Michelle Carter, the young woman who sent a barrage of text messages to her boyfriend encouraging him to kill himself, has been sentenced to 15 months in jail for involuntary manslaughter.
Juvenile Court judge Lawrence Moniz gave Carter a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence but said she only had to serve 15 months. She was also sentenced her to five years of probation.
Prosecutors were pushing for a maximum sentence of 20 years but Carter’s lawyer fought to spare his client any jail time. Lawyer Joseph Cataldos said she was struggling with mental health issues of her own including bulimia, anorexia and depression.
Judge Moniz found Carter guilty in June this year. He ruled that Carter, who was 17 at the time, “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.
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 time is right and you are ready … just do it babe,” a text message on the day of his death read.
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.
If you or anyone you know is suffering, contact Lifeline (lifeline.org.au) on 1311 14 or visit Headspace at (headspace.org.au). Visit Beyond Blue at (beyondblue.org.au) or call 1300 22 4636. You can also contact the Kids Help Line on 1800 55 1800.
