Episode 59: The Crash

This week on Current Chatter, Netflix documentary The Crash takes center stage as Kota and Losa break down the tragic real-life story of a deadly car accident that left two young men dead and one survivor facing murder charges. The episode dives deep into the complicated case surrounding Mackenzie Shirilla, exploring the evidence, toxicology reports, courtroom drama, and the question that still divides people: was the crash intentional or a horrible reckless mistake?

Kota and Losa unpack the emotional details of the documentary, discuss the warning signs leading up to the crash, and debate whether accountability, immaturity, and toxic relationships played a role in the tragedy. They also share their own opinions on the controversial trial, the sentencing, and the behavior of everyone involved — from Mackenzie herself to the families and investigators.

Heavy conversation gets balanced out with hilarious debate questions, childhood stories, embarrassing public moments, weird foods, old technology nostalgia, and classic McCoy family chaos. From failed leapfrogs over bike racks to accidental WWE-style toddler tackles, this episode swings between true crime discussion and absolute comedy.

As always stay hydrated, take care of your mental health, and brace yourself for the unexpected.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:01

Hello everyone, and welcome to Current Chatter, Two Generations, One Noisy World, the podcast where we talk about the stories that make you laugh, question reality, and wonder how the world somehow keeps getting weirder by the day. I'm Losa, and if this is your first time here, settle in because every week, me and my son Dakota will dive into the strange, the trending, the unbelievable, and the headlines that leave us all with a collectively asking us why. From bizarre news stories and internet chaos to current events, pop culture madness, and the topics everyone can't stop talking about. Nothing is off limits here. If it's shocking, ridiculous, fascinating, controversial, or just plain confusing, we're probably talking about it. This podcast is part of commentary, part chaos, and part group therapy for people trying to survive modern life one headline at a time. So whether you're driving, cleaning your house, hiding from your responsibility, or just looking for a break from the insanity of the world around you, I'm glad you're here. Get comfortable, grab a drink, and let's get into current chatter. Hello, hello, hello. It's Friday afternoon, and you know what that means? Current chatter. Two generations, one crazy world. How you doing today, Coda?

SPEAKER_01 1:24

I'm doing alright. How are you, mama?

SPEAKER_03 1:27

I was much better until I tried to record the opening for today.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

Yeah, you you were struggling there for a minute. I did.

SPEAKER_03 1:40

The last time we did it, I struggled too. Maybe you should do the introductions and I should sit back and relax.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Okay. It's a good thing next week's my turn. I do think though that our new opening music is starting to grow on me.

SPEAKER_03 1:53

Yes. It took me a minute to listen to it a couple of times, and I was like, yeah, this is good. Yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_01 1:59

It's got a different beat to it and a different like uh a feel to it, but I think it I think it gives it life that we need.

SPEAKER_03 2:06

Right. Yeah. No, I totally agree. What do our listeners think of the new opener? Let us know in the comments. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

So mom hit me up, I want to say, uh, what was it, Tuesday or Wednesday of last week? And um, she was like, We need to watch the crash on Netflix. I'd like to talk about it. And I was like, okay, I'd seen like the trailer for it. Um, I went into it not really knowing a whole lot. Did you know the story beforehand?

SPEAKER_03 2:31

I didn't, and which is weird because so many people were like, I can't believe you didn't know that story because they knew the story. And I was like, Yeah, like this happened like in 2022 when your grandfather died and your dad got sick, and then I had cancer, and I was like, Yeah, none of that stuff mattered to me in 2022, 2023. No, not at all.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

So we ended up watching it. I'm just gonna say right now, there will be spoilers if you haven't watched it yet.

SPEAKER_03 2:58

Yes, yes. Be prepared for spoilers. Had you heard of the story before, Takona? No, I hadn't heard of it at all. It was such a tragic story. The documentary starts off where most documentaries start off at the end instead of at the beginning, saying that this is what's going on. It was a tragic story to just begin with. Like a girl driving a car crashed into a wall and killed, instantly killed her boyfriend and one of her best friends, and nearly killed her.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

So not only did they hit a brick wall, they hit like, you know, like one of the big signs that like has like a school name on it or something like that. That's like kind of the yeah. So they hit that sign on the driver's side, and then the passenger side is where they hit the the um uh brick wall. But like when the police get there, that car's nearly torn in half. Just basically like almost down the center, torn in half. It was like wild.

SPEAKER_03 3:56

It was a horrendous, yeah, horrendous car accident.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

The three were recent high school graduates, uh, those were who was involved in the crash. Two died, a Dominic, or we call him Dom Russo, and then his good buddy David, they all called him Dave, Dave Finnegan. And there was only one survivor, Mackenzie Sherilla. And when they found Mackenzie, sh the she still had her seatbelt on, but she had hit the wall and the sign with such force that it caused her to get her head basically underneath the steering wheel. And I think she might have broken a couple of vertebrates. She's not paralyzed, but she definitely was fucked up.

SPEAKER_03 4:35

Yeah, it was not like it was not a pretty car accident. Not saying that that there ever is a pretty car accident, but you get what I mean. Yeah, it was just it was horrifying.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

Mm-hmm. She shattered one of her femurs, she split several arteries, broke several known bones in her um neck. She basically cut in half the bone in her arm. Yeah, she like she's gonna be dealing with that car crash for the rest of her life. Like she'll still be recovering for the rest of her life with the amount of injuries she had. Like I tried to write them all down, and I was like, I was just so flabbergasted because I kept going and I couldn't type fast enough because I was trying to take notes. Investigators found no skid marks and no evidence that the driver attempted to break.

SPEAKER_03 5:20

Um slow down at all.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Yeah, there was nothing anything like that.

SPEAKER_03 5:24

Right. And then that at that point in the show, they show it her speeding down the road and how fast she's going. It is she is rocketing down that street.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

So rocketing. When there's a police officer who is just uh assigned to uh traffic violations and whatnot, but he was able to do the math and figure out how fast they were going. In some of the surveillance cameras, she's going approximately 97.8 miles at the impact. Right. So just impact at impact. So just under 100 miles an hour on impact. They do have a surveillance video of the crash, and it's really hard to watch. Like it's it is hard to watch.

SPEAKER_03 6:04

Like they sh they kept showing it and they kept looping it, and every time it was just like, oh one of the fathers, I think it was um Dom's father.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

I can't remember his name, I didn't write it down, but he like he said it the best after he watched the footage. He said it was like a missile, and you could clearly hear the car coming before it even um came into fire.

SPEAKER_03 6:26

Oh no, that was the lawyer that said that.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Was it?

SPEAKER_03 6:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

Her lawyer, Mackenzie's lawyer. It it it it is like a a fucking like just a speed run. Like it's it's crazy to watch. And then like you don't see the car crash itself, but you can hear it. And I I feel like a a lot of people have heard a car crash, seen a car crash. You know the sound of like car smashing into something, and that's all you hear, and then it just goes completely silent. That like there's no animal sounds, there's no other car sounds. It's just like that impact and just complete silence during that video. It's it's rough to watch because you're you're watching two people instantly die. Like there's no there's no coming back from it. They said it when they were um when the police were investigating the car, they were like, there's two DOAs that's dead on arrival, and then there was Mackenzie who wasn't dead.

SPEAKER_03 7:14

Right. It was horrifying to watch. And then they start like they start backtracking in the story about like going backwards from the night of the accident for forward to see what exactly's happened.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

Yeah, so they did end up finding um a small amount of marijuana and mushrooms and a scale inside of McKenzie's backpack. So the police believe that there may have been some intoxication or hallucinogens inside of the of the driver Kenzie at the time of impact. So now they're trying to figure out what uh occurred the night before to see if they can kind of get a picture going on. Um, the three had attended a party, but their friends all call it like a sleepover. It wasn't really a party, it was just friends just like staying the night. Um, and according to the friends, the mushrooms were never used because of how late everybody showed up to the sleepover. It was like 12 a.m. and they were like, nah, it's not the right time to do mushrooms. And all they did was smoke pot. However, Kenzie is a voistress person on her social media, and she's got tons of videos of her smoking pot and acting a fool, in my opinion. Acting a fool. But supposedly that night she hadn't consumed any marijuana because she was taking a break from marijuana. She was having uh lung issues. One of her friends, Bubba, said that she was coughing up weird colors, and so she had was taking a break from the marijuana. So according to her friends, there was no marijuana intake from Kenzie that night. So that leads you to believe that she was sober when this occurred.

SPEAKER_03 8:49

You almost like you almost hope that there is something that they can blame it on like that. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 8:55

Yeah. Cause it it's hard to think that someone sober could do this to someone else or two other people.

SPEAKER_03 9:01

Right. And but then it's hard to imagine that, and then they give you all the reasons why you should imagine that.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

Yeah. They do get into it. Um the police had run a toxicology report on Kenzie while she was still in the hospital. They got parents' permission. Um, there was no alcohol in McKenzie's system. THC was present, but the amount of THC that was present showed that she probably mo and most likely did not consume that night. And there were no mushrooms detected. So there was no um siposillin, whatever the fuck uh the medical term is for mushrooms. Even though uh Kenzie had severe injuries, she later claimed she only remembered waking up at her friend's house on the couch and then turning down the street, and then her memory goes blank upon.

SPEAKER_03 9:46

Wait, let's talk about that for a second, because my pro like my thing with that is that it how ironic is it that she can't remember that. Oh, it's very ironic for sure. That specific moment. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 10:01

No, for sure. I'm not sure what I make of Mackenzie's claim if she remembers nothing. On one hand, memory loss after severe trauma is absolutely possible. She did suffer devastating injuries and traumatic brains injuries can cause uh an effect on your memory. On the other hand, it's difficult to wonder if there are details she remembers but chooses not to share, since none of us uh can know what's happening inside her head. It's it's almost impossible to say with certainty what the science is there, that yes, she could totally have memory issues. The other thing is it's totally intentional and she did this on purpose but doesn't want to voice that. So it's just it's it's one of those things that it I'll I'll agree with you. It seems too convenient.

SPEAKER_03 10:43

Way too convenient. And some of the stuff I I won't ruin it right now, but some of the stuff that happens later on in the documentary make me think that she is not as innocent as she would like to appear.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I'd like to get into the victims a little bit. I'd like to get into Dom and um Day uh Dave uh and their kind of dynamic. So Dom was super close to his family. His parents said that he never missed a family gathering, a family outing. He was always around and very attentive to his family. He did live on his own, which was interesting. And I wondered to myself, how does a 20-year-old be able to afford all this stuff?

SPEAKER_03 11:22

You know, because they said something in the in the in the documentary about him being financially stable.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Yep. And so later on in the documentary, you find out that he has invested in stocks and he's done really well in the in the stocks, um, and that's how he's able to afford his lavish lifestyle.

SPEAKER_03 11:40

I wonder how much of his activity though, because for a 20-year-old, that's a lot of stock. But you know. Like I wonder, I wondered if there wasn't some other um means of income. Yeah. Yeah. And they kind of some illegal forms of income.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

They did kind of hint at it that Dom was dealing. They kind of it wasn't like a big hint, but in one of the text messages that they're showing on str on on screen the night of the sleepover or party, whatever you want to call it, one of the friends had asked Mackenzie if Dom was willing to sell a bag of marijuana to them for the party. So they've kind of like they kind of go into it, but it's not like a for sure thing. And I think that they did that because they don't know for a fact whether Dom did that or not, and they don't want to point fingers at someone who can't give their side of the story, you know?

SPEAKER_03 12:27

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

And uh Dom actually ended up texting his father at 2 a.m. the night of the accident, just saying that I love you. That's all he said to him. There was no context. He just like, when Dom's father found out that he died, he went through his phone and said, Yeah, Dom sent me a text message at 2 a.m. I think it was like 2.53 or something, if we want to get down to exact.

SPEAKER_03 12:46

He stayed up all night of that sleepover and just comforted Kenzie. Like held her, and they said that he was uh petting her hair and that he stayed up and just cuddled with her, and that their relationship was just beyond, I don't know what the word I'm thinking of is.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

They the way they described the relationship in the beginning was that they were the power couple in their school. That's what they were known for, is just being the power couple. Everybody looked up to that couple to strive to have something like that.

SPEAKER_03 13:17

Right um, and then for for Dave, they didn't go into a lot of detail about him.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

No, they said that he wanted he was an aspiring barber, and he was a standout football player, but suffered injuries that ended his football future. I think he tore his ACL. Dave did have plans to work on their friend Bubba's truck in the in that morning. The very last minute he changed his mind and got into the car with Dom and Mackenzie. He was living with Dom at the time of the accident, so he should he had told Bubba, I just want to go home and shower and sleep for a little bit longer because it sounds like they'd been up all night partying and hanging out. Bubba, his friend, before Dave left, Dave had told him that he loved him. And Bubba found that unusual because it men don't show affection that way with their other guy friends. I'm sure that that at some point they were like, Oh yeah, I love you, dude. I like you know what I mean. But it was just like that moment stood out to Bubba's mind as like a kind of like a just a weird, a weird thing, you know?

SPEAKER_03 14:16

Right.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

Um so that's a little bit about the victim.

SPEAKER_03 14:18

So there was just this group of friends that hung out, did everything together. And um they were just a great group of friends that just hung out. Like they said that they spent days together, days on end together. And so none of them could picture Mackenzie doing anything untoward toward Dom or to Dave.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

And later on during the uh, because it's an hour and a half documentary, you kind of actually see the true colors of Mackenzie. She doesn't appear to be this shining star. She's had several incidents at school for being a bully. Um, and her parents kind of would look the other way and say, Well, I believe my kids, she said she didn't do it, so we're just gonna go get her ice cream or something. They didn't say ice cream, but I'm just gonna do it.

SPEAKER_03 15:07

Can we talk about the parents for just one moment?

SPEAKER_01 15:09

Absolutely, a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_03 15:10

What the heck is up with them? Like, if I have ever seen anything that was so undeniably like not good, like it's like letting your child believe that like taking care of your child's all of their issues, you know what I mean? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:27

That was definitely McKenzie's parents uh McKenzie's parents didn't instill accountability into Mackenzie. They they took a lot of of they swept a lot of her issues and her shortcomings under a rug, and I think that played a part in later on in a documentary. Mackenzie's parents definitely I don't want to say coddled, but they were not disciplinaries. And if they were, they didn't show it in in the documentary. I have no idea.

SPEAKER_03 15:53

They didn't know. In fact, the mom l seemed to be making things worse at the At the trial, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:01

We can get into that in a minute. But yeah. Um that was really fucking awkward to watch.

unknown 16:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:08

Just like so awkward to watch, it makes you like so uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

You start to find out that Kenzie isn't this super awesome person. She's got a bit of an attitude issue, and I feel like that's normal for a teenage girl to post on her Snapchat Um, You don't fuck with me, I don't fuck with you. Um, we let you into our house, and now you're gonna treat me like it's just normal, like angsty teenage shit, you know?

SPEAKER_03 16:29

But it's the way she goes about it that's well, her parents let her move in with Dom when she was 17.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

Yeah, they said that she was mature enough to make that decision. And she wasn't paying for anything. I don't think she had a d a job. Dom paid for absolutely everything. He bought her like Gucci bags, Gucci earrings, like anything and everything she wanted, Dom would buy for and like just didn't even sh didn't even need to work or anything. She just had come to care for her. Yeah, I wouldn't call it toxic, but it definitely was not copacetic. There was definitely we'd break up and get back together and break up and get back together.

SPEAKER_03 17:07

Um It's just not healthy. It's not a healthy relationship to be in that way.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

No, and I feel like that's a a normal teenage thing to go through. As a like a young person, you're you just haven't fully experienced life. You don't know what it means to actually fight for a relationship or prove yourself in a relationship. You just like you just don't have that understanding, but you think you know everything because you can group together a coherent thought. I I don't know. Like I was definitely one of those teenagers that was like, you can't tell me what the fuck. Like I'll be the first to admit it. So while we're figuring out that Mackenzie wasn't like, I don't know, was it most the authentic person?

SPEAKER_03 17:45

Yeah, she wasn't the goody two shoes that people wanted her to be.

SPEAKER_01 17:49

The whole time investigators are uh building a case against her. Um the vehicle was thoroughly inspected and no mechanical fares fair no mechanical errors were found at the time of the crash. They did find a slipper that had gotten wedged onto the um gas pedal, but dur they had a forensic crash investigator come out and re-s reassimilate the crash in a they they do their techie shit, I I don't know. But they realized that that slipper most likely became lodged on the gas pedal during the accident, not beforehand, because everything had kind of crumpled around the slipper. So it was definitely something that happened after.

SPEAKER_03 18:29

It's important to keep in mind that they found like the the little black box of the car.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Yeah, the brain of the car.

SPEAKER_03 18:37

Right. And they were able to say with a hundred percent certainty that the car went in and out of gear several times from drive to neutral to drive to neutral.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

And it had it had swerved left to right, left to right. So and that there was absolutely no braking in the moments leading up to the accident, and the accelerant was fully pushed down. So the way it looks is that someone had just smashed the gas pedal and just just went to fucking town. Um they theorized that the passenger, so Dom and Dave, were attempting to make Kenzie stop by putting into neutral, and then she would pop back into drive, and then they would pop it into neutral, she'd pop it back into drive, and the swerving was them attempting to take over the vehicle.

SPEAKER_03 19:24

Take control of the vehicle.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

That's what they theorized. They don't know that for a fact um at this time. They don't know for a fact at all, actually. Because they they're not they're not gonna know because one person doesn't remember and the other two are dead. Like exactly. And you can get all this information from a little black box, so right.

SPEAKER_03 19:41

And so it showed that she didn't slow down, she wasn't, and then the other tests that they did, she wasn't impaired in any way. So what happens, you know, ultimately is in November of that year they r arrest her.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 19:57

And they charge her with vehicular manslaughter.

SPEAKER_01 20:00

No, they charge her with uh two counts of a aggravated murder.

SPEAKER_03 20:05

Murder, sorry.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

Yes. Um, and as they're building up for this case, they start having some of uh Dom and Dave's friends come into the precinct and give their side of things that's going on. Dom's brother came in and told investigators that Dom was attempting to end the relationship with Mackenzie. He had gotten to a point where he couldn't handle the relationship, and anytime he went to go break up with her, she would act erratic and be able to weasel her way back into his life with her actions. Um two weeks prior to the crash, Dom had reportedly called his mother saying Mackenzie was driving recklessly and erratically. And Dom's mother sent one of their family friends to go and find Dom and Mackenzie on the freeway, which that doesn't make any sense to me. Like call the police.

SPEAKER_03 20:54

Right? I didn't understand that. I I thought that that was just trying to put a bad spin on the situation.

SPEAKER_01 21:01

Yeah, exactly. I like I would not go chase someone that I knew was acting erratically on the freeway like that. That that just doesn't that math doesn't math to me. I don't I don't understand it. And supposedly that friend had called Dom, and Mackenzie can be heard saying, I'm going to crash this car with Dom in inside. Supposedly, this is all supposedly that's what the friend had claimed had happened. So you're kind of getting this this like pre-motive situation with Mackenzie. Like she's threatened to do it before. So you're seeing these patterns of this person acting erratically, not thinking coherently, and it just screams immaturity, really. That's that's really all this screams is just immaturity.

SPEAKER_03 21:44

So then maybe that's one of the reasons why you didn't like it because you were irritated with the immaturity that was portrayed by Mackenzie.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

Yeah, spoiler alert, this was not this was not my my forte. I'll get into it a little bit. But let's jump into the trial. She's arrested. For two counts of aggravated murder. Mom had an issue.

SPEAKER_03 22:03

She had actually twelve counts against her.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

I don't know what all twelve counts were, but Well, I don't remember there being twelve counts, but the big two was the aggravated murder, right?

SPEAKER_03 22:12

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 22:13

Yeah. Um, so in Ohio, that's where it's at, Ohio, right? Ohio, yeah. Strongville. Yep. So they're when you have a trial, you're uh able to pick a bench trial or a jury trial. And a bench trial is where you just go and you have the judge make the decision. A jury trial is where you bring in the the twelve people and you and you have them listen and decide to go to trial. So this was the first huge mistake that McKenzie made. Mom, why don't you get into because I haven't heard why you think this is a mistake. I don't know if it was a mistake.

SPEAKER_03 22:46

Well, I think that it was a mistake because we haven't told the listeners what she picked. Oh, so she picked so McKenzie as the defendant, McKenzie was the one who got to choose whether she had a bench trial or jury trial. And because she she got to pick, what she decided to do was she decided to do a bench trial, which means that she only had to convince one person that she was innocent. But she has to be able to like, and here's why I thought it was a mistake. Because with a jury trial, all you have to do is do reasonable doubt. And there was enough reasonable doubt in this story for her to go free, I thought, with what they told us in the documentary. But however, I think that because she didn't go with a jury trial, she went with a bench trial. That was that was a bad mistake.

SPEAKER_01 23:41

You think that was the nail in the coffin at the end of the day?

SPEAKER_03 23:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:45

Yeah. Um, because that judge did not like her. No. And I mean, she's probably a hard person to like, like, um, just given on all the things that she had talked about. So one of the things that they had never talked about until right during trial, which it it felt kind of like a gotcha moment. Um, they were like, well, she has pots, and that's what caused the crash. And from my understanding of pots, maybe mama, you can get into it a little bit more, being that you have a little bit better medical understanding than I do.

SPEAKER_03 24:12

I have never heard of it before.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

Oh, really? Honest with you. What they had said was pots is like a um uh an I don't want to say a disease, a it's an illness where you just black out.

SPEAKER_03 24:24

Yeah. And the problem with the pots um scenario is that no one has ever seen her do it. And you know, your dad made a good idea.

SPEAKER_01 24:33

Except for her mother, except for her mother. Her mother had had claimed she had seen her pass out.

SPEAKER_03 24:39

Right. And um I just think that it was a load of horse shit. The pots was just a load, just a smokescreen and was not she didn't have pots. Come on.

SPEAKER_01 24:52

No. So I really enjoyed when that when that came out because they put the mother on trial to as a as a witness, and the prosecutor was like, You knew your your daughter had pots. You knew your daughter would occasionally pass out, and yet you still signed off on her getting a driver's license when you knew this could be a risk to someone. And that's when the mom was like, Yeah, of course. Like she needs to be free. Like, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 25:16

Another stellar moment from her parents.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

Like, if you knew I had narcolepsy and I just fell asleep randomly, would you sign off on me getting a vehicle or getting my license?

SPEAKER_03 25:28

Sorry. No, be I don't care how much you up how upset you are about it. There's just some like it's not your life. It's everybody else's. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

As as the adult in this situation, you should see that there's an issue and you shouldn't allow that to happen, correct?

SPEAKER_03 25:43

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

Yeah. Prosecutors argued that the driving behavior was inconsistent with someone who was blacked out. The road that she was going almost a hundred hours an hour was kind of twisty and turny, not not too bad, but like if someone was passed out.

SPEAKER_03 25:58

And they have video of her driving the car in control. Yes. Just minutes before she kills everybody. So you can't you can't tell me she blacked out. Like you just can't with the way she's driving the car. And this was about the point in the documentary where you're shocked because they bring in Mackenzie to tell her own side of the story. And you're like, ooh, this is good. And I have to admit that she looked so much healthier. Yes. From Jay.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

You know what I yeah. And you know what I think it is? I think it's because they got her medication correct.

SPEAKER_03 26:35

It's probably, it's probably true.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

Like I don't want to talk, I don't agree with our our judicial system and our jail system. I don't agree with it at all. But they they they do try to give people that need the medication the correct correct medication. They try. But she did look a lot better and not as clean and yeah. She she wasn't as sickly like before like when you she's a small, small gal, like teeny tiny, like she's itty bitty teeny tiny.

SPEAKER_03 27:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

Like one shot of tequila, and she would have a hangover for a month. Like she's a little girl.

SPEAKER_03 27:10

Yeah, she was tiny. But so the the the judge finds her guilty.

SPEAKER_01 27:18

Guilty.

SPEAKER_03 27:19

Guilty on all charges. Yes. All charges, not just one or two, not just reckless driving, not just she found her guilty of all things. And so then she got sentenced, and she got sentenced to 15 years to life.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

15 years for both murders. Yes. So she's well, so she's got a few years.

SPEAKER_03 27:38

15 years for each one, but there she's said she's she's doing them concurrently, meaning that she's rent.

SPEAKER_01 27:43

So she could get out and what did they say? I think they said she's up for parole in 2037, which is not that far away. I was thinking about it today and I was like, I'm closer to 2030 than I am to 2020. And I just was like, that's a weird thought to like add, you know what I mean? So that's how old I feel.

SPEAKER_03 28:02

So she um where were we? My brain just convinced her. She was convicted. So she was convinced of everything. She was sentenced to 15 years for life, 15 years for each one, but they are to be served concurrently so she can get out sooner. And she's she comes back and she's like, because they're interviewing her in prison, and she's like I don't know what happened because I don't remember, but I know that it had to have been an accident.

SPEAKER_01 28:34

And you have to keep in mind, they show it like right toward the end, the whole time she's doing this interview, her lawyer is present. And at one point they ask her a specific question and she looks at her lawyer like, is it okay for me to answer? Which doesn't show um doesn't show that she's guilty, but it's very calculating. Like if you are not guilty of what you're doing, I don't need a lawyer there. Like I don't need a lawyer to apologize to someone. Like, I know I fucked up. I I don't I don't need that representation there. I fucked up, and here's what I did, and so on and so forth. You know what I'm saying? But for her to have a lawyer there spoke it to me, and I've always said this, your actions speak so much louder than your words. And that action there, for me, was another smoking gun. Well, that she just was like, I couldn't have done it, I couldn't have done it, but if I did do it, I know it was completely I want you to talk about so they allow family members of both victims and Mackenzie's parents to come up and have a final statement before prior to the sentencing. Correct. You get Dom and Dave's family coming up and saying how she's ruined their lives, they can never get their children back. Her parents are able to go see her, I'll never get to see my family member again. And then you get her mom that comes up onto the stand.

SPEAKER_02 29:47

It was so hard to watch. It was so hard to watch.

SPEAKER_01 29:51

Her mom basically was like, This is a tragedy, but not seeing my daughter for so long is an even bigger tragedy. That's that's the gist I got from it. And the judge is like, well, what about Dom and Dave's parents? Like, what about them? They're never gonna see their kid again. And mom kind of like backtracks and goes, Oh, yes, that that is also a terrible accident. Like, that's not at all what I'm getting. And the judge is like, can you just please leave? Like, she stops her in the middle of her speech on how good of a character McKenzie is because it was just so outland, it was uncomfortable to watch. Yes, it was bad. Then then they give Mackenzie a moment to apologize. And she maybe says a paragraph, maybe two.

SPEAKER_03 30:31

She doesn't say much.

SPEAKER_01 30:32

Nope. And Dave's little sister on there, who never liked Mackenzie. She thought Mackenzie was a piece of shit the whole time. She was like, fuck that apology. That wasn't shit. That's what she says to the camera. Like that that that was the worst apology I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_03 30:45

Yeah. Well, here's my thoughts. Are you ready? Yeah. I seriously think that she was like, I'm gonna kill us both. Like it was one of those, if I can't have you, nobody can have you, type of arguments. I think Dave was just an innocent bystander.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:03

Totally innocent bystander who was just happened to be in the car.

SPEAKER_00 31:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:07

And she was arguing with Dom and speeding up and saying she was gonna kill them both, not thinking that Dave was, you know. Sh I seriously think she thought she would she would die in the crash. I do too. She was betting on that she would die in the car in the crash. And she didn't. She killed two other people.

SPEAKER_01 31:26

Yeah. My final thoughts, uh, this documentary didn't grab me in the way that most true crime documentaries do. It was tragic and heartbreaking, but I never found myself truly invested in the presentation itself. Um, it was good. Like, give it a watch. Would I watch it again? Nah, probably not. Um Does my heart go out to the family? Absolutely. To Dom and Dave's family, I I I am so sorry for your loss. Like, there's nothing that anyone can say to ever make that pain stop. I j like my condolences go out to that family.

SPEAKER_02 31:54

Right.

SPEAKER_01 31:55

What stood out to me most was this felt like a teenager who had never truly faced accountability until being confronted with adult consequences. Whether the crash was intentional or not, it is something only Mackenzie really knows. Personally, I go back and forth. Part of me wonders if she intended to scare the boys and never imagined it would even end up this way. Kind of like what you said was that if I can't have you, nobody can. Do I think she felt guilty? Uh yes, I do. Uh two uh two young men lost their lives and she has to live with that reality every day. Whether the crash was intentional or reckless, the outcome is something she can never take back. Do you think she feels guilty?

SPEAKER_03 32:31

I don't know. I don't know. You don't know. I think that um it's one of those she feels guilty because she was caught.

SPEAKER_00 32:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:38

Not because of what she did was wrong.

SPEAKER_00 32:40

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 32:40

Do you know what I mean? Um Yeah. One thing I I found myself asking during the whole documentary was if Dom truly believed Mackenzie had been acting irrationally and driving recklessly in the weeks leading up to the crash, why would he let her drive at all? Right?

SPEAKER_03 32:55

It's a good question.

SPEAKER_01 32:56

No matter how tired I am, if the person that's gonna drive me home, I know is either like hammered, not thinking clearly, hasn't taken their medication, I I'm not I'm not gonna let him fucking drive me. That that's just me as an adult. You know what I'm saying? Like I'd like if this person had been acting so erratically, why why would you allow them? Why would you get behind the wheel of the car with them?

SPEAKER_03 33:16

Why would you get in the car with them?

SPEAKER_01 33:17

Doesn't make any sense. It's like your buddy took you to the bar, now he's hammered, and he's gonna drive you home. No, you're not gonna let your hammer buddy drive you home. And if you are, I hope you have your fucking seatbelt on. I don't know what to tell you. You're you you decided to act on that reckless behavior.

SPEAKER_03 33:32

Right. Um so that was the crash. Anything else you wanted to hit on? No. Would you recommend people watch it?

SPEAKER_01 33:39

I would. Yeah. I like I said, it's it's a good watch. Would I watch it again? Probably not. But yeah. Um a rating one to ten, uh I would give it a high five, a low six. See, I would have given it a seven.

SPEAKER_03 33:53

It was a good it was a just because I hadn't heard anything about the story before. I would have given it a low seven. A low seven, I think. So our next fun and exciting segment is called Fun Debate Segment Questions. You ready, Coda?

SPEAKER_01 34:07

Hit me with it.

SPEAKER_03 34:07

Would you rather lose your phone for one month or your car for one month?

SPEAKER_01 34:12

My phone, because I can get uh everything I look at on my phone on a laptop or a desktop.

SPEAKER_03 34:17

Oh no. I would give me take my car. I don't care.

SPEAKER_01 34:20

You don't rely on your car as much as I do. I have to drive too much.

SPEAKER_03 34:23

I'll sit in the house. I don't care. Take away my ability to leave. Ain't gonna kill me.

SPEAKER_01 34:28

Well, I have to get to work and whatnot, and I would hate to try to figure out the bus routes, you know. I granted I'd have my cell phone, so they'd just fucking tell me, but no, I use my car way too much. Yeah, yeah. Or I could just drive myself. The only the hard thing for me would not being able, I would have to drive to the bank constantly, and because I don't have my bank app. I I don't have a bank app, you know, so I wouldn't be able to transfer money and and whatnot. Oh no. I think that would be the hardest part for you.

SPEAKER_03 34:56

I have to have my phone. I'm sorry. I'm addicted. I need help, I need help. All right, next question. What food smells amazing, but tastes terrible to you?

SPEAKER_01 35:09

I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 35:10

I don't know how to answer that question. That's a tough one, huh?

SPEAKER_01 35:13

Yeah, I would I would say most desserts, because I'm not a big sweet guy, but they smell absolutely amazing. They're just too sweet.

SPEAKER_03 35:21

Mine would be um corned beef and cabbage. Smells so good. Corn beef and cabbage, like my mom and dad would make that at least once or twice a year at the house when I was young. And I would gag on the on the cabbage. I could not, I can oh, it's so horrible. But it smells good, and you like the way we eat it in the the Polynesian culture was you know.

SPEAKER_00 35:46

But Polynesian cabbage is always so good.

SPEAKER_03 35:48

No, I couldn't Corn beef too.

SPEAKER_00 35:51

Polynesian corned beef, ugh. With coconut milk. Mm-hmm. A little bit of coconut.

SPEAKER_03 35:56

Yeah, no, I would choke, I would gag on cabbage. The corned beef I was fine with was the cabbage.

SPEAKER_01 36:04

And you were you were part of the the generation that was like, you weren't allowed to get up from the table till you ate all your food.

SPEAKER_03 36:09

Oh no, no. Funny story, I was probably eight or nine, and I refused to eat the lima beans that my mom made for me, and I was like, I ain't eating those. They are nasty. And to this day, I haven't eaten any. But my mom was like, You're not leaving this table until you eat your lima beans. And I was like, I'll sit here for the rest of my life. I don't care. Would you still be sitting there right now if you could? Yeah, I wasn't gonna eat them. I didn't eat them, and she was finally like, go to your room. And I'm like, done.

SPEAKER_01 36:42

You're like, starvation never sounded so good.

SPEAKER_03 36:46

The thing is, is later on as an adult, I found out my mom hated lima beans. Hated them. I'm like, why would you feed them to us if you hated them? She's like, because they're vegetables, they're good for you. And I'm like, no, they're not. Like, do you remember? Like, I was scarred because you wouldn't let me leave the table.

SPEAKER_01 37:05

And I don't think I've ever had lima beans. I can't think of of having them.

SPEAKER_03 37:09

Oh, they are terrible.

unknown 37:11

Terrible.

SPEAKER_03 37:12

Oh, so horrible. All right. Next question. What's a rich person thing that secretly sucks? I don't know, because I'm not a fucking rich person. I know that. And I I don't know any rich people. No. All right, we'll skip that one. What good technology do you weirdly miss? I miss I miss the boom boxes. Like when I was little, I had a pink boom box, and it was like this big. It was like maybe a foot long, like six three or four inches tall. And I thought I was the coolest thing in the whole world with that.

SPEAKER_01 37:49

Like on your shoulder, just fucking rocking out.

SPEAKER_03 37:52

And it was just this little, little boom, this little girly boom box. It was pink. And funny story, another funny story. I found a replica of it on Amazon that holds Kleenexes and bought that. And every time I pull a Kleenex out of it, I smile. Every time. That's so cute. I love that for you. Oh my god. Like next time you come to visit, you'll be able to see it. It's right there. I put it out where everybody can see it. Because it's beautiful.

unknown 38:24

I love that.

SPEAKER_03 38:28

All right. Um, you know, old technology. So I missed the boom boxes.

SPEAKER_00 38:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:32

I I would say little MP3 players. Like I loved having my little MP3 player. It's it's convenient to have everything just on my cell phone and my pockets aren't so full because I'd have my phone in one pocket and my iPod in the other pocket. But I I do miss just having something just dedicated to music.

SPEAKER_03 38:52

Music. That you don't get you won't be like sidetracked with because, oh look, I'll pick it up and it'll be Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:59

Yeah. I had this little pink one. I had this little pink one that we're would record. So like I'd just play music on YouTube and then I would record the music. So I always had anything I ever wanted to listen to, you know, until I got my iPod touch.

SPEAKER_03 39:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:15

List listener question of the week. What's the weirdest thing thing you've seen someone do in public and act like it was normal? Does it have to be an adult? No, no. The weirdest thing was Dakota as a teenager. And we were leaving an expo center. Jesus. And I don't know what got into Dakota. But Dakota was like, I'm gonna leapfrog over the bike racks. And like it was totally any normal day running full speed as fast as 16-year-old legs can carry you towards a bike rack and then missed it. Missed it. Missed it, ladies and gentlemen.

unknown 40:07

Bitch.

SPEAKER_03 40:08

And then jump up and walk away like that was totally normal. I meant to do that.

SPEAKER_01 40:17

She's forgetting the part where I took out that bike rack. You did. I toppled that bike rack over. Like it hadn't even fully hit the ground before I was up and walking away from it. And you were looking around like, I didn't do that.

SPEAKER_03 40:35

That is the weirdest thing I've ever seen. That was that was totally supposed to be normal.

SPEAKER_01 40:42

Okay, since you're gonna pick on me, I'm gonna pick on you. Oi. Oi. I was in karate for a long time. Very long time. And she already knows. And my little brother was probably, what would you say, five or six at the time?

SPEAKER_03 40:58

No, he was like two.

SPEAKER_01 41:00

Two or three. He was at the that age where if you didn't watch him, he was just gone. He was just going. And I was performing something, and my little brother, I think, wanted to like stand and be with me and next to me while I was doing this performance. So my mom tried to come and grab him. It's a normal thing to come and grab your toddler while they're running out into the middle of a dojo. But mom grabbed him, picked him up in like a bear hug, and tripped over her own feet and landed right on top of him. On top of him.

SPEAKER_03 41:29

Ladies and gentlemen, like, not just a little like, oh, poor Justin, like in my defense.

SPEAKER_01 41:37

Wait, hold on. It gets better. So at least the floor is kind of cushioned because it was like dojo mat, so it was like the squishy floor. So she took him out. So she stands up, takes half a step, does it again? And at this point, she she landed on him twice.

SPEAKER_03 41:56

He's dazed and confused and crying, screaming. And Dakota, Dakota from the lineup says, Damn, you WW Eat him, Mom. And I'm like, in my defense, I was so sick. Like I shouldn't have been out that day. I was so sick. I remember taking Dayquil and just being like, I gotta get through karate and then the day will be over. Another mother came running out onto the floor to rescue Justin as I stumbled back to my seat. And they were like, I know they were thinking to themselves, should we let her drive? Like she just tackled her own child twice. And her other child is laughing hysterically. Still.

SPEAKER_01 42:47

Yeah. That's just a normal day in the McCoy house, I guess. Yeah. I was gonna say one thing until you picked on me, then I picked on you again, was I was teaching karate to a set of little kids at the high school. Um, and this one little kid pulled out a booger like from from his nostril, and it was probably, I don't know, three inches long, and then just like slurped it down in the middle of class. It was like the longest booger, dude. Just stop, just stop. That's what I was gonna go with. And then and then you picked on me, so I had to pick on you. Have I never told you that story?

SPEAKER_03 43:24

No, thank the good lord.

SPEAKER_01 43:27

All right, guys, I think we're gonna call it here. As always, please like, share, subscribe, comment, send us a question. We want to start answering your guys' questions. You can comment on any episode and we'll see it. And uh, if you get chosen, we will shout you out. You can send an email in to currentchatter21 at gmail.com. And as always, guys, please drink your water and talk to your therapist. Bye. Bye-bye. Hell yeah, I suck toad.

SPEAKER_03 43:59

Bye. Wait. Wait, how much are they getting for it? I'm broke.