In a case that hinged largely on a teenage couple’s intimate text messages,
Michelle Carter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter on Friday, in the 2014 death of her boyfriend, who poisoned himself by inhaling carbon monoxide in his pickup truck.
Carter’s own words which was preserved in hundreds of text messages between the two, was presented to the court. It helped seal her conviction in the death of 18-year-old Conrad Roy III, Bristol County Juvenile Court Judge Lawrence Moniz said.
“She admits in … texts that she did nothing: She did not call the police or Mr. Roy’s family” after hearing his last breaths during a phone call, Moniz said. “And, finally, she did not issue a simple additional instruction: Get out of the truck.”
Carter cried silently as the judge spoke. She stood to receive the ruling, which may set legal precedent for whether it’s a crime to tell someone to commit suicide.
Prosecutors argued that Carter sent Roy numerous text messages urging him to commit suicide, listened over the phone as he suffocated and did not alert authorities or his family that he’d died.
The judge agreed.”This court has found that Carter’s actions and failure to act where it was her self-created duty to Roy since she put him in that toxic environment constituted reckless conduct,” the judge said. “The court finds that the conduct caused the death of Mr. Roy.”
Although Cater was not physically present when Roy killed himself, her text messages and conversations with him proved damning.
AJuly 2012 exchange of texts messages:
Roy: “I’m overthinking”
Carter: “I thought you wanted to do this. The time is right and you’re ready, you just need to do it! You can’t keep living this way. You just need to do it like you did last time and not think about it and just do it babe. You can’t keep doing this every day.”
Roy’s family wept as the judge ticked through the steps Roy took to end his life, as well as Carter’s complicity.
Sitting right opposite them – Carter’s family members also sobbed.
“Although we are very pleased with the verdict, in reality there are no winners here,” prosecutor Katie Rayburn said. “Two families had been torn apart and will be affected by this for years to come. We hope verdict will bring some closure… It’s been an extremely emotionally draining process for everyone involved.”