Michelle Carter was ruled guilty of involuntary manslaughter on Friday for urging her boyfriend Conrad Roy back into a car filling with carbon monoxide after he told her he was reconsidering his suicide attempt—Carter’s final push after months of pressuring him to end his own life.
Carter was 17 years old in 2014, when she texted with Roy on the night of his death. Now 20, she was tried in juvenile court, and waived her right to a trial by jury, according to The Washington Post. The case against Carter was mostly based on her texts to Roy and her circle of friends, which seemed to show that she was lying about supporting Roy and urging him to seek mental health intervention. Prosecutors argued that Carter wanted Roy to die so she could play the part of the grieving girlfriend.
Carter’s defense attorney, Joseph Cataldo, argued that Roy was suicidal and would have gone through with his plan without Carter’s urging, though at one point he told her he “didn’t want to die.” She told him to get back in the car.
“It was Conrad Roy’s idea to take his own life; it was not Michelle’s idea,” Cataldo said. “This was a suicide—a sad and tragic suicide, but not a homicide.”
Reporter Jess Bidgood tweeted that conditions set for Carter’s bail include a halt on social media: “No texting, no Facebook, no snapchat.” Her sentencing is set for August.