“It’s my fault”: Michelle Carter, on trial for encouraging her teen boyfriend to kill himself over text message, told friend “I could have stopped him”

TAUNTON, Mass. (AP) — A young woman charged with using text messages to encourage her boyfriend to kill himself when they were teenagers sent a text to a friend from high school about two months after the death, saying, “It’s my fault,” according to testimony at her trial on Wednesday.

Michelle Carter, then 17, cajoled Conrad Roy III, 18, to kill himself in July 2014 with a series of texts and phone calls, prosecutors allege. Roy died when his pickup truck filled with carbon monoxide in a store parking lot in Fairhaven.

“It’s my fault,” Carter texted to her school friend Samantha Boardman. “I could have stopped him but I told him to get back in the car.”

Defense attorneys Cory Madera, left, and Joe Cataldo, right, and defendant Michelle Carter, center, view the scene at a former KMart store in Fairhaven where the body of Conrad Roy III was found in a pickup truck. The trial of Carter proceeds in Taunton District Court in Taunton, Mass Wednesday, June 7, 2017. She is charged with involuntary manslaughter for encouraging 18-year-old Conrad Roy, III to kill himself in July 2014. (Mark Stockwell/The Sun Chronicle via AP, Pool)

Boardman was among several of Carter’s friends and acquaintances who took the witness stand on the second day of the involuntary manslaughter trial in Taunton juvenile court.

Carter’s lawyer disputes a crime occurred. Attorney Joseph Cataldo said Roy was depressed, had attempted suicide before, researched suicide methods online and was completely responsible for his own death. He said Carter’s text messages are protected free speech.

Defendant Michelle Carter looks on as attorneys and judge meet at sidebar. A string of her texts are projected behind her. The trial of Carter proceeds in Taunton District Court in Taunton, Mass., Wednesday, June 7, 2017. She is charged with involuntary manslaughter for encouraging 18-year-old Conrad Roy, III to kill himself in July 2014. (Mark Stockwell/The Sun Chronicle via AP, Pool)

Carter, now 20, also told Boardman that she feared getting in trouble after she found out that police had Roy’s phone.

“I’m done,” Carter wrote in one text displayed in the court room. “His family will hate me and I can go to jail.”

Two other friends say Carter texted them saying she was on the phone with Roy as he died.

“I was talking on the phone with him when he killed himself … I heard him die,” Carter texted to Olivia Mosolgo days after Roy’s death, Mosolgo testified.

Carter also expressed remorse in a message to a friend: “I’m the only one he told things too. I should have gotten him more help,” she wrote.

Asst. District Attorney Katie Rayburn shows the iPhone that defendant Michelle Carter used to text Conrad Roy III to Fairhaven, Mass., Detective Scott Gordon, right, was the lead detective in the case after Roy’s body was found in a pickup truck in Fairhaven, Mass., in July, 2014. The trial of Michelle Carter proceeds in Taunton District Court in Taunton, Mass Wednesday, June 7, 2017. She is charged with involuntary manslaughter for encouraging 18-year-old Conrad Roy, III to kill himself in July 2014. (Mark Stockwell/The Sun Chronicle via AP, Pool)

The police detective who conducted the criminal investigation also testified. Fairhaven Detective Scott Gordon said he found Roy’s phone and discovered the text conversation between Roy and Carter.

The case is being tried without a jury, and a judge will deliver the verdict. The judge visited the site where Roy’s truck was found on Wednesday afternoon.


More from Crime Online, Nancy Grace discusses this case on Crime Stories:


Featured Image: Defense Attorney Joe Cataldo, left, and defendant Michelle Carter, right,  look over photos that were taken at the Homers for Conrad fundraising event that Carter organized several months after Conrad Roy III committed suicide. The trial of Carter proceeds in Taunton District Court in Taunton, Mass., Wednesday, June 7, 2017. She is charged with involuntary manslaughter for encouraging 18-year-old Conrad Roy, III to kill himself in July 2014. (Mark Stockwell/The Sun Chronicle via AP, Pool)