” That was the last text Conrad ever sent to anyone.

But there was also a 46-inute phone call.

Michelle called him.

She was the last person to speak with him.

After that call ended, Michelle texted her friend Samantha.

I’m going to ask you to read that text message, please, aloud.

Sam, he just called me and there was a loud noise, like a motor, and I heard moaning like some was in pain and he wouldn’t answer when I said his name.

I stayed on the phone for like 20 minutes and that’s all I heard.

Then 27 minutes later, Michelle sent Samantha another text message.

I think he just killed himself.

Prosecutors say Michelle within hours began building a virtual alibi.

Knowing that he was likely dead, she began acting like a concerned friend, sending Conrad this text message.

I’m scared.

Are you okay? I love you.

Please answer.

Michelle showed little emotion at the trial.

Her defense relies on this psychiatrist, Peter Ban, to explain her behavior, even though he was not treating Michelle at the time.

He testifies that she was involuntarily intoxicated by an anti-depressant drug she started taking 3 months earlier.

Selea, she was imshed in a delusion where she’s thinking that it’s a good thing to help him die.

But prosecutors completely dismiss that theory.

She does not tell the Roy family about being on the phone with Conrad the night before, does she? His dead body is in a car 24 hours, and she withholds that information.

Inexplicably, Michelle sent more than 80 texts to Conrad after he died.

In some, she even apologizes for not saving him.

But it wasn’t just Conrad she texted.

The prosecution is hoping the judge pays particular attention to this text that she sent to her friend Samantha a week after Conrad’s body was discovered.

They have to go through his phone and see if anyone encouraged him to do it on texts and stuff.

They read my messages with him.

I’m done.

His family will hate me and I could go to jail.

Her actions, your honor, on July 12th, 2014 caused the death of Conrad Roy.

They were reckless, and she knew it.

According to the prosecution, Michelle Carter helped put Conrad Roy in his grave.

It was a felony and she caused serious bodily harm.

According to the defense, she didn’t know what she was doing.

Good morning.

She was psychotic, delusional, involuntarily intoxicated from taking the anti-depressant Selexa.

Michelle Carta underwent an involuntary intoxication in June and July to prominent child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr.

Harold Coplowitz.

That makes no sense at all.

Though not a witness in this case, he says those drugs called SSRI are remarkably safe.

They don’t make you delusional.

They don’t make you psychotic.

And they don’t make you intoxicated.

They don’t make you drunk.

Dr.

Coplowitz believes the act of texting was more mindaltering than any drug.

And the problem with text is that it separates you.

It makes you feel less responsible.

But no amount of distance can explain her behavior, especially the prosecution’s contention that Michelle ordered Conrad back into the truck, says the doctor.

It’s very hard to understand where the man says to a friend, listen, I’m feeling pain.

I don’t want to do this.

I’m going to get out of the car.

There there’s no way to seem to make sense of the fact that someone then says a friend says get back in the car and kill yourself.

This really has a vicious and a very very malicious quality to it.

No matter how malicious, Dr.

Copit says Michelle really couldn’t have convinced Conrad to kill himself if he hadn’t already been suicidal.

So while Michelle could not force Conrad to kill himself, she could enhance his risk of killing himself.

She could encourage him to complete the act because he was already on his way.

And simultaneously, she could have screamed out for help, which might have prevented this deadly outcome.

I want to recover from this, and I feel like I haven’t recovered from it yet.

I feel like I still have a long way to go.

Clearly, these heartbreaking videos now posted on YouTube show a young man looking for that different outcome, says Dr.

Coplowitz.

You expose yourself like this.

It says, “Please help me.

I’ve created a monster out of myself past few years because of my depression.

” Sadly, Conrad Roy is not alone.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we lose approximately 4600 young people between the ages of 10 and 24 to suicide each year.

One reason is that teenagers are simply more prone to depression.

Another reason, they’re more susceptible to peer pressure.

which is why the Netflix show 13 Reasons Why has caused such an uproar.

In the show, a teenage girl dies by suicide and leaves 13 recordings to other teens whom she blames.

I think it’s one of the most dangerous programs on the air right now for the simple reason that it glamorizes suicide.

Unfortunately, suicide’s very contagious.

We know that teenagers who watch these kind of TV programs are more likely to think about suicide, are more likely to attempt suicide, are more likely to commit suicide.

It appears that Michelle Carter may have been one of those teens influenced by what she saw on TV.

Not 13 Reasons Why, but perhaps an episode of Glee.

When an actor on Glee died of an overdose in real life, the show wrote his death into the script.

Listen to the similarities between what the character Rachel says about the loss of her boyfriend and what Michelle later says about losing Conrad.

I had it all planned out and we would live happily ever after.

It’s a good plan.

Did you tell him? I didn’t have to.

He knew.

Michelle’s text to a friend after Conrad’s death is almost word for word.

I had it all planned out.

He knew, too.

I didn’t have to tell him.

He was my person.

Michelle writes the exact same line.

He was my person.

Poor her.

Her boyfriend died.

They were going to get married one day, and now she’s the grieving girlfriend.

According to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, it all boiled down to that starring role as the grieving girlfriend.

The Commonwealth’s position, your honor, is that she wanted attention.

After six days of testimony, closing arguments begin.

The defense is up first.

The evidence actually establishes that Conrad Roy caused his own death.

Joe Cataldo reminds the judge that Conrad had attempted suicide before and points to a text Conrad wrote to Michelle.

There’s nothing anyone can do for me that’s going to make me want to live.

It’s very bad to hear, but I want to let you know that truthfully.

The decision to die was Conrad’s, not Michelle’s, says Cataldo.

He created this situation, your honor.

Most importantly, Michelle was nowhere near Conrad when he killed himself.

There’s no evidence that Michelle Carter has any physical actions whatsoever in this case with Conrad Royy’s decision.

It was all of his physical activity.

But prosecutor Katie Rburn gets the last word.

Although she wasn’t physically present, she was in his ear.

She was in his mind.

She was on the phone and she was telling to him to get back in the car even though she knew he was going to die.

She absolutely knew it was wrong.

And she absolutely caused the death of this 18-year-old boy.

And I ask you to find her guilty.

Three days after Judge Monz began his deliberations, two families prepared themselves for his verdict.

Mr.

Roy.

For the Carter family, freedom is at stake.

For the Roy, it’s about justice for their son.

She instructs Mr.

Roy to get back into the truck.

Well knowing of all of the feelings that he has exchanged with her, his ambiguities, his fears, his concerns.

The judge said Carter caused a dangerous environment.

And under Massachusetts law, she had a duty to save him.

She called no one.

She did not issue a simple additional instruction.

Get out of the truck.

Miss Carter, please stand.

This court, having reviewed the evidence and applied the law there too, now finds you guilty on the indictment charging you with the involuntary manslaughter of the person Conrad Roy III.

Guilty.

This court comes a verdict that is groundbreaking in terms of recognizing the deadly power of words, but one that leaves no winners, just heartbreak.

I know we all wish that he had the opportunity to grow up into adulthood to become a tugboat captain and to enjoy his future.

Nearly seven weeks after being convicted, Michelle Carter, who is out on bail, arrives for sentencing.

Where hostile words greet her.

She could face 20 years in prison.

Please remain standing for one moment while US one.

First, Conrad’s father and sister recall a life cut short.

Not a day goes by with without him being my first thought waking up and my last thought going to bed.

Michelle Carter exploited my son’s weaknesses and used him as a pawn in her own well-being.

She has not shown any remorse.

Where was her humanity? The prosecutor reads a statement from Conrad’s mother, Lynn, who found it too difficult to speak.

I do not know where to begin.

I pray that his death will save lives someday.

Lynn wants to make it a crime to encourage suicide.

I pray that a law comes so forth so that another mother does not have to endure what I am.

I do not believe that another can go on to encourage someone to take their life and it can be okay.

The prosecution asks that Carter serve 7 to 12 years behind bars.

She has shown no remorse and in fact after Conrad’s death she sought attention and sympathy for herself.

All she had to do was say get out of the car.

Michelle Carter does not speak at sentencing, but her attorney does and ask for probation.

Miss Carter does regret what happened.

She also sent a letter to the probation department where she accepts uh responsibility.

This is a terrible, terrible tragedy and uh she very much regrets this and praise your honest judgment of leniency.

Then Michelle Carter learns her fate.

Miss Carter, please stand.

He sentences Michelle Carter to 15 months behind bars.

A sentence that does not please the defense who appealed the conviction.

We’re asking you, your honor, to stay the jail sentence until we can have our day in court.

The judge takes the request seriously, recognizing the significance of this case.

The conviction may be reversible, but the time spent in prison is not.

and then makes a stunning announcement that a grant of a stay through the Massachusetts court system only is warranted.

A stay meaning Michelle Carter would be out on probation, not in jail, while her appeal made its way through the Massachusetts courts.

It was a decision that disappointed Lyn Roy and her daughters.

We’re just going to honor his life um and do it in the most best way we can.

We want him to be proud of us.

All right.

In February of 2019, Michelle Carter’s conviction was upheld.

Miss Carter will now be taken into custody and she began serving her 15-month sentence.

Her lawyers appealed to the US Supreme Court.

The court declined to hear that appeal.

In response, her lawyers issued the following statement.

We are deeply disappointed that the Supreme Court has decided not to review Michelle Carter’s wrongful conviction.

Lyn Royy’s focus now is on changing laws.

What would you like there to be? What kind of law? I would love one in honor of him.

Uh his name Conrad’s Law.

There’s people that love me.

I have a great mom.

My son mattered.

He matters.

Will always matter.

Someone that had a family and future and mom and dad.

I will never get over him.

a beautiful ballerina.

A troubled marriage, a deadly confrontation.

She tells the neighbor, “I shot Doug in self-defense.

” Was she genuinely afraid or just trying to get her way? Underneath those white feathers, she’s an evil woman.

She’s the black swan.

48 Hours, Saturday at 10:9 central on CBS.

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