Michelle Carter trial: Plainville teen texted 'Take your life?'
06/08/2017 10:43 am PDT
via WBZ:
TAUNTON, Mass. -- (WBZ) -- In text messages read aloud in the trial of a Plainville woman accused of encouraging her friend's suicide, she appeared to offered him a suggestion: “Take your life?”
Prosecutors say Michelle Carter sent dozens of text messages to Conrad Roy pressuring him to go through with killing himself. They claim she did so to get attention as a grieving ex-girlfriend; Her defense says the texts are free speech.
In court Thursday, Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Bates further detailed the texts between Carter and Roy.
At one point, Roy texted Carter, “I keep regretting the past it's getting me upset.”
“Take your life?” she responded.
“Do you think I should,” he wrote back.
A video made by Roy a month before he killed himself was shown in court Thursday, in which he described the anguish he felt inside -- anguish prosecutors say Carter used to push him to commit suicide.
“I've created a monster out of myself the past few years because of my depression, racing thoughts, suicidal thoughts,” Roy said in that video, going on to add he felt he was “...no good trash, will never be successful, never have a life, never have kids...”
Before the prosecution rested their case Thursday, Trooper Brock Morrissette testified that he examined the phone calls and text thread between Carter and Roy after Roy was found dead in his truck.
One friend of Carter's, Samantha Boardman, read texts in court Wednesday in which Carter said she was worried about those texts to Roy.
“Sam, his death was my fault, like honestly, I could have stopped him,” read texts Boardman received from Carter. “I was on the phone and he got out of the car because it was working and he got scared and I told him to get back in .... they read my messages with him, I'm done. His family will hate me and I could go to jail.”
Trooper Bates testified that Carter had even discussed methods of suicide with Roy, including taking sleeping pills.
On cross examination, Trooper Bates admitted there had been other texts in which Carter tried to help Roy with his depression.
Carter's defense has argued that she tried to talk Roy into getting help–but they say she got wrapped up in his plan, and that he would have committed suicide regardless.
Dr. Faryl Sandler, a state medical examiner, then testified about her examination of Roy's body.
She said the cause of his death was acute carbon monoxide poisoning, but then said on cross-examination that she had listed his cause of death as suicide.
Many members of Roy's family left the room for Dr. Sandler's testimony, which included a description of Roy's death.
On Friday morning, Judge Lawrence Moniz is set to hear arguments over whether or not to dismiss the case.
FULL STORY: Michelle Carter trial: Plainville teen texted 'Take your life?' - WBZ