Massachusetts Woman Begins Jail Sentence For Urging Boyfriend's Suicide In Text Messages

Texting Teen — Michelle Carter will start serving her 15 month sentence for involuntary manslaughter, nearly five years to the date of her boyfriend's death. People receive sms on their mobile phone on April 22, 2012 in front of the Socialist Party (PS) headquarters in Paris, following the announcement of the official results of the first round of the French 2012 presidential election. Getty Images/MEHDI FEDOUACH

The controversial case involving a Massachusetts woman that sent her boyfriend numerous text messages that allegedly persuaded him to kill himself was sent to jail on Monday, nearly five years after his death.

While Michelle Carter was sentenced to 15 months in jail back in 2017 for involuntary manslaughter, the judge allowed her to forgo her sentence until she appealed the decision with the state court. Her conviction was upheld on Monday by a judge for the role she played in Conrad Roy III’s death.

Conrad died in a truck that he filled with carbon monoxide while Carter texted him allegedly urging him to go through with the suicide. When he hesitated, Carter became more insistent with her texts, according to court documents.

“You keep pushing it off and say you’ll do it but u never do. It’s always gonna be that way if u don’t take action,” Carter texted Roy the day of his death. At the time of the July 2014 incident, Carter was 17 and Roy was 18.

The court came to a guilty verdict over a phone call that Carter had with Roy, where she told him to get back in his truck as it filled with the deadly gas. According to the judge in the case, Carter had a duty to call the police or Roy’s family but decided to listen on the phone as he died.

“After she convinced him to get back into the carbon monoxide filled truck, she did absolutely nothing to help him: she did not call for help or tell him to get out of the truck as she listened to him choke and die,” Supreme Judicial Court Justice Scott Kafker wrote in the court’s opinion affirming her conviction.

Attorneys for Carter argued that she should remain out of jail while the case is taken up with the U.S. Supreme Court. They maintained that she had no previous criminal record, wasn’t a flight risk, and was receiving mental health treatment, according to court documents.

The judge in the case disagreed and ordered Carter to start her sentence on Monday. Carter showed no emotion as she was taken into custody, USA Today reported.

Carter’s attorney Joe Cataldo told USA Today that they will continue to appeal the case.

“Make no mistake, this legal fight is not over,” he said.