19 Year Old Girl Who Encouraged Her Boyfriend To Kill Himself With A Text Message Charged To Court

A teenage girl who sent her boyfriend text messages encouraging him to kill himself has been charged to court. She asked the judge yesterday to keep statements she made to police out of her involuntary manslaughter trial.

The request was among almost two dozen motions filed by lawyers for Michelle Carter, now 19, in Taunton Juvenile Court. The Plainville woman is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the 2014 death of 18-year-old Conrad Roy III, of Mattapoisett.

At the hearing, the judge did not rule on the motions but said the trial could start in December. He plans to hear the motion to suppress Carter’s interview on October 14.

Roy’s body was found in his pickup in Fairhaven on July 13, 2014. He died of carbon monoxide poisoning and police found a gasoline-operated water pump in the back seat. Prosecutors say Carter and Roy communicated as he sat in the truck.

‘I thought you wanted to do this. The time is right and you’re ready, you just need to do it!’ Carter wrote in one message.

Carter’s lawyer, Joseph Cataldo, has said that the texts are protected free speech and that Roy was depressed and had previously tried to take his own life.

She was 17 at the time, but is charged as a youthful offender, making her subject to adult sentences.

Carter’s lawyer had argued that her texts were free speech protected by the First Amendment and didn’t cause Roy to kill himself.