Michelle Carter sentenced to 15 months in jail for texts encouraging her boyfriend to kill himself

Her sentence was later stayed by a judge pending appeal of her conviction

Carter was convicted of involuntary manslaughter (AP)

The young woman convicted of involuntary manslaughter after she texted her boyfriend encouragement to kill himself has been sentenced to a two and a half year term including 15 months in prison for the deed.

A judge later stayed the sentence, pending her appeal of the conviction.

Michelle Carter texted her then-boyfriend Conrad Roy III, 18, to get back into a truck that he was filling with toxic carbon monoxide gas in Massachusetts in 2014. Roy, who had gotten out of the truck, ultimately got back in and died.

Carter, who was 17 at the time, had sent him dozens of text messages that day urging him to follow through on his pledge to kill himself.

“The time is right and you are ready… just do it babe,” she wrote in one of the texts that day.

The case against Carter became something of a strange experiment for the American judicial system, which hadn’t encountered a situation quite like it before.

During the proceedings, prosecutors said that she pushed her boyfriend to kill himself because she was desperate for attention and wanted sympathy from her classmates. The defense argued that Roy was intent on taking his life no matter what and took her on the “sad journey”.

A psychiatrist who testified indicated that Carter was “very troubled”, and noted that she had attempted to stop Roy from killing himself before ultimately becoming supportive of the move. Her change in heart came after she became convinced she needed to help her boyfriend “get to heaven”, and only after she determined that there was nothing she could do to change his mind.

Carter’s father plead with the judge for leniency for his daughter ahead of the sentencing, saying he believes that his daughter was simply trying to do what she thought was the right thing to do for her boyfriend.

“I am 100 percent sure she was only trying to do what in her mind was right for Conrad,” David Carter wrote. “She has accepted he court’s decision and I hope you will consider a term of probation and continued counseling for her and us. She will forever live with what she has done and I know will be a better person because of it.”

Investigators looking into the suicide first noted that Roy had a history of depression, and had been prescribed antidepressants. But they were later shocked to find the texts between him and his girlfriend. There ultimately found thousands of texts between the two on the subject.