Dr. Casey Jordan on Mackenzie Shirilla: “Fatalistic, Narcissistic — And Prison Has Not Corrected Her”

The Netflix documentary brought the case back into the spotlight. The jail calls added layer after layer of unsettling detail. And now, a criminologist with decades of experience studying criminal behavior has weighed in on Mackenzie Shirilla — and what emerges from that analysis is one of the most complete and troubling portraits of the 21-year-old yet.

Dr. Casey Jordan, forensic criminologist, sat down with investigative journalist Brian for an episode of Brian Investigates — and pulled no punches.

“Fatalistic” — A Word That Explains Everything

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One of the most striking moments of the conversation came when Dr. Jordan introduced a term that reframes the entire question of whether Shirilla intended to survive the July 2022 crash that killed boyfriend Dominic Russo and their friend Davion Flanagan.

Fatalistic.

“Fatalistic simply means if what you’re doing kills you, you don’t care,” Jordan explained. “As long as you’re having fun, getting your needs met, feeling thrill, excitement, power, control in the moment — eat, drink, and be merry because tomorrow we could be dead.”

Applied to the night of the crash, the implication is chilling. Shirilla may not have calculated survival at all. In Jordan’s analysis, the moment Dominic signaled the relationship was ending, something shifted — and what happened next was not about living or dying. It was about control.

“At that exact moment, I think she just was like — I don’t care whether I live or die, but he’s not going to live,” Jordan said.

Narcissism, Sociopathy and a Spectrum Nobody Wants to Be On

When asked directly whether Shirilla is a psychopath, Jordan’s answer was measured but deeply concerning. Rather than a yes or no, the criminologist placed Shirilla on a spectrum — somewhere between sociopathic and psychopathic — and noted that her time in prison appears to be moving her further along it rather than pulling her back.

“Prison has not had an effect on correcting her,” Jordan said. “She just thinks this is going to be another segue to fame and fortune.”

The 36 prison conduct reports — in which Shirilla was found guilty in 32 cases — appear to support that assessment. Violations ranging from contraband possession to disobeying direct orders to breaking video visitation rules have accumulated in what prison officials described as a “steady stream” of disciplinary issues since her arrival.

The Mother at the Center

Jordan reserved some of her most pointed analysis for Natalie Shirilla — Mackenzie’s mother — describing the relationship between the two as something that goes well beyond normal parental support.

“McKenzie is the puppet master and Natalie — who’s the parent — is the puppet,” Jordan said. “Her daughter is pulling all the strings.”

The criminologist argued that until the family stops enabling Shirilla from the outside — the Cash App payments, the commissary items, the unwavering public defense — there is little chance of genuine accountability taking root.

“She hasn’t hit rock bottom yet,” Jordan said plainly. “That will only happen if her family cuts her off, lets her pay the piper, actually be miserable. Then she will really start to accept her fate.”

The POTS Defense — Debunked by Someone Who Actually Has It

The episode also featured Angela, a viewer of Brian’s channel who has lived with POTS — postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome — for 17 years and reached out specifically because of how angry the community has become over Shirilla’s use of the condition as a defense.

Angela’s explanation was straightforward and clear. POTS is a positional condition — triggered by moving from sitting or lying down to standing. The idea that it could cause someone to black out while already seated and then floor an accelerator to 100 mph is, in her words, simply not how the condition works.

“There’s no way,” Angela said. “If she pressed the accelerator to go 100 miles an hour, that means she was seriously flooring it. That’s just not something that happens with POTS.”

Angela also noted that the lifestyle Shirilla was reportedly living — drug use, alcohol consumption — would actively worsen POTS symptoms, making the defense even less credible in her view.

Mackenzie Shirilla is currently serving two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life at the Ohio Reformatory for Women. She will not be eligible for parole until 2037.

Source: Compiled from various sources