Convicted Killer Hopes Kim Kardashian Will Defend Her From Prison

When you’re facing decades behind bars, apparently celebrity counsel is the ultimate Hail Mary. In a recorded jail call obtained by PEOPLE, 21-year-old Mackenzie Shirilla, currently held at the Cuyahoga County Corrections Center in Ohio, expressed a rather ambitious legal strategy: she wants Kim Kardashian to be her lawyer.

Shirilla didn’t just casually mention it, either. Speaking to an unidentified person on the call, she admitted,“I’m real nervous and I want Kim Kardashian to be my lawyer.”She even tried to sweeten the pitch by promising to be a loyal SKIMS customer, joking that she buys all her products and only wears the brand. It’s the kind of pitch you’d expect from someone who understands that getting Kim’s attention requires both flattery and strategic brand loyalty.

Here’s where the request gets complicated: while Kim Kardashian has spent years championing criminal justice reform and advocating for inmates she believes deserve sentence reconsideration or were wrongfully convicted, she has not officially passed the California bar exam. So even if Kardashian were interested in taking on Shirilla’s case, she couldn’t legally represent her in court.

Shirilla’s conviction in 2023 stemmed from a tragic 2022 crash that killed her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and friend Davion Flanagan. Prosecutors argued she intentionally drove her car into a brick wall at nearly 100 MPH following an alleged toxic relationship with Russo. The judge later described her as“hell on wheels.”In her Netflix documentary“The Crash,”which dropped earlier this month and reignited public interest in the case, Shirilla insisted the crash was unintentional and expressed what she called“excessive amounts of remorse”for the victims and their families.

She won’t become eligible for parole until 2037. Whether her dream legal team materializes or not, Shirilla’s case illustrates something real about how media attention—and celebrity visibility—can become a lifeline for the incarcerated, regardless of how realistic that hope might be.