Testimony continues in the trial of Michelle Carter, who is accused of encouraging and contributing towards the 2014 suicide of her boyfriend, Conrad Roy. Both Carter and Roy were high school students at the time. Carter was 17, Roy was 18. Prosecutors allege that Carter was aware that Roy wanted to kill himself, and that in the days before Roy’s death, Carter sent him text messages encouraging and even pressuring him to go through with it. Carter has waived her right to a jury trial, so the judge will determine her fate at the conclusion of a bench trial. Watch live coverage of the trial in the player above. Court is expected to resume at 9:00 am ET.
Roy died of carbon monoxide poisoning on July 13, 2014. Prosecutors allege that he was in communication with Carter in the moments before his death. They say that when Roy began feeling the effects of the gas, he exited the truck he was in, only for Carter to convince to go back inside.
On Wednesday, the prosecution introduced some of the text messages Carter sent to friends after Roy died.
One message, to Carter’s friend Olivia, said, “I was talking to him on the phone when he killed himself. Liv, I heard him die. I just wish I got him more help.” Other texts to friends had similar tones, that seemed to express concern over what had happened.
One message, however, was more incriminating. Carter told a friend that Roy’s suicide “is my fault like honestly I could have stopped him … he got scared and I f—ing told him to get back in Sam because I knew he would do it all over again the next day and I couldn’t have him live the way he was living anymore.”
The court will only be in session for half a day on Thursday, as the judge needs to address other matters in the afternoon.
Carter is charged with involuntary manslaughter and faces up to 20 years in prison.
[Image via WPRI screengrab]