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The Christine Russo Interview: “The Crash” & Losing Her Brother · Legally Brunette

0:01
Speaker 1: Hi, guys, welcome to Legally Brunette. Today we have an
0:05
Speaker 1: exciting interview. We are going to sit down with Christine Russo.
0:08
Speaker 1: And if you don't recognize that name, I'm sure you
0:10
Speaker 1: will recognize it once I tell you that. Christine Russo
0:13
Speaker 1: is the older sister of Dominic Russo and Dominic Russo
0:18
Speaker 1: was a subject in the Netflix documentary The Crash Dominic
0:22
Speaker 1: and Davian Flanagan. Just to give you a little background,
0:25
Speaker 1: We're killed by Mackenzie Shirilla on July thirty first of
0:28
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. She is currently serving two concurrent sentences
0:33
Speaker 1: of fifteen years to life for their murders. Christine of
0:37
Speaker 1: Russo appeared in the Netflix documentary The Crash alongside her
0:41
Speaker 1: father and continues to advocate for Dominic and Davian through
0:45
Speaker 1: a petition to strengthen Ohio's Son of Sam law in
0:49
Speaker 1: order to create a foundation for her brother called Change
0:53
Speaker 1: the Game for dom So. We are super excited to
0:56
Speaker 1: have Christine Russo here today. We're going to ask her
0:58
Speaker 1: a lot of questions that have to do with the
1:00
Speaker 1: documentary and just her brother in life and her thoughts
1:05
Speaker 1: about some of the things that have come out about
1:07
Speaker 1: McKenzie recently. Hi Christine, thank you so much for joining
1:11
Speaker 1: legally Brunette today. We're super excited to talk to you.
1:15
Speaker 1: I just wanted to start out from the very very
1:17
Speaker 1: beginning as far as the Netflix documentary The Crash. Can
1:22
Speaker 1: you just give me some background on how do they
1:25
Speaker 1: approach you and what did they say to you? And
1:27
Speaker 1: how did they ask you to be a part of it?
1:29
Speaker 1: Did they and do they give you details like who
1:31
Speaker 1: else they're going to interview and things like that.
1:35
Speaker 2: I signed an agreement, so I'm not sure what I
1:39
Speaker 2: can and can't say. Oh, I see, I should have
1:42
Speaker 2: and I tried to look for the original agreement and
1:44
Speaker 2: I couldn't find it. But I'm like, I should actually
1:46
Speaker 2: check on what I've been saying to the whole world
1:49
Speaker 2: before I say. But I mean, I don't know what
1:53
Speaker 2: I can get in trouble for saying that I got
1:54
Speaker 2: letters in the mail and I declined it up in
2:00
Speaker 2: until they already packed up and left country, you know,
2:02
Speaker 2: And I changed my mind last second because I just
2:06
Speaker 2: felt my brother needed a voice.
2:08
Speaker 1: So I just want to clarify. So, originally you were
2:10
Speaker 1: not on board with doing it correct, and then you
2:14
Speaker 1: changed your mind last minute because you felt as if
2:17
Speaker 1: you should do it so that you could have you
2:19
Speaker 1: could be the voice for your brother during the documentary. Yep, Okay, Well,
2:23
Speaker 1: I think it's good that you were in it, and
2:25
Speaker 1: I think it was great that you were there because
2:27
Speaker 1: I felt like you were the voice of reason and
2:31
Speaker 1: you were very sensible in your interviews, and I think
2:33
Speaker 1: that you made the best decision doing that. Can I
2:35
Speaker 1: ask let me just ask this, and I don't know
2:37
Speaker 1: if you can answer it or not. Did you know
2:38
Speaker 1: Mackenzie was going to appear in the end.
2:42
Speaker 2: No, so not when I had will, when I had interviewed,
2:49
Speaker 2: I was told that it was a possibility.
2:53
Speaker 1: And did that sway you one way or the other?
2:55
Speaker 1: Or you just wanted to do it, You just wanted
2:57
Speaker 1: to be a voice for dom And whether she showed
2:59
Speaker 1: up or not. Were you surprised to see her in
3:04
Speaker 1: the end and to give an interview from prison.
3:09
Speaker 2: No. I have watched documentaries before, so that was something
3:14
Speaker 2: that I kind of knew could happen. I'm not surprised
3:16
Speaker 2: at all that her nor her family chose to do
3:20
Speaker 2: that because they love attention. So did it surprise me? No?
3:24
Speaker 1: What was surprising for me about the Netflix documentary was
3:27
Speaker 1: I had already known about the case prior to the
3:30
Speaker 1: crash coming out. My husband and I had both watched
3:34
Speaker 1: the YouTube video The Doctor in Sanity one, and I
3:36
Speaker 1: felt like that was more in depth and used a
3:39
Speaker 1: lot of use a lot of the police camp.
3:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, there was no interviews or anything. It was just
3:44
Speaker 3: real time footage of what was taking place with the
3:46
Speaker 3: investigation and the aftermath.
3:49
Speaker 1: And then when I watched the Netflix documentary, I remember thinking, wow,
3:53
Speaker 1: they left out. I mean, one of the big pieces
3:55
Speaker 1: they left out was just the fact that she had
3:57
Speaker 1: done a dry run in that area three days prior
4:00
Speaker 1: to the actual crash. Was that something that you had
4:04
Speaker 1: known about or was that something that came out in
4:06
Speaker 1: the trial that you learned later.
4:09
Speaker 2: That came out in the trial When we were at
4:11
Speaker 2: the trial that came out. I was not surprised about
4:15
Speaker 2: that though, because well, we are from the city that
4:18
Speaker 2: we live in and that they lived in at the time.
4:23
Speaker 2: It is not an uncommon cut through street, like it
4:29
Speaker 2: may have been a street that she had frequented, So
4:31
Speaker 2: I didn't pay much attention to that until at the
4:35
Speaker 2: trial they had made it. I'm not sure exactly. I
4:39
Speaker 2: can't remember what was said, but it was they had
4:42
Speaker 2: broughten that up and it appeared that she was doing
4:45
Speaker 2: dry runs prior. But the thing about that street is
4:48
Speaker 2: coming from where they were to going to Dom's house,
4:53
Speaker 2: cutting down that street was out of the way. There's
4:55
Speaker 2: no reason why she was go should have went down
4:57
Speaker 2: that street. It actually takes her further away to go
5:01
Speaker 2: to Dom's. It was five in the morning. They were
5:03
Speaker 2: going home to Dom's house where they were all staying.
5:06
Speaker 2: There's no reason going right on that street down progress
5:10
Speaker 2: was completely way out of the way. So there was
5:12
Speaker 2: no reason at all they should have been going down
5:14
Speaker 2: that street. There's no gas stations, there's no reason for
5:17
Speaker 2: them to go there at that time.
5:20
Speaker 1: Do you think that decision for her to go down
5:22
Speaker 1: that street and for what happened happened. Do you think
5:25
Speaker 1: that was a spur of the moment thing that happened
5:28
Speaker 1: because something happened in the car.
5:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's I believe. I believe that, And as I
5:33
Speaker 2: sat through the trial and heard everything, and what I
5:35
Speaker 2: believe is that they were must have had an argument
5:40
Speaker 2: in the car and that on Pearl Road is she's driving,
5:44
Speaker 2: they got into it, and she decided to turn right, knowing,
5:49
Speaker 2: absolutely knowing that she was driving that car into a building.
5:55
Speaker 1: Can I ask you also, what is your take on
5:57
Speaker 1: And I've thought about this a lot, and we've discussed
5:59
Speaker 1: it on other when we've done other episodes on this.
6:02
Speaker 1: I know she was wearing a seatbelt, but they weren't.
6:05
Speaker 1: Was dom one that normally didn't wear a seatbelt? Or
6:07
Speaker 1: do you think that they undid the seatbelts to try
6:10
Speaker 1: to grab the wheel? What is your thoughts about how
6:13
Speaker 1: that happened?
6:15
Speaker 2: He was a seat belt wearer, maybe not all the time.
6:18
Speaker 2: He wasn't like I mean, some people not to say
6:20
Speaker 2: that everybody should not wear their seat belts, But I
6:22
Speaker 2: don't remember him being like overly obsessed. Yeah, he wore
6:26
Speaker 2: a seatbelt, But what I'm thinking what happened in that car?
6:30
Speaker 2: I really believe because she had tried this a couple
6:32
Speaker 2: of weeks earlier, I really believe that he thought she
6:39
Speaker 2: wasn't actually going to kill him until a few seconds prior.
6:44
Speaker 2: Did he put it on right before? I don't even
6:46
Speaker 2: know if he would have had time. Did he take
6:48
Speaker 2: it off to throw the car in neutral or something?
6:51
Speaker 2: I know that somebody threw the car in a neutral
6:53
Speaker 2: and somebody then put it back and drive. But I'm
6:57
Speaker 2: not I don't really recall if he was like a
7:00
Speaker 2: would have been wearing it or not.
7:01
Speaker 1: Here's another question that I've contemplated in my mind, and
7:05
Speaker 1: Shane and I have discussed, and we've discussed on previous episodes,
7:10
Speaker 1: is just what was her mindset? I believe one hundred
7:13
Speaker 1: percent that her intent was to it was intentional. It
7:17
Speaker 1: wasn't an accident, she didn't pass out, she didn't have
7:20
Speaker 1: a medical issue. I don't I don't believe any of
7:22
Speaker 1: that for a second. I believe it was one hundred
7:24
Speaker 1: percent intentional. She put her foot all the way down
7:27
Speaker 1: on the gas pedal, went almost one hundred miles an
7:29
Speaker 1: hour into a wall. But do you what do you
7:32
Speaker 1: think her? Do you think that she was willing to
7:34
Speaker 1: commit suicide? Or do you think I've also said this
7:38
Speaker 1: that I thought maybe she was such a narcissist that
7:41
Speaker 1: she just never would believe that anything would happen to her.
7:44
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts on was she willing to die
7:46
Speaker 1: that day?
7:48
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think she's I think she snapped and did
7:50
Speaker 2: not care. I really believe that, And you know, like
7:53
Speaker 2: I said, to the trial and things that I knew
7:55
Speaker 2: that when on prior, I don't think that she cared,
7:59
Speaker 2: And like you, a narcissist completely explains who she is
8:03
Speaker 2: in her mindset that she just didn't. She didn't. She
8:08
Speaker 2: was so self absorbed and had nothing going for her
8:13
Speaker 2: that the thought of Dominic leaving her I think drove
8:16
Speaker 2: her mad and really made her snap because he was
8:19
Speaker 2: so close. He had broken up with her quite a
8:22
Speaker 2: few times and did not want to be with her,
8:24
Speaker 2: and the thought of losing him and everything that you know,
8:28
Speaker 2: he had provided her with or you know, she had
8:31
Speaker 2: no job, no schooling, like, nothing going for her, and
8:36
Speaker 2: I think that really just it drove her to that point.
8:40
Speaker 1: So you think it wasn't even a conscientious thought of
8:44
Speaker 1: whether she would live or die. It just came down
8:46
Speaker 1: to dom can't leave me. Yep. So this is what
8:50
Speaker 1: I'm going to do to stop that, And probably her
8:53
Speaker 1: thoughts never went even beyond that.
8:55
Speaker 2: Yep.
8:56
Speaker 1: You know, since this Netflix documentary has aired, obviously, this
9:00
Speaker 1: case has just resurged into the I mean it's everywhere.
9:04
Speaker 1: We've done lots of cases in the past that have
9:06
Speaker 1: had all the elements that had young kids and murder
9:10
Speaker 1: and all the elements that are salacious and that people
9:13
Speaker 1: like to talk about. But this case, I would say,
9:16
Speaker 1: by far, has had more out there on social media
9:19
Speaker 1: than any other case we've ever talked about. And I'm
9:21
Speaker 1: not even sure how long it's been number one on Netflix,
9:23
Speaker 1: but every time I would go to Netflix, I would
9:25
Speaker 1: show it is number one. I think yesterday was the
9:27
Speaker 1: first time I saw it that it had actually moved
9:29
Speaker 1: down to number seven. But I just wanted to ask you,
9:33
Speaker 1: has this case being out there and everybody making content
9:36
Speaker 1: and everybody talking about it, has it been has it
9:41
Speaker 1: been positive for your family in ways that people are
9:45
Speaker 1: talking about it, talking about her seeing who she really is?
9:49
Speaker 1: I mean, does that I don't know if I want
9:52
Speaker 1: to say, is that a positive thing for you? Or how?
9:56
Speaker 1: Does how do you and your family feel about that?
9:58
Speaker 3: Is there some relief in that?
9:59
Speaker 1: Yeah?
10:00
Speaker 2: No, this is It's a complete disaster. We this is terrible.
10:05
Speaker 2: I wish the movie never came out. There's been so much.
10:10
Speaker 2: First of all, we don't even know what processing my
10:14
Speaker 2: brother's death looks like. As you can imagine how our
10:17
Speaker 2: parents feel, our siblings, our kids, his friends, like we
10:23
Speaker 2: are in really bad shape. There's a lot of people
10:26
Speaker 2: who are really really missing him, and this movie has
10:32
Speaker 2: I am trying my hardest to bring awareness, like my
10:34
Speaker 2: foundation that I created to maybe give like my dad,
10:38
Speaker 2: some type of positive some type of positive outlook on this.
10:43
Speaker 2: Like I'm really trying to turn this tragedy and this
10:45
Speaker 2: this everything going on into something positive. I'm trying to
10:49
Speaker 2: do that for on behalf of the family. The podcast
10:53
Speaker 2: that I did and things like that is I'm trying
10:56
Speaker 2: really hard to see any positive in this or make
11:01
Speaker 2: positive out out of it. But I mean the things
11:04
Speaker 2: on the internet right now, people making content for you know,
11:09
Speaker 2: for clicks for attention, negative things everywhere about my brother,
11:13
Speaker 2: about our family, about what I'm doing, People drawing their
11:19
Speaker 2: own diagrams of how his body was in the car,
11:23
Speaker 2: just seeing the crash. It's terrible. It's absolutely terrible. It's hard.
11:27
Speaker 2: Not only that, but it brought attention. It's bringing strangers
11:29
Speaker 2: from out of state going to my brother's grave when
11:32
Speaker 2: we're trying to mourn, people going flooding the streets the
11:37
Speaker 2: street that he died on, or showing up to our jobs.
11:40
Speaker 2: Things like that. It's not been good at all.
11:44
Speaker 1: You know, you talked about a foundation that you've started
11:46
Speaker 1: and you were hoping that by doing that it brought
11:48
Speaker 1: something positive out of this tragedy. Can you tell me
11:52
Speaker 1: more about that.
11:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's Change the Game for Dom foundation. I used
11:57
Speaker 2: to watch so a big thing with Dom and was basketball.
12:01
Speaker 2: My son plays basketball now, but and Dom taught him.
12:04
Speaker 2: But when he was young, I would go to all
12:06
Speaker 2: of his games he played for the rec and we
12:11
Speaker 2: that was a big, huge thing, like my little brother's games.
12:14
Speaker 2: I don't I don't think I missed one. But now
12:17
Speaker 2: what I wanted to do because it's so hard to
12:20
Speaker 2: find a way, especially for my dad, to make him
12:24
Speaker 2: feel better about this at all. So I came up
12:27
Speaker 2: with the idea of finding very underprivileged children, maybe even
12:34
Speaker 2: whole teams would be great, and then maybe designing like
12:38
Speaker 2: one of the ideas I have is like designing a
12:40
Speaker 2: shoe with Nike or something really nice basketball shoes and
12:45
Speaker 2: having Dom written on the side, and then being able
12:47
Speaker 2: to provide teams with jerseys, shoes, pay their league fees,
12:52
Speaker 2: things like that, and giving back to underprivileged families. I
12:55
Speaker 2: think it would be good for my dad, especially to
12:59
Speaker 2: work that and be able to pick out families and
13:02
Speaker 2: help in some way and make something positive out of it.
13:05
Speaker 2: But that's that's the foundation.
13:07
Speaker 1: Okay. Yeah, well that sounds great and that's awesome, thank you.
13:11
Speaker 1: I just want to ask you, how well did you
13:13
Speaker 1: know dave Yon. Did you know him at all?
13:16
Speaker 2: Nope, My dad had just met him a couple of
13:19
Speaker 2: days before. I have. I'm really close with the family now.
13:24
Speaker 2: I had dinner with them two nights ago. But like
13:27
Speaker 2: they he was a football player and he had an
13:32
Speaker 2: injury and started hanging out with like a different friend group,
13:38
Speaker 2: which was Dom and Mackenzie and them, so he was
13:41
Speaker 2: rather a new friend. They were good friends, but I
13:43
Speaker 2: had not gotten the chance to meet him.
13:53
Speaker 1: If there was any takeaway from the crash, I felt
13:57
Speaker 1: as if Davion's dad was such he was such a
14:00
Speaker 1: powerful force.
14:01
Speaker 3: He was so.
14:04
Speaker 1: Just intelligent in his thoughts and the way he represented Davion,
14:07
Speaker 1: and I felt so awful for everyone. But I really
14:11
Speaker 1: thought he was so strong throughout it. So you're close
14:14
Speaker 1: with him and the mom or just the dad, And
14:18
Speaker 1: I know, I know the mom didn't appear in the documentary.
14:21
Speaker 1: That's correct, right, It was just it was Davion's dad, correct.
14:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just Davione's dad and his sister and his sister. Yes,
14:28
Speaker 2: I'm close with them all.
14:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, how are they I mean, how are they doing?
14:32
Speaker 1: Are they Are they doing anything for Daveyon as far
14:35
Speaker 1: as a foundation or anything. Is there anything that they're
14:38
Speaker 1: working on?
14:40
Speaker 2: Yeah? They they started their foundation for him a couple
14:43
Speaker 2: of years ago and it's done great, and they're giving
14:46
Speaker 2: back to they're paying barber like barber students their tuition,
14:54
Speaker 2: their full tuition because Davian caught everybody's hair and like
14:58
Speaker 2: the dogs and stuff. There's really funny stories about him
15:01
Speaker 2: being a barber, but he wanted to be a barber.
15:02
Speaker 2: So they're doing like a tuition assistance things their foundation
15:08
Speaker 2: and then together we're actually doing I just met with
15:12
Speaker 2: House Representative Humphreyes this afternoon. We all just met with
15:15
Speaker 2: the last hour. I just got off the meeting. We
15:19
Speaker 2: are going to be hopping on the HB five oh
15:22
Speaker 2: five and modernizing, attempting to modernize the Son of Sam's
15:28
Speaker 2: Law to then we're doing that together us and the Flanagans.
15:32
Speaker 2: We're calling it the Dom and Davion's Law. And basically
15:37
Speaker 2: Kenzie has been crowdsurfing and she's got OnlyFans, she has paypals,
15:43
Speaker 2: she has gofundmes and other platforms taking in donations for
15:51
Speaker 2: her commissary to make calls, all types of things. And
15:55
Speaker 2: we're going to try to seal the loopholes and get
16:00
Speaker 2: this Son of Sam saw up to date, and you know,
16:03
Speaker 2: with the digital era, have them cover these loopholes and
16:07
Speaker 2: in ways of funding her, people funding her while she's
16:09
Speaker 2: in prison and then when she gets out or if
16:11
Speaker 2: she gets out, stopping her from becoming an influencer, which
16:15
Speaker 2: is all she's ever cared about.
16:17
Speaker 3: What are some of the loopholes that exist now? Is
16:19
Speaker 3: it because of modern ways of capitalizing off of a story?
16:23
Speaker 2: Yep? So the Sun of Sam's was it was written
16:26
Speaker 2: in the seventies and I think it was enacted in
16:28
Speaker 2: Ohio at least in the nineties. And it only covers
16:32
Speaker 2: like book deals, journals, you know, if you were getting
16:35
Speaker 2: paid to write in a journal or something in movies
16:37
Speaker 2: back in the what was around in the nineties. So
16:40
Speaker 2: now there's all these you know, Instagram, social media wasn't
16:43
Speaker 2: even a thing. So just to modernize it and then
16:48
Speaker 2: try to find ways for families not to be able
16:51
Speaker 2: to profit off the murder. We're not looking to infringe
16:53
Speaker 2: on anybody's First Amendment. They can talk about it all
16:55
Speaker 2: they want, but profiting off of profiting off of it
17:00
Speaker 2: is different, and that's what we're looking into. It's we're
17:02
Speaker 2: not saying that the family or her they can't talk
17:06
Speaker 2: about what they've done, sure, but becoming an influencer off.
17:11
Speaker 3: Of benefiting, benefiting.
17:13
Speaker 2: Befit anyway, benefiting from Dom's loss, yep, yep, you know.
17:20
Speaker 1: I know Mackenzie's parents have taken a lot of backlash.
17:23
Speaker 1: I actually am surprised that her dad continues to do
17:26
Speaker 1: podcasts and interviews because he never I always feel like
17:30
Speaker 1: when people do repeated interviews, it's because they're working towards
17:33
Speaker 1: trying to redeem themselves, you know from earlier interviews. Yet
17:36
Speaker 1: he never seems to be able to do that. I
17:39
Speaker 1: saw a recent interview with him where he talks about
17:43
Speaker 1: how Mackenzie wouldn't be in prison if Dom would not
17:47
Speaker 1: have been in the car because of your family, the
17:49
Speaker 1: family named russo that you have some connections or something.
17:53
Speaker 1: Did I'm sure you saw that. What is your comment
17:57
Speaker 1: on that or what what is your takeaway from that?
18:01
Speaker 2: Two things, One I don't understand either why they keep
18:04
Speaker 2: giving them digging themselves further into holes. But also we
18:08
Speaker 2: don't have any relatives in office, nor have we. And
18:15
Speaker 2: like I think I've said before, is I think I
18:17
Speaker 2: had a great uncle maybe thirty years ago that served
18:22
Speaker 2: as a mayor in a small town and he wasn't
18:24
Speaker 2: even a Russo. It was on the opposite side. So
18:27
Speaker 2: there's no Russo is the most common political name in
18:30
Speaker 2: Kyahaga County. Kyahaga County is the largest county in the state.
18:33
Speaker 2: Russo name is like Golds. People moved from out of
18:36
Speaker 2: county and out of state to Kyahoga County just for
18:39
Speaker 2: the name recognition in politics. I went to school, I
18:42
Speaker 2: graduated political science just because of my last name. I
18:45
Speaker 2: pursued a different career, but that name is the biggest
18:48
Speaker 2: in politics. But we have absolutely no relation.
18:52
Speaker 1: So he's just saying just because the name Russo is
18:55
Speaker 1: well known in politics, He's saying that somehow, that's how
18:58
Speaker 1: Mackenzie ended up in jail, not because she's not because
19:02
Speaker 1: of the actual act, but because of some political affiliation
19:06
Speaker 1: that your last name has.
19:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's it's completely made up. That's they And
19:11
Speaker 2: you know what, they know completely, even like Kenzy when
19:16
Speaker 2: even before she was convicted, she actually went on the
19:19
Speaker 2: news and when they announced that it was Judge Russo,
19:22
Speaker 2: she made this face like she was shocked, like, oh
19:24
Speaker 2: my goodness, Judge Russo, Oh my goodness. And it's on
19:28
Speaker 2: one of the news stations. But it's like they know
19:30
Speaker 2: darn well that we don't have any judges in our family.
19:33
Speaker 2: They knew us for four years and continue to know us.
19:35
Speaker 2: So it's just a flat out lie that they they're
19:38
Speaker 2: saying this because it is absolutely not true. It's you
19:40
Speaker 2: could easily anyone could look it up.
19:43
Speaker 1: You know, there's so many phone calls that keep coming
19:46
Speaker 1: out between Natalie and Mackenzie and what do what do
19:51
Speaker 1: you think? Do you listen to them when new ones
19:53
Speaker 1: come out? I've heard several, but it seems like every
19:55
Speaker 1: week there's like a new one that comes forward. Does
19:58
Speaker 1: that Do you listen to that? Or are you just
20:00
Speaker 1: not interested in having anything to do with listening to
20:03
Speaker 1: what they're talking about in prison?
20:05
Speaker 2: No, I don't listen to it. I haven't even watched
20:08
Speaker 2: the movie. I don't watch reels that anybody else makes.
20:12
Speaker 2: I don't listen to their calls unless somebody sends it
20:16
Speaker 2: to me like a close relative, like hey, we need
20:18
Speaker 2: to listen to this, or hey, you got to hear
20:21
Speaker 2: this or something. But I see it all the time
20:23
Speaker 2: and just keep scrolling. There's no nope, right.
20:26
Speaker 1: You know, I do remember originally in the documentary I
20:30
Speaker 1: and maybe I'm incorrect, So correct me if I'm wrong.
20:33
Speaker 1: But I do feel as if in the beginning of it,
20:35
Speaker 1: you and your family were supportive of Mackenzie. In the beginning,
20:38
Speaker 1: is that correct? I, myself, my father, and my sister
20:44
Speaker 1: were under the assumption that it could have been an accident.
20:48
Speaker 2: Despite I just our brains couldn't clear handle or process that. Somebody.
20:53
Speaker 2: I still to this day cannot believe it that my
20:56
Speaker 2: brother was murdered. It's so I mean, I don't know
20:58
Speaker 2: if you guys have siblings or not, but I don't.
21:01
Speaker 2: It's I live in a giant nightmare. Like so when
21:06
Speaker 2: it first happened, we did. I was under the assumption
21:09
Speaker 2: I thought it was an accident for a few months.
21:12
Speaker 1: Actually, when was it that your your mind started to
21:16
Speaker 1: change and you were like, this isn't an accident. Was
21:19
Speaker 1: it during the trial when things started to come out
21:21
Speaker 1: that you were unaware of or was it prior to that.
21:24
Speaker 2: Prior to the trial. It was little things like seeing
21:28
Speaker 2: what she had been doing, stuff that she had been saying,
21:32
Speaker 2: talking to his best friends that had then been sharing
21:35
Speaker 2: with me what exactly was going on. There were certain
21:38
Speaker 2: things that had happened that you know, that I wouldn't
21:41
Speaker 2: have known about. I'm his older sister. I didn't talk
21:43
Speaker 2: to him about I mean, Kenzie's personal you know, their
21:48
Speaker 2: fights and things. But there were many of friends who did,
21:51
Speaker 2: and a lot of people came forward, and that was
21:54
Speaker 2: one of the things. And then just seeing her, it
21:59
Speaker 2: all just started to come together, especially if you the
22:01
Speaker 2: road that had happened on immediately she started lying to us, like,
22:06
Speaker 2: for instance, the mom said for four days that she
22:10
Speaker 2: was unconscious. She told us that she was unresponsive, unconscious
22:14
Speaker 2: on her deathbed. We sat there and prayed and cried
22:17
Speaker 2: for her to wake up. Come to find out, you know,
22:20
Speaker 2: a couple of weeks later, my cousins are sending me
22:21
Speaker 2: screenshots that they were actually like not even a day
22:24
Speaker 2: after she killed my brother and dave on. She was
22:27
Speaker 2: on making tiktoks and they were trying to get modeling gigs.
22:30
Speaker 2: So I was like, wait a minute, she said for
22:33
Speaker 2: four days, she said that she was unconscious. So little
22:36
Speaker 2: things like that started happening. Then it was we started
22:41
Speaker 2: thinking about the street, and then their thing was, oh,
22:43
Speaker 2: she had a pots episode. And then it was like, well,
22:46
Speaker 2: you can't make it down that street at one hundred
22:48
Speaker 2: miles an hour if you're fainted. It's the most windey,
22:51
Speaker 2: bumpy road to travel on. You can't go forty without
22:56
Speaker 2: feeling like you're in a race car and you're going
22:58
Speaker 2: to smash something. She would on left or right. She
23:00
Speaker 2: couldn't have made it down the street. Like, little things
23:03
Speaker 2: like that just started, and then piece by piece, and
23:05
Speaker 2: then it was like, oh my god, she really did this.
23:16
Speaker 3: During this time when the investigation was going on and
23:20
Speaker 3: you're processing everything and trying to, you know, gather what
23:24
Speaker 3: took place, did you find yourself sharing information with prosecutors
23:28
Speaker 3: or following How closely were you following the case?
23:36
Speaker 2: Pretty closely, we talked to you know, I mean went
23:39
Speaker 2: through the trial and followed it closely. But I didn't
23:45
Speaker 2: I don't think no. I didn't have like an interview,
23:48
Speaker 2: a formal interview with the prosecution nor police. I just
23:53
Speaker 2: let that all they.
23:55
Speaker 3: Did their job and you just followed it. Okay, what do.
23:59
Speaker 1: You think or what do you have to say about
24:01
Speaker 1: the claims that they've made that they have new evidence
24:04
Speaker 1: that wasn't shown during the trial.
24:09
Speaker 2: I don't know if I've seen that, But there what
24:12
Speaker 2: new evidence can surface? It's she did it, so, I mean,
24:15
Speaker 2: and it was. There's so much evidence that I'm not
24:19
Speaker 2: I guess I'm not worried about it, but I'm not
24:23
Speaker 2: sure what new evidence.
24:24
Speaker 3: You know.
24:24
Speaker 1: I think it was during the documentary. I think the mother,
24:27
Speaker 1: Natalie makes reference to some text messages that she found
24:31
Speaker 1: that Yeah, you know, I know what you're ye.
24:34
Speaker 2: She Kensi had actually tried. So Kensie two weeks prior,
24:39
Speaker 2: was driving her vehicle and was threatening to crash the
24:44
Speaker 2: car with Domine. He made phone calls to certain people.
24:47
Speaker 2: There were multiple people that heard the phone calls of
24:50
Speaker 2: her screaming I'm going to kill you. I'm gonna crash
24:52
Speaker 2: his car. He was able to get her to pull
24:55
Speaker 2: over and got picked up from the side of the highway. Now, Kenzie,
25:00
Speaker 2: being the narcissist and manipulator that she is, went and
25:04
Speaker 2: texted certain people oh Dom was trying to grab at
25:11
Speaker 2: the wheel. She was trying to save face and cover
25:13
Speaker 2: for herself because everybody knew what she had done that day.
25:16
Speaker 2: She was embarrassed, so it was something like that, she's
25:19
Speaker 2: talking about good there's that you can tell them good luck.
25:23
Speaker 2: There's no new evidence because she murdered two people, and
25:26
Speaker 2: she'll sit in jail for her life.
25:29
Speaker 1: Now your father and correct me if I'm wrong. But
25:31
Speaker 1: your father Frank did not agree with Mackenzie's sentencing in
25:34
Speaker 1: the beginning, claiming that they don't need to ruin her
25:36
Speaker 1: life too. Does he still feel that way or has
25:39
Speaker 1: he changed since then?
25:41
Speaker 2: No? My dad Actually my dad lost a brother when
25:43
Speaker 2: he was I think like twenty years old as well.
25:45
Speaker 2: He actually shares the same birthday as Dominic. He lost
25:49
Speaker 2: a brother. A man hit him from behind and killed him,
25:53
Speaker 2: and my dad immediately said to all of us into himself,
25:58
Speaker 2: we need to forgive because you don't want hate to
26:01
Speaker 2: consume you. It's just part of you.
26:03
Speaker 1: Know.
26:03
Speaker 2: He knows how to grieve. He's been through this I
26:05
Speaker 2: don't know how many times, and he's lost close people.
26:09
Speaker 2: So he was immediately worried about forgiving and trying, especially
26:14
Speaker 2: for us to try to move on healthy and not
26:17
Speaker 2: hold on to hate and things like that. So he
26:20
Speaker 2: was very big on that he's Catholic, and sheees, you know,
26:24
Speaker 2: was trying to prepare us for you know, our emotions,
26:31
Speaker 2: you know, as best as he could. And so when
26:33
Speaker 2: he gave that statement, I think it was a different
26:36
Speaker 2: magazine or something at that time, things completely It's completely changed.
26:44
Speaker 2: And another thing is that he her actions, her words,
26:48
Speaker 2: no remorse, no accountability, her blaming dominic, her letting her
26:53
Speaker 2: family and social media slander him. The fact that she
26:57
Speaker 2: just hasn't spoken up and said I'm sorry, please not
27:01
Speaker 2: leave him alone, leave the victims alone like that, it
27:04
Speaker 2: is completely changed. She's not going to be getting out
27:07
Speaker 2: of jail if we have anything to do with it.
27:09
Speaker 3: So long as she's not admitting to her wrongdoings or
27:14
Speaker 3: showing any form of remorse, as apparently she's not, she'll
27:18
Speaker 3: never She'll never be released.
27:20
Speaker 2: Right And if she does, because everybody said, oh, well,
27:23
Speaker 2: you're saying that, and they're gonna try to eventually say sorry,
27:28
Speaker 2: just so she can, you know, make parole. And it's like,
27:30
Speaker 2: I just want the world to know that if she
27:31
Speaker 2: does ever say she's sorry, it's just an act. And
27:34
Speaker 2: the Pearle board, we'll see right through her. So right,
27:36
Speaker 2: I'm preparing for her to try It's right.
27:39
Speaker 3: They'll see the sories that are just leading up to
27:41
Speaker 3: the prole board hearing or something to that effect.
27:44
Speaker 2: Yeah.
27:44
Speaker 1: Well, you know, there's all the information that has come
27:46
Speaker 1: out as far as her behavior and prison and the
27:49
Speaker 1: phone calls with her mom and all those things and
27:51
Speaker 1: all the infractions, and we talked about this on an
27:54
Speaker 1: earlier episode that we did about this case. The fact
27:56
Speaker 1: that she does is she is eligible for parole and
27:59
Speaker 1: thirteen years, which I mean, it's not that long of
28:03
Speaker 1: an amount of time, but I don't see her ever
28:07
Speaker 1: getting out on parole because of her behavior. If she
28:11
Speaker 1: were truly remorseful, which is what we've talked about before,
28:14
Speaker 1: she would be doing things in prison to better herself,
28:17
Speaker 1: to try to you know, remember Dom and Daveon, to
28:21
Speaker 1: be a better person, to improve herself. And as far
28:24
Speaker 1: as I can tell, she just talks to her mom
28:26
Speaker 1: all the time and talks about how excited they are
28:28
Speaker 1: that this documentary is so well known globally, and you
28:33
Speaker 1: know how she needs to, you know, write a book
28:36
Speaker 1: and all the things she's going to do when she leaves.
28:40
Speaker 3: They're gaining something, and they shouldn't gain anything. You don't
28:43
Speaker 3: gain something, you know, from such a horrific tragedy. If
28:47
Speaker 3: all goes well with the updating of the Son of
28:51
Speaker 3: Sam law, when would that be, Like, what is the
28:54
Speaker 3: goal for that to happen?
28:56
Speaker 2: We meet, Actually, we're going to try. We're getting in
28:59
Speaker 2: touch with whoever is like the reps of the Senate.
29:03
Speaker 2: I think it passed house, it's in the Senate right now.
29:07
Speaker 2: We are waiting to meet with. We're going to go
29:09
Speaker 2: to the Flanagans and I and my family we're going
29:12
Speaker 2: to go and testify in front of the Senate. They
29:15
Speaker 2: are going to be on summer recess here shortly, so
29:17
Speaker 2: it could take I mean, we're looking at really getting
29:21
Speaker 2: into more, maybe towards even the end of the year,
29:24
Speaker 2: but it'll be we're trying sooner than later. How long
29:27
Speaker 2: it takes to enact it and things, I'm not sure.
29:32
Speaker 2: I don't imagine hopefully soon.
29:33
Speaker 3: I don't imagine you're getting much pushback. It seems like
29:37
Speaker 3: a pretty obvious update. Yeah.
29:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, some people have been saying, oh, that's uh, it's
29:42
Speaker 2: an infringement on the First Amendment. So we're not saying
29:45
Speaker 2: that you can't speak about it. You just can't profit
29:48
Speaker 2: off of killing two people, you know, or and that
29:51
Speaker 2: goes for only violent criminals, for rapists and murderers, people
29:55
Speaker 2: convicted that weren't wrongfully convicted anything like that. It's completely
30:00
Speaker 2: for violent criminals and not profiting off of what they're
30:05
Speaker 2: saying about the crime.
30:06
Speaker 3: Right, you know.
30:08
Speaker 1: Before we go, I just want to just do one
30:10
Speaker 1: last thing. I just want to give you an opportunity
30:12
Speaker 1: to just tell us a little bit about Dom that
30:14
Speaker 1: we don't know from the documentary because it focused so
30:17
Speaker 1: much on just the what happened and McKinsey and her
30:21
Speaker 1: behavior and her dad and her mom and how ridiculous
30:25
Speaker 1: they are, and it really takes away from who he was.
30:29
Speaker 1: Can you just give us a little bit about Dom.
30:33
Speaker 2: He was so family oriented. He was present for everything,
30:38
Speaker 2: especially with our kids. He was a major, major, you know,
30:44
Speaker 2: a role in our family. And the loss of him
30:46
Speaker 2: has reshaped and completely changed so many people, not just
30:53
Speaker 2: us as the family, but his closest friends. He was
30:55
Speaker 2: a loyal best friend to a dozen people, or more
31:00
Speaker 2: like really really good friends with a lot of people.
31:03
Speaker 2: It's completely reshaped us. But himself was he was caring,
31:07
Speaker 2: He was kind, very family oriented, He had a lot
31:11
Speaker 2: of goals in life, his whole life in front of him.
31:14
Speaker 2: He was a baby. That's I mean, he was a baby.
31:19
Speaker 2: He was twenty years old. We just miss him. We
31:23
Speaker 2: miss him a lot and wish she was here. Really
31:27
Speaker 2: do it really really sucks? This really sucks bad. You know.
31:34
Speaker 1: One more thing I and this is I probably should
31:37
Speaker 1: ask this prior, but how did your family feel because
31:40
Speaker 1: mckinzy was seventeen when she moved in with Dom, and
31:42
Speaker 1: I know Dom seemed to really have his life in
31:45
Speaker 1: order at twenty, like he had his own house and
31:48
Speaker 1: she moved in with him, and I believe that he
31:50
Speaker 1: was pretty much taking care of her right paying for
31:52
Speaker 1: everything that she wanted and all her needs. How did
31:56
Speaker 1: your family feel about her moving in with him? Were
31:58
Speaker 1: they okay with that because they before they really knew
32:01
Speaker 1: who she was, or did you see that as a
32:03
Speaker 1: as problematic Right from the beginning.
32:06
Speaker 2: Everybody was pretty pretty weary of her from the second
32:10
Speaker 2: that they started dating. You know, I remember me and
32:14
Speaker 2: my sister having conversations immediately like I don't think we
32:17
Speaker 2: can trust this girl. We don't think she's right for him.
32:21
Speaker 2: She just seems super trashy, she's not respectful. We immediately
32:26
Speaker 2: had our thoughts about her the whole entire time. So
32:35
Speaker 2: her moving in he was, you know, twenty, she was
32:38
Speaker 2: graduating high school. No, I don't think any of us really,
32:42
Speaker 2: none of us really thought that was a great idea.
32:46
Speaker 1: You know, well, we have to you know, what we
32:48
Speaker 1: talked about previously. We had to talk about the fact
32:51
Speaker 1: that what parents let a seventeen year old move in, yeah,
32:54
Speaker 1: with someone. I mean, I know she had graduated from
32:56
Speaker 1: high school, but that doesn't mean she's mature enough or
32:58
Speaker 1: has the ability to you know, understand living with someone else, living.
33:02
Speaker 3: On her finished her homework early.
33:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would never I would never allow my daughter,
33:06
Speaker 2: my seventeen year old daughter to move out with the
33:09
Speaker 2: man ever.
33:10
Speaker 1: Right exactly. I mean we have five children between the
33:13
Speaker 1: two of us, and we both said the same exact thing.
33:15
Speaker 1: I mean, they're not mature enough to handle that, to
33:17
Speaker 1: handle that responsibility and to to live that way and
33:22
Speaker 1: have all the responsibilities of that. And so you know,
33:25
Speaker 1: I just not only is did we talk a lot
33:28
Speaker 1: about just the tragedy of it, but the tragedy of
33:31
Speaker 1: the parents in this situation. Because the lack of parenting
33:35
Speaker 1: and the lack of accountability is really what led to
33:37
Speaker 1: this tragedy. The fact that there's videos out there of
33:40
Speaker 1: her own social media smoking paw and driving at the
33:43
Speaker 1: same time, and the fact that her parents have access
33:46
Speaker 1: to look at her social media and know that she's
33:49
Speaker 1: out there doing these things, and that her dad is
33:51
Speaker 1: a teacher. You know he's supposed to he stands in
33:54
Speaker 1: front of her.
33:54
Speaker 3: Way, wouldn't be so clouded, do you think his judgment
33:58
Speaker 3: is a teacher, he sees a lot of adolescents and
34:01
Speaker 3: their behaviors and he would know how to respond.
34:04
Speaker 1: Right, And so I just think that the backlash not
34:07
Speaker 1: only against Mackenzie but her parents is so real and
34:11
Speaker 1: evident and actually deserved because of her actions and just
34:15
Speaker 1: a complete lack of parenting and a complete lack of
34:17
Speaker 1: accountability on her part. And honestly, I hope that she
34:21
Speaker 1: does not get out on parole. I hope she sits
34:23
Speaker 1: in prison for a very, very very long time. But
34:27
Speaker 1: that was just my last thoughts on that. But anyway, Christine,
34:30
Speaker 1: I want to thank you so much for joining us.
34:31
Speaker 1: I know it's not easy to talk about dom and
34:36
Speaker 1: everything that happened because it's so tragic and I know
34:38
Speaker 1: it's affected your family so deeply, and we're very sorry
34:41
Speaker 1: about that. But I do want to thank you for
34:43
Speaker 1: at least coming on and opening up about who he was.
34:46
Speaker 1: And I think it's amazing that you are trying to
34:48
Speaker 1: change the Sun of Sam law, and hopefully that's something
34:51
Speaker 1: that catches on to other states because it really does
34:53
Speaker 1: need to change. And now this new digital age and also.
34:56
Speaker 2: And there's the sensationalizing of murder and true crime things. Yeah,
35:00
Speaker 2: it definitely needs relooked at it's of all time, right.
35:03
Speaker 3: Can you remind everyone the name that you've labeled for
35:08
Speaker 3: this new law that you're putting it that you're trying
35:10
Speaker 3: to get put into place, and also can you please
35:12
Speaker 3: remind us the name of the foundation and where people
35:15
Speaker 3: can go to and find if they want to donate.
35:18
Speaker 2: The foundation is Change the Game for DOM. You can
35:21
Speaker 2: find it across all my social media's I Am the
35:24
Speaker 2: Big Sister Unhinged podcast on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, you
35:29
Speaker 2: can find me there. We share the foundation frequently. And
35:34
Speaker 2: then the law, the petition please sign and share if
35:37
Speaker 2: you guys can, is called the DOM and Davian's Law,
35:43
Speaker 2: and we have a petition right now with I think
35:45
Speaker 2: it's over one hundred and fifty thousand signatures, and that
35:49
Speaker 2: will be on across all my social media's as well,
35:51
Speaker 2: and I'll give you guys, I'll send you all email
35:53
Speaker 2: you guys the links.
35:54
Speaker 1: Thank you Christine so much for gure. We really appreciate it.
35:57
Speaker 1: Good lucky, Thank you, good lucky, thank you. By Okay,
36:00
Speaker 1: thank you guys so much for listening to Legally Brunette.
36:03
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36:23
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36:25
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36:28
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