Michelle Carter, the woman who sent a barrage of text messages to her boyfriend encouraging him to kill himself, has been found guilty of manslaughter.
Juvenile Court Judge Lawrence Moniz announced Friday that Carter, 20, “mindfully” created an environment that caused her boyfriend Conrad Roy III, 18, to take his life by carbon monoxide poisoning in July 2014.
“She admits in subsequent texts that she did nothing, she did not call the police or Mr. Roy’s family,” Judge Moniz said. “And finally, she did not issue a simple additional instruction: ‘Get out of the truck.’”
The verdict has reportedly taken many legal experts by surprise, as suicide is generally considered, legally, as a completely independent choice.
Carter could face up to 20 years in prison. She is scheduled to be sentenced on August 3.
WATCH: Carter sobbed as the verdict was handed down. Post continues…
Text messages released by the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office showed a then 17-year-old Carter coaxing Roy to end his life, quoting her as telling him he would be “free” and “happy” once he was dead.
When Roy faltered in his decision to end his life, Carter added: “You kept pushing it off and you say you’ll do it, but you never do … You’re just making it harder on yourself by pushing it off. You just have to do it. Do you want to do it now?”
The court heard she had also helped him devise the method of his death, even searching the internet for the “best way” to die.
Carter Roy III.
In the last days of his life, Carter told her boyfriend repeatedly: “You just need to do it.”
Carter’s school friend Samantha Boardman testified that Carter had taken responsibility for his death over text message.
“It’s my fault,” the text allegedly said. “I could have stopped him but I told him to get back in the car.”
Boardman also said Carter was scared she would get in trouble when she discovered the police had access to Roy’s phone.
“I’m done,” Carter wrote in one text displayed in the courtroom. “His family will hate me and I can go to jail.”
Two other friends also took the stand and said Carter had messaged them, saying she was on the phone with Roy as he died.
“I was talking on the phone with him when he killed himself… I heard him die,” Carter texted to Olivia Mosolgo days after Roy’s death, Mosolgo testified.
Carter texted another friend expressing her guilt.
“I’m the only one he told things too. I should have gotten him more help,” she wrote.
