Teen ‘told boyfriend to kill himself so she would get sympathy’
Boy died in car after string of texts and calls from her
A TEENAGE girl encouraged her besotted boyfriend to kill himself so she would get sympathy as the ‘grieving girlfriend’, a uS court heard yesterday.
In dozens of chilling texts and telephone calls, Michelle Carter, then 17, allegedly goaded Conrad roy III, 18, to commit suicide.
‘She used Conrad as a pawn in her sick game of life and death,’ prosecutor Maryclare Flynn said in opening statements at Carter’s manslaughter trial in Taunton, Massachusetts.
Carter was on the phone to Mr roy while he was sitting in his pickup truck in a car park in July 2014 as it filled with carbon monoxide.
At one point he got out and Carter told him to ‘get the f*** back in the car’, the court heard. She did not call for help as he died, Miss Flynn said. Carter, in court yesterday in a salmon pink jacket, had even carried out a ‘dry run’ two days before her boyfriend’s death to test the reaction from friends, Bristol County Juvenile Court was told.
‘She knew her plan to get attention would work because she pretested it,’ said Miss Flynn.
‘Two days before Conrad committed suicide, she did a dry run, texting several girls that Conrad had gone missing while also texting Conrad, telling him to get the gas machine.’
The court heard that Carter, of Plainville, sent 40 texts to Mr roy urging him to kill himself before he took his own life. One text read: ‘You’re ready and prepared. All you have to do is turn the generator on and you bee [sic] free and happy.’
Earlier that day, the court heard Mr roy went to the seaside with his mother and sisters. He bought his sisters ice cream, made jokes and talked about his future and a university scholarship he had just won.
After Mr roy’s death, Carter, now 20, organised a baseball tournament in his memory. She sent texts to Mr roy’s mother, telling her his spirit lived on.
She wrote: ‘I loved him, Lynn. I know I’m young, but I saw the rest of my life with him.’
Defence lawyer Joseph Cataldo said Carter had previously talked Mr roy, of Mattapoisett, out of suicide attempts.
Mr roy was depressed after his parents’ divorce, was physically and verbally abused by family members and had long been considering suicide, he said, adding: ‘Conrad roy was on this path to take his own life for years.’
Carter has asked a judge to rule on the case rather than a jury. She faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of involuntary manslaughter, which she denies. The trial continues.
‘Sick game of life and death’