By Beth David, Editor
The attorney for Michelle Carter, the Plainville woman charged with involuntary manslaughter in the suicide death of Conrad Roy III, argued in court on Monday, 1/23, that the defense needed to get more records from the Fairhaven Police and Fire Departments because of a statement in the paramedic’s report the night of Mr. Roy’s death.
Attorney Joseph Cataldo told Judge Lawrence Moniz that he only recently had become aware of a statement in the parademic report claiming that Fairhaven police Sgt. David Sobral had told paramedics that he did not see Mr. Roy’s pickup truck in the Kmart parking lot at 3 a.m. on July 13, 2014. Mr. Roy’s body was found later that day, at about 5:30 p.m. in the cab of the truck with a gas powered water pump in the vehicle with him. He died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
The prosecutor contends that Ms. Carter’s texts and phone calls to Mr. Roy pushed him over the edge to kill himself, making her criminally responsible for his death.
The case went to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, where the discussion focused on Ms. Carter’s statement to Mr. Roy to get back in the truck at the point he had jumped out because he was scared it was working. That phone call happened early in the evening on July 12.
Mr. Cataldo contended in court and after to reporters that if the truck was not there at 3 a.m., then it is impossible that Mr. Roy killed himself some 10 hours earlier.
He asked the court to order all reports from all Fairhaven police officers from early afternoon on 7/12/14 to early afternoon on 7/13/14, when the body was found. In his motion to the police department he specifically requests “any and all police records from the Fairhaven Police Department covering the time frame of 7/12/14 at 6:00 p.m. through 7/13/14 at 11:59 p.m. that include, but not limited to, any and all audio/ dispatch/turret/911 recordings, dispatch logs, GPS coordinates of police cruisers and documents of any kind showing the location of any police officer from the Fairhaven Police Department at any time on those particular dates. In addition, the defense also seeks a list of the names of all police officers from the Fairhaven Police Department, who were present at the scene at the K-Mart parking lot on July 13, 2014, where the decedent was discovered.”
He used similar language in a motion for additional records from the Fire Department.
Mr. Cataldo said he was purposely casting a wide net for records because the regular patrol of the lot would not be looking for the truck. Mr. Roy was not reported as missing until later in the day on 7/13.
“It’s possible the police department will now deny that anyone said it to the fire personnel,” Mr. Cataldo told the judge. “So I need something to show what the officers saw when they went through the lot.”
The Ambulance Report Form provided to the court states, “PD also report that as of 03:00 hrs (this morning), the vehicle in question was not in [its] present location.”
Prosecutor Maryclare Flynn told the court that there was no police report on the patrol through the parking lot because Mr. Roy had not been reported as missing yet, and after his body was discovered his death was deemed a suicide. She said her office had recently asked Sgt. Sobral to write a report.
“He did not see it because he did not know it was missing,” said Ms. Flynn, noting it was some 11 hours before Mr. Roy was reported as missing. “He did not look for it [the truck]. So, essentially, he doesn’t find what he’s not looking for.”
Mr. Cataldo said he wanted to know if and how many officers rode through the parking lot and when. He said a truck in the middle of the night would be noticeable.
Judge Moniz allowed the motion, but ordered attorneys to narrow the language so there would not be a lot of irrelevant reports turned over to the defense.
Ms. Flynn said she wanted to be sure the prosecution was on the record as noting that the cell tower records had been turned over and show where Mr. Roy was between 7/12 and 7/13.
“I would know where his telephone was,” countered Mr. Cataldo.
Ms. Flynn responded that Ms. Carter stated herself to “multiple friends” that “she was on the phone with him when he died.”
Mr. Cataldo told the judge that, based on the new information, he would be asking for a continuance on Friday, 2/3.
“You may file it,” said Judge Moniz, with an expression and tone of voice that seemed to say it would be a long shot.
Mr. Cataldo has tried to change the timeline of the trial at other hearings, but Judge Moniz has insisted it will be heard in March.
Mr. Cataldo told reporters, afer the hearing, that the new information was critical because it indicates that Mr. Roy had not killed himself when Ms. Carter was on the phone with him. That goes right to the heart of the charge that she coerced him into getting back in the truck.
In his motion, Mr. Cataldo wrote that the “revelation is significantly exculpatory to the defense.”
If the truck was not there at 3 a.m., said Mr. Cataldo, then Mr. Roy was still alive and driving around, trying to decide what to do during the hours between the last phone call around 7 p.m. on 7/12 and 3 a.m. on 7/13.
“So he had plenty of time to think about what he wanted to do,” said Mr. Cataldo, and Mr. Roy could not have killed himself during the phone call with Ms. Carter.
“We have evidence that’s a fact,” he said. “The [Fire Department] report said the car wasn’t there at 3 a.m.”
He said he would be “very surprised if the police department did not pick up on that,” meaning a car in the lot after hours.
“We know the Police Department told the Fire Department definitively that the truck was not there,” said Mr. Cataldo.
The truck was discovered on the west side of the Kmart building near the garden center.
Mr. Cataldo also filed a motion for medical records from Mr. Roy’s primary care physician, and records from his parents’ history of domestic violence.
The case is due back in Taunton Juvenile court for another pre-trial hearing on Friday, 2/3.
Although Ms. Carter is now 20, the case is being tried in Juvenile court because she was 17 at the time of Mr. Roy’s death. She is being tried as an adult and could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
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