of “I cannot roll my eyes hard enough.”
What stands out to you more in these calls, the family’s reaction to media attention, the outside messages, or the way Shirilla talks about herself?
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