A teenager accused of manslaughter sent text messages which appear to prove she pressured her boyfriend to commit suicide, it has been reported.
Prosecutors say Michelle Carter, 18, knew she could go to jail if police found her messages on Conrad Roy III's phone.
She is also accused of asking him to delete the texts from his phone, which were later found by investigators.
Carter, who was 17 at the time, allegedly texted a pal after her boyfriend's death saying: “(If the police) read my messages with him I’m done. His family will hate me and I can go to jail."
The teenager is charged with first-degree involuntary manslaughter over Roy's suicide in a supermarket car-park in Fairhaven, Massachusetts in July last year.
According to prosecutors, Carter pressured her boyfriend to go through with suicide for almost a week before he carried out the act, the Washington Post reported.
She is believed to have counselled him to overcome his fears, researched methods of committing suicide painlessly and lied to police, his family and her friends about his whereabouts.
Carter also very publicly mourned Roy's death on Facebook and Twitter, just three days before she was indicted.
Authorities accuse her of being a wolf in sheep’s clothing despite frequently speaking of her “love” for Conrad online.
In a police report obtained by local newspaper the Sun Chronicle, a detective said at the time: "Not only did Conrad tell Carter in several of his texts prior to his death that he was scared and didn't want to leave his family, she continued to encourage him to take his own life, and when he actually started to carry out the act, he got scared again and exited his truck, but instead of telling him to stay out of the truck ... Carter told him to 'get back in.”
Carter, who organised a charity softball tournament in Conrad’s memory, tweeted that the fund-raiser, called Homers for Conrad, pulled in more than $2,300 for mental health awareness.
"Life can be tough, but helping others makes it easier," she allegedly wrote under the account @michyc47.
Carter's lawyer argues that the charges should be dropped because her messages are protected by free speech.
According to attorney Joseph P. Cataldo, Carter was “brainwashed” into supporting Roy’s plan for suicide.
He was quoted as telling reporters: “He ultimately persuaded a young, impressionable girl. Eventually he gets her to endorse his plan.”
Mirror UK
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