‘It feels like we can finally breathe’
The family of Conrad Roy III can “finally breathe” after a judge found Michelle Carter guilty of involuntary manslaughter in urging her boyfriend to commit suicide through a series of texts and phone calls — a shocking verdict that will take the bizarre case into more uncharted territory when she’s sentenced this summer.
Carter, 20, wept in court yesterday as Judge Lawrence Moniz read the verdict, determining she was responsible for Roy’s death in the summer of 2014.
“It feels like we can finally breathe,” said Jimmy Brodeur, who’s engaged to Roy’s aunt, Kim Bozzi, and hasn’t missed a day of the trial, even rescheduling cancer treatment in order to be there to support the family. “When he said guilty, there was total relief and a degree of happiness. Justice prevailed. … We can now try to find some peace and move on.”
The case has drawn international attention, and hinged on repeated text messages and phone calls Carter made to Roy both before and the night of his death, urging him to kill himself.
As he pumped his pickup truck full of carbon monoxide on July 12, 2014, Roy got out at one point, but Carter ordered him back in, which Moniz ruled was “reckless and wanton conduct” that created an environment the Plainville woman knew would cause harm.
Afterward, Carter also texted a classmate, Samantha Boardman, admitting she could have stopped Roy’s suicide but instead told him to finish the job.
“Sam, his death is my fault like honestly I could have stopped him,” Carter texted on Sept. 15, 2014. “I was on the phone with him and he got out of the car because it was working and he got scared and I (expletive) told him to get back in ...”
Prosecutors argued that Carter’s texts and calls to Roy the night of his death were enough to make her “virtually present” in a criminal context.
“The evidence clearly shows that but not for the actions of Michelle Carter, Conrad Roy would still have been alive the morning of July 13, 2014,” said Katie Rayburn, the Bristol County prosecutor who handled the case.
Carter, who was 17 at the time of Roy’s death, was tried in juvenile court, but the Plainville woman was found guilty as a youthful offender. She is scheduled for sentencing on Aug. 3.
She faces up to 20 years in prison, but legal experts see a wide range of possible sentences. Timothy M. Burke, a Needham attorney and former prosecutor, said given her age and lack of criminal history, he wouldn’t be surprised if she got no jail time, followed by a lengthy probation and other orders.
“Accountability doesn’t always equate to incarceration,” Burke said. “I don’t see that taking place here.”
But David Yannetti, a criminal defense attorney, pointed to the intense attention the case has received, which could spur Moniz to mete out “a good period of incarceration.”
“The judge is probably going to send a message to the community,” Yannetti said, “that if you engage in this type of behavior and push someone into suicide, you will have a severe punishment.”