US woman who encouraged suicidal boyfriend to kill himself gets 15 months in jail

A woman who encouraged her suicidal boyfriend to kill himself in dozens of text messages and told him to “get back in” a truck filled with toxic gas was sentenced on Thursday to 15 months in jail for involuntary manslaughter.

Michelle Carter, now 20, was convicted in June by a judge who said her final instruction to Conrad Roy III caused his death. Carter was 17 when the 18-year-old Roy was found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning in July 2014.

Juvenile Court Judge Lawrence Moniz gave Carter a 2½-year jail sentence but said she had to serve only 15 months of that. He also sentenced her to five years of probation. He granted a defence motion that would keep Carter out of jail until her appeals in Massachusetts courts are exhausted.

The judge called the case, which has garnered international attention, “a tragedy for two families.”

Carter’s lawyer, Joseph Cataldo, had asked the judge to spare his client any jail time and instead give her five years of probation and require her to receive mental health counselling. He said Carter was struggling with mental health issues of her own such as bulimia, anorexia and depression during the time she urged Roy to kill himself.