Teen urged boyfriend's suicide, now charged with involuntary manslaughter

She was alleged to have encouraged her boyfriend to commit suicide.

Now a juvenile court judge has ruled that a Massachusetts teen will face involuntary manslaughter charges.

According to prosecutors, Michelle Carter, 18, had urged Conrad Roy III, then 18, to kill himself days before his death on July 12 last year. 

She had helped him research on methods of suicide and sent numerous texts urging him to ignore second thoughts.

Roy was found in his truck in a Kmart supermarket parking lot, dead from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Carter's attorney, Joseph Cataldo, told The Standard-Times that she did not commit a crime and that Roy had taken his own life purely at his free will.

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“They’re trying to claim there is manslaughter, when they freely admit the boy took his own life. You can’t have it both ways," said Cataldo.

He also said that earlier text messages sent by Carter showed that she had tried to get Roy to seek help.

Cataldo argued Roy had been suicidal and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital two years earlier and was on medication. 

He said that on the day Roy killed himself, he left behind suicide notes at his house and initially wanted Carter to commit suicide together with him "like Romeo and Juliet".

Judge Bettina Borders concluded her ruling after reviewing evidence that showed Cater, then 17, was on the phone with Roy for nearly 45 minutes when he was inhaling carbon monoxide and did not call 911.

She also cited text messages Carter allegedly sent to her friend two months after the suicide in which she admitted she told Roy to get back in his truck when he became afraid.

“His death is my fault. Like, honestly I could have stopped it. I was the one on the phone with him and he got out of the car because he was working and he got scared and I [expletive] told him to get back in… because I knew he would do it all over again the next day and I couldn’t have him live that way the way he was living anymore."

A pretrial hearing is scheduled for 30 November. 

Source: Independent, WCVB, The New Bedford Standard-Times,