A 23-year-old Massachusetts woman has been released from jail after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter for pushing her late boyfriend to kill himself.
Michelle Carter spent a little under a year behind bars for encouraging Conrad Roy III to take his own life by filling his truck with toxic fumes in 2014. Roy was 18 years old at the time. Carter was 17.
Carter had pushed Roy through a series of text messages to follow through with plans to end his life. In one message sent the day he died, she told him to “get back in” the truck after he began having second thoughts about his decision. Roy had attempted suicide before. He and Carter both suffered from depression, according to court documents.
After her conviction in 2017, Carter faced a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison, but she received just 15 months in jail and five years on probation. She started her sentence in February 2019 after the Supreme Court denied her appeal just 10 days before her release.
Jail officials in Bristol County, Massachusetts, released Carter three months early, saying she accrued enough good credits for good behavior and participating in programs.
In a statement, Roy’s family said that “news of the Supreme Court denying to hear her case far out-shadowed the news of her early release.”
“Her time in jail, no matter how long or short, will not change the outcome of a guilty verdict, which is thankfully being upheld,” the family wrote. “July 12, 2014, our lives were forever changed, and the world lost a beautiful soul. Michelle Carter is the reason for that.”
In a similar case in October, 21-year-old Inyoung You was charged with involuntary manslaughter after her 22-year-old boyfriend, Alexander Urtula, killed himself. You allegedly ordered Urtula to kill himself, sending him texts that said, “Go kill yourself,” “Go die,” and “[the] world would be better” without him.
