The Shirilla Grand Jury Saw it All

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:02]King of grand juries, see almost like we knew what we were doing here dovetailing this. Here's the the grand jury or chunk of the grand jury presentation that was used in the case against Kenzie, I mean Mackenzie Shirilla.

[00:00:18]Um you know, just give me some Yeah, let me ask you your take on this in terms of a presentation.

[00:00:25]Do you think this is normal?

[00:00:29]They went to greater lengths. It's just rank this for me. Is this a typical presentation to a grand jury in your experience?

[00:00:36]>> No, not at all.

[00:00:38]>> Looks a little little well developed.

[00:00:40]>> grand jury presentations.

[00:00:42]They considered this a very serious case and I should I'm concerned. Obviously, they were concerned about whether they could get a conviction. I think initially because it looked like she was a victim, right? And maybe she's a victim of her upbringing. I don't know.

[00:00:57]That's too too you know, far off for me to consider.

[00:01:01]But I think afterwards they wanted to make sure the grand jury felt that she had done this intentionally or at least in New Jersey it'd be a lesser standard.

[00:01:10]Murder would be lesser standard. If you do something that you know that could possibly result, you know, or is likely result in in the death of somebody, that could be murder, too. So I think they were just covering all bases here.

[00:01:21]>> Okay. So they lay out first of all, you know, when it became known to anybody else that it happened 6:15 in the morning. They get a 911 call. They've circled here this area near the building. This is the the Where's that building? The Plidco building.

[00:01:39]I'm not sure what Plidco does. Then they had this was interesting. I'm I'm guessing they had that they that they offered up. This would be the the aftermath, which we will look at later when we have Stephen Plourd on. Um but in the presentation here it's just a still frame. And you can see a couple of the uh uh this was so soon after the crash that they've got blocked out here some of the more grizzly um imagery.

[00:02:04]So, they've referenced the uh occupants, the driver, Dominic Russo, her boyfriend, and the friend Davion Flanagan, the 19-year-old. Both They were They were basically dead at the scene.

[00:02:15]>> Right. And uh Mackenzie Scholla, the undoubtedly was driving the car, uh her boyfriend uh soon-to-be ex-boyfriend, if you look at the text, uh was in the front passenger seat, and uh uh the other young man was in the rear.

[00:02:32]>> And then you notice the bottom paragraph here says uh she was assessed by medics.

[00:02:37]One of them located a digital scale in a clear bag containing a substance that tested positive for psilocybin, which is the mushrooms, right?

[00:02:45]>> Right. But she uh I read the lab reports today. She didn't have any in her.

[00:02:49]You know, there was nothing came out in the drug testing.

[00:02:51]>> So, I wonder why she would have that with her if she planned to kill herself.

[00:02:55]That'd be kind of a weird thing to take with you, wouldn't it?

[00:02:58]>> No, it's just in your car. I mean, you know, they were at a waste bin. I mean, they were Remember, they were at a they were at a party, you know?

[00:03:05]>> Yeah, okay. All right.

[00:03:07]Just took a roadie, okay.

[00:03:09]>> Yeah.

[00:03:09]>> Um Okay, members of the public provided first clues it was not an accident.

[00:03:15]They've got the named witnesses there.

[00:03:17]Now, they listed it at 90 mph, which is why I mentioned that. They've got their um This looks like Life360. Does that look like it?

[00:03:24]>> It is. It is Life360, and you've talked about that app.

[00:03:26]>> Yeah, we What is it?

[00:03:28]It's a great app. It's um you know, it's great for stalking your kids.

[00:03:32]Um you know, it's it's just something the family can all join in on, and it will it follows wherever your phone is, it will determine whether you're walking, driving. I've had one uh every now and then it'll say boat. Cuz I don't know how I guess if you're somewhere near water, if the if the speed is right, it'll think you're on a boat. But it gives you all kinds of information after the fact, too. Uh scary information about driving. It'll say um how many risky events you've encountered, you know, like >> Holy molly.

[00:04:00]>> quick acceleration, hard braking, uh a lot a lot of that kind of information uh is available based really on just the ability to to GPS tra- type track you.

[00:04:11]So, that's where they got the 90 mph um from from that app.

[00:04:18]Okay, let's see. It takes 3-mile drive, 6 minutes, covering the whole route. And you know, you've seen everybody has seen that final turn onto the main street there that that uh includes the acceleration and the crash. It's like the most normal right-hand turn you can imagine, right?

[00:04:36]>> Mhm.

[00:04:36]>> Uh and you know, signal turn, there's signals being used and everything.

[00:04:41]That's from this corner right here. Uh and again, >> We'll play the video that later on, but >> because I want to see Steven this take on, you know, does that tell you anything? It just seems like flipping a light switch, you know, to go from very careful, cautious driving to maniacal.

[00:05:00]With not a lot of time to ramp up. And here's um one of the shots. We'll see this video as well. I actually edited together. You got all that video from the source, right? From >> Right.

[00:05:10]>> And it for some reason, there's one long clip that takes you about 3/4 of the way toward the crash site itself, and then it picks up on another video. So, it's very clunky. So, I edited that together so we can see it all in one one shot.

[00:05:25]>> Strongsville police actually released uh all the documents they have a file. Uh it takes you a while to download them, and you have to go through them. Uh so, that's what we would you and I were doing this afternoon.

[00:05:35]>> And I just wondered why they cut that clip where they did. It was weird. But anyway, I've put it back together, so it's much easier to see the whole thing.

[00:05:41]And I also left in there uh at a few minutes before the subject car, there's a regular car just driving through the neighborhood. It's about 5 minutes earlier. Uh I wanted to show that to just get a sense of this is what normal traffic sounds like and looks like cuz then when you juxtapose that with what the subject car sounded like and looked like, it's even more shocking. It sounds like a jet engine is coming up the road when that that was in a Toyota. Yeah, that Toyota.

[00:06:09]>> Yeah. I watched the documentary this weekend for the first time because our producer Joey Schmehar said you have to look at the documentary and so we then took a look at it and decided that we would look at this case from our own accident reconstructionists because that's what people are asking. What somebody independent say? So we're going to bring you independence.

[00:06:32]>> And this this page is very interesting because this is the page that shows you see the tire track there on the lawn.

[00:06:38]Apparently where maybe somebody was realizing, you know, in the car, this is not good. You know, this speed we ain't stopping and they tried to redirect the car somehow and that's why it left the the the lane of travel and it cut the corner of the the the grassy knoll there.

[00:06:55]>> Yeah, there is and that's one of the questions I have for Steven. There is a right and then a left input into the steering wheel. Okay, that the black box as we call it right and left and there was a suggestion by the prosecutor I think that the boys in the car were trying to grab control of the steering wheel at that time and stop her from doing what she did. And I want to ask him whether or not that right and left would do that or whether that's one way or was there a way and the ultimate question we're going to ask Steven, I'll let you know so that you can tell all your friends to come join us is is there a way if she had scoped out this route before and this building before that she knew she could hit this car on the side to have her most be able to survive.

[00:07:40]>> Yeah, and if you look at the point of impact there on the corner, first of all, with that weird maneuver toward the very end, it makes it even less likely that that you could hit a precise part of the building versus just hitting the building. But, if your theory is true, that was the right side of the car that hit that corner of the building and took the brunt of the collision.

[00:08:04]But, was that by design or was that just happenstance?

[00:08:08]There's the black box. Uh everybody uh probably is now looking in their own cars to see where the black box is. Most people don't think there is a black box.

[00:08:16]>> And we know we've talked about EDR before. No one really knew what was EDR that until we did Karen Reed, remember?

[00:08:22]>> Yeah.

[00:08:22]>> It tells you everything tells you when your windows are open, when your radio goes on. It tells you a lot of things you didn't know. Uh and that there's a spy in your car.

[00:08:32]>> Yes, there is. So, this one being used primarily to show the level of acceleration, 100 100 100%.

[00:08:39]Uh >> And that's your pedal to the metal, so to speak, as they say.

[00:08:42]>> That's really pedal to the metal. And that and braking, you can see the brake oil pressure 0 0 0 0 0.

[00:08:48]Um shift position. Um I I'd like to find out a little more about this.

[00:08:54]>> Uh neutral neutral drive drive.

[00:08:56]>> Yeah.

[00:08:56]>> Drive drive drive and neutral neutral.

[00:08:59]Does the neutral neutral coincide with the grabbing of the wheel? I mean, these are things questions I have.

[00:09:04]>> Yeah.

[00:09:04]>> I think And I'll say that right now. Not that I I think she's innocent. I think she's absolutely guilty from my purview.

[00:09:10]But, there's questions that we want to answer because even though her appeals have been decided, we all know how this goes.

[00:09:17]>> I'm also uh you know, I'm thinking of that car, the Toyota. I think it's a Corolla, one of those Does it have a center console gearshift? I think so versus an on the column type cuz most of the on the column type were older cars. So, if I'm a passenger and I'm trying to do everything I can to keep from, you know, running into this building at high speed, I'm grabbing the steering wheel and maybe I'm trying to put it in neutral. Uh cuz I could reach it. If the person in the backseat could have or the person in the front seat.

[00:09:43]>> Yeah, it's a Camry, right? So, we'll have We'll One thing we did not look up, and it may be answered here, the inside of the car may be answered here.

[00:09:49]>> Okay.

[00:09:50]Uh 100% um for a minimum of 5.85 seconds prior to impact. So, if there was ever any uh releasing of the brake pedal, it did not happen in the last 5.85 seconds.

[00:10:04]Of the gas pedal. The gas pedal.

[00:10:05]>> Wow.

[00:10:06]>> Um that is Oh, that's the gas um the pedal sits on that arm, not normally in that position.

[00:10:14]Um basically saying that was not uh a defect. You know, thinking somehow the pedal got stuck.

[00:10:24]>> And I know you'll love that Steven is looking at us looking at this right now as we're looking, yes, writing our writing our questions.

[00:10:32]>> Uh yeah, Parma Movers. So, that's what the That's what the company is there. Okay.

[00:10:38]Okay, and here's the the now infamous shot of that car just rocketing up the street. And again, we'll have that on video soon here. That was That was one of the cops arriving.

[00:10:49]I'm not sure what that still is for.

[00:10:52]Uh tox reports, right?

[00:10:54]>> Mhm.

[00:10:57]>> Uh negative for There's your negative for the uh mushrooms, negative for ethanol, no no alcohol.

[00:11:03]>> Mhm.

[00:11:06]>> Yeah, it says currently there's no level of THC or any of its metabolites which necessarily determines the degree to which Mackenzie Shirley is impaired, nor do any of these drugs impair the blood, they impair the brain. You know, we kind of gloss over all this use of um marijuana these days.

[00:11:23]It ain't the same, you know, it ain't your dad's marijuana, okay? And it is so much more potent. It is so much stronger. It is like 90% THC.

[00:11:33]And back in the good old days, it would be like 15-20% THC. So, that's why there's this big controversy about it, you know, leading to paranoia and other psychological issues that maybe didn't exist back when dad was was poking up.

[00:11:50]And man, from the I mean, of course, the video the movie makes it look like she didn't go many hours without smoking marijuana, but who knows?

[00:11:58]>> really look like those those blunts were pretty big. The ones in the movie.

[00:12:03]>> were very big, yes.

[00:12:05]Okay.

[00:12:07]Oh, that's the mushrooms. Okay.

[00:12:09]Okay.

[00:12:10]This is some of the influencer information. Why do you think this was important to put in the grand jury >> Well, let me put this way. We do have people that are supporters. The angry killjoy and honest lawyer who looks at this case would see that she was obviously railroaded. Well, an honest lawyer looks at this case and 12 jurors could see that she may have not been railroaded. I have a different opinion.

[00:12:29]You have that opinion. I have a different opinion.

[00:12:30]>> Well, we'll see. [clears throat] Hey, it's a free country last time I checked.

[00:12:35]Why would you Why would you include all this influencer stuff in the grand jury presentation?

[00:12:39]>> Uh because you want people to see that she never had any type of blackouts before, that she didn't have this pot syndrome, that she was very active on social media, that she's very active texting.

[00:12:54]You We want to get a feel for her and what she does. I mean, quite frankly.

[00:13:00]>> And then they talk about motive and they've got warrants for phone cell phone, iCloud account, Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok.

[00:13:13]>> I mean, let's face it. If you don't think driving 100 miles an hour into a brick building is going to cause somebody to die, then your brain may have been addled by drugs, alcohol, or some type of genetic issue.

[00:13:27]>> Yeah. Yeah, and there's no doubt that was not like oops.

[00:13:31]Uh and then there's reference to this history which we know a lot of the texts and other things released support this this history they talk about an incident on July 17th. Uh she's driving her vehicle um and Dominic calls his mom saying pick him up uh because um McKenzie she realized threatened to crash the car. This is 2 weeks before she did crash the car.

[00:13:54]>> Right. And then she's like as she's uh then uh called somebody said um texted said oh he's trying to kill me uh and all. So I think in my view was that was just a cover-up. Quite frankly uh for what she was doing to him.

[00:14:07]>> Hey, the best defense is a good offense.

[00:14:09]>> Yeah. And we do have the text that was released uh yesterday and the more texts were released that uh he was trying to break up with her 2 weeks beforehand. And there's no doubt when you look at her social media history uh you know this was this this was the person she was going to be with and you know if I can't have you no one's going to have you in my opinion. Now you can have a different opinion.

[00:14:33]>> Mhm.

[00:14:34]>> [clears throat] >> Uh and this uh again lifestyle images here. This is from the weekend before.

[00:14:42]Okay.

[00:14:43]Um and then I I I think this is such a detailed report for for the uh >> The grand jury, right?

[00:14:48]>> jury. Really detailed.

[00:14:50]>> It's great I think it's great though because it it puts together the whole case, right?

[00:14:54]>> Yeah.

[00:14:55]>> It's putting together the whole case they're going to hear uh and all.

[00:14:59]>> Look at that car. Oh my god.

[00:15:02]>> This is a very very sad case, right?

[00:15:05]Now, could you say that the uh that are appearing as a corpse uh after he died in a party? Maybe that shouldn't have been allowed in. That's a possibility because it was a party, but uh but will it affect it affect the ver- affect the verdict? No way. No way.