By Beth David, Editor
Michelle Carter, the Plainville woman who is charged with manslaughter in the suicide death of Conrad Roy III of Mattapoisett, is due in court on Friday, 7/29. The Mass. Supreme Judicial Court rejected her appeal, heard on April 7.
At that hearing, Carter’s defense attorneys argued that her actions were free speech protected by the First Amendment and did not cause Mr. Roy to take his own life. Mr. Roy’s body was found in his truck in the KMart lot in Fair-haven in June, 2014. He had run a water pump in the cab and died from carbon mon-oxide poisoning. When, he got out of the truck because he was scared, Ms. Carter told him to get back in the truck.
It was that exchange that much of the testimony hinged upon.
In a ruling on 7/1/16, the court stated that the “grand jury were justified in returning an indictment of involuntary manslaughter.”
The court also ruled that Ms. Carter should be tried as a “youthful offender.” She was 17 at the time. As a youthful offender, all proceedings are open to the public. Her attorneys had hoped to have the case heard as a juvenile, where proceedings are closed to the press.
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