Woman sentenced in suicide case
She gets 15 months in jail for encouraging friend to kill himself
A Massachusetts woman convicted of involuntary manslaughter for urging her boyfriend to kill himself in dozens of texts was sentenced to 21⁄2 years, but the judge said she had to serve only 15 months of that in jail.
Michelle Carter, 20, who was found guilty in June, could have been sentenced to up to 20 years. She was freed on probation, pending legal appeals of the case.
Juvenile Court Judge Lawrence Moniz called the case, which has garnered international attention, “a tragedy for two families.”
Carter and her boyfriend struggled with depression as teenagers. Carter had been treated for anorexia, and Conrad Roy III had made earlier suicide attempts.
During the sentencing, Carter, looking tense and red-faced, stared at the floor, then at the judge, turning occasionally to have a brief word with her attorney.
In his decision, Moniz ruled that Carter was prohibited from gaining any profit from interviews, books or movies based on the case.
After announcing the sentence, Moniz issued a stay in the case, keeping Carter out of jail temporarily, pending an appeal of the verdict.
The trial found that in 2014, Carter, then 17, urged her 18-yearold boyfriend, Roy, in a text message to “get back in” a truck filling with carbon monoxide when he got momentarily scared while trying to commit suicide.
The judge said Carter’s text constituted “wanton and reckless conduct” under the manslaughter statute. He said Carter had a duty to call for help.
Carter’s message was one of dozens of similar texts urging Roy not to back down. “The time is right and you are ready ... just do it babe,” Carter wrote in a text the day he killed himself.
“You can’t think about it. You just have to do it. You said you were gonna do it. Like I don’t get why you aren’t,” Carter wrote in another text.
Because Carter was tried as a youthful offender, Moniz had several sentencing options, from committing her to a youth facility, to combining a youth services sentence with an adult sentence, to giving her an adult sentence ranging from probation to a maximum of 20 years in prison.
At the hearing Thursday, Carter’s lawyers asked for a five-year probation, but prosecutor Maryclare Flynn said that was “just not reasonable punishment” for her role in the suicide.
Relatives of Roy addressed the court and said they’re haunted by his death.
Conrad Roy Jr. told a court Thursday that the death of his son, Conrad Roy III, inflicted the “worst emotional pain” he has ever experienced. The father said, “I am heartbroken.”
A 13-year-old sister, Camden Roy, testified that she’s “haunted” by the realization that she’ll never see her brother wed or be an aunt to his children.
Flynn argued that Carter showed no remorse and “sought attention and sympathy for herself.”
After Roy’s death, the prosecution said, Carter “continued to use and deceive all of them until she was caught by her own words.”
Carter’s lawyer, Joseph Cataldo, told the court that both young people were “struggling with mental issues.”
“Miss Carter will have to live with the consequences of this for the rest of her life,” Cataldo said. “This was a horrible circumstance that she completely regrets.”
Cataldo argued that Roy was determined to kill himself, and nothing Carter did could change that.
He said Carter initially tried to talk Roy out of it and urged him to get professional help, but eventually, she went along with his plan. Cataldo argued that Carter’s words amounted to free speech protected by the First Amendment.
A day after Roy died, Carter posted a lengthy message on her boyfriend’s Facebook page in which she mourned his death.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t save you, I’m sorry I let you do this,” she wrote, according to Boston.com.
“I never thought I would have to live a day without him,” Carter said in the post, which was introduced by the prosecution during her trial in Bristol County Superior Court.