I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth v. Michelle Carter

The trial of a Plainville woman

accused of encouraging her friend to kill himself

through text messages is now underway.

Michelle Carter is on trial for manslaughter

to decide if text messages she sent crossed a legal line

and whether she should be held responsible

for her boyfriend's decision to take his own life.

"His death was my fault. I could have stopped him.

I was on the phone with him,

and he got out of the car because it was working.

He got scared, and I fucking told him to get back in."

The defendant's own words.

Seventeen-year-old Michelle Carter, who, for weeks, badgered-- berated--

her depressed boyfriend Conrad Roy, 18 years old,

into killing himself.

And on July 12, 2014,

as his truck was filling with carbon monoxide,

he was scared.

He got out.

It was the defendant,

on the other end of the phone, who ordered him back in,

then listened for 20 minutes as he cried in pain,

took his last breaths, and died.

She assisted and devised and advised and planned his suicide.

She reasoned him out of his reservations.

She told him that once he was dead, he would be free and happy.

She pushed him to kill himself sooner rather than later.

And she used Conrad as a pawn in her sick game of life and death.

818 to all cars in station....

He never was the type of kid to not ever come home.

So...

I knew that morning that there was something... wrong.

And I felt this rush go through my body

that I've never felt in my life.

And I felt like he just passed through me.

I've never felt that feeling in my life.

It was just, like, the most chilling feeling.

Stand by. I'm looking for it.

I have it in here somewhere.

We were sitting on the porch right here, and, um...

a friend of the family...

called my dad and...

told him that his truck had, uh, caution tape around it

at the, uh, Fairhaven K-Mart.

And we, uh, got in the car and drove over there.

...please.

We pulled into the K-Mart parking lot

and you saw the truck and you saw the yellow tape.

And he just put it in park, he's like, "I can't go up there."

Conrad Sr. was driving back out,

and he pulled up next to Co,

and he just said, "He's gone, Co. He's dead."

And he-- Co just broke down,

and we both...

It was just like, "He's dead. He did it."

It was horrible. I just...

just went and cried...

like, you know...

for days.

Did you go to the K-Mart?

No. Mm-mm.

I think if I would have saw him or been with his body,

it would-- I don't think I would've left.

I am...

Generally, in cases where there is an untimely passing,

we review dispatch logs, police logs.

It's for us to keep up and see

if there's anything we have to follow up on.

I came across their reports related to Conrad Roy's death.

Collectively, within our office our thought was,

you know, why would someone 18 years old take his own life?

Everyone's life is within their phone these days.

At the time in which Conrad was located,

his phone was dead.

So, there was this-- some discussion as to whether or not to take it or not.

But the people assigned to the case that day

decided to-- to take the phone.

And there wasn't-- at that point,

it didn't seem like there was a ton of reason

to get into the phone other than to try to come up with an answer

of why an 18-year-old-boy would have killed himself.

No one knew about what had actually occurred.

I opened the phone, and I went right to the message part of the phone,

and there was only thread open.

And it said Michelle Carter, at which time I had no idea that meant anything.

Uh, and then when I clicked on-- to open that actual conversation,

it was quickly where I realized that the text messages were

disturbing in nature.

Glenn was sitting across from me at his desk,

and at one point, I was like, "Guys," you know, "you gotta see this."

And as I continued to read is when we, uh,

ended up thinking that we should probably contact

the DA's office just to let them know what we had found.

It was just constant encouragement

to take his life.

Almost demanding that he take his life.

It was awful. It was awful to think

that there was somebody that could actually

push somebody towards suicide like that,

especially someone that young.

At that point, the big thing

was trying to figure out who Michelle Carter was.

It is 5:51 on October 2nd.

We're talking to Michelle Carter at King Philip High School.

Um, Michelle, the reason why we came out here is

we were looking into Conrad's unfortunate passing.

- All right? - Yeah.

Did you have contact with him

the day right up until he-- he-- he passed?

Did you--

Do you think you had contact with him that day?

Um...

Yeah? Did he-- did he tell you

he was gonna do that or anything like that?

Um...

- Yeah? - And...

Mm-hmm.

- What would? - Of like just...

Okay.

Is that-- is that your phone? Is that the phone you had?

Yeah. It's my phone. It's kind of broken.

-Oh, it is? -Uh, well, the screen--

-Is this password protected? -Yeah.

What's-- Do you know the password so I can...

Um...

Here you go.

Um...

Okay? So, we'll be taking it.

Wait, so... you're taking my phone?

-Yes. -Do I get it back?

At some point, you will, yeah.

- Okay. - Okay?

Her phone download was approximately 60,000 items.

There was pictures, there was voicemails,

there was call logs, there was text messages,

chats through Facebook.

We each grabbed a copy of it and went home at night

and read about a thousand text messages each.

And we came back the next morning,

and I still remember that we looked at each other,

and I don't know if I said it first or he said it first, but it was...

"If it wasn't for her, he's alive today."

I think at that point we really realized

that we had something that was criminal.

Court's in session. Be seated. Please remain quiet.

When she was arrested and the texts came out,

we were just shocked.

I mean, it was just so heinous.

"When are you gonna do it? Stop ignoring the question.

Question mark, question mark, question mark, question mark.

You can't keep pushing it off. Are you gonna do it tonight?"

And she keeps at him, Your Honor. At him and at him to do it.

It was almost the same feeling as finding out that he died.

It's like an out-of-body experience.

Like reading it, it's like, "This can't be real.

Is this-- Am I dreaming?"

It's like reading a novel, or--

It's not something that happens in your family.

The more we read, it was just like...

"You've got to be kidding."

We want to rip her face off right now. Like, we are so angry.

Carter was sending hundreds of texts

urging the teen to kill himself right up until his final moments.

Carter encouraged and even guided Roy.

That really caught a lot of people's attention.

"Go ahead and do it. Do it, babe.

Why haven't you done it yet?"

What is that puss on her face?

Hold on. Back it up, Liz.

Okay, hold everything.

Police say at one point, before Roy died,

he got scared, got out of the truck, and called Carter.

Carter told him to get back in.

Hi. This is Conrad Roy.

And I'm gonna talk to you about social anxiety.

For me, social anxiety feels...

like it's overwhelming my life.

Like, everything does not revolve around me.

And now I want to take steps to control it.

And the first thing I want to do...

is be more proactive

in a social environment,

try to contribute to conversation as well as I can,

and just be more confident in myself and my ability to...

retract my knowledge.

'Cause I-- I feel like I'm a smart man.

I'm 18 years old,

and I still haven't recovered from social anxiety, depression.

It's controlling me.

A lot of people tell me that I have a lot going for me.

I have to be happy, I have to be happy.

Well, no, you don't have to be happy.

There's people that love me. I have a great mom.

Great dad, for the most part.

But I'm so depressed.

Feel like I'm differently wired from everyone else.

Like there's something wrong with me.

The serotonin in my head is gone.

And to replace it with dopamine, or...

another controlled substance,