Teen Text Killer Michelle Carter Earns Early Release From Prison After Boyfriend’s Death
‘Good behavior’ credit allows her to leave after involuntary manslaughter conviction.
Jan. 14 2020, Updated 4:18 p.m. ET
Teen Text Killer Michelle Carter will be released from prison on January 23 after earning months off for “good behavior,” RadarOnline.com confirmed.
She is serving a 15-month prison sentence for involuntary manslaughter in the death of her boyfriend, Conrad Roy III, with whom she exchanged over 20,000 text messages encouraging him to kill himself.
“Michelle was eligible to earn up to 10 days a month off her sentence for good behavior,” Bristol County Sheriff Spokesman Jonathan Darling told RadarOnline.com.
“Her new release date is January 23,” he verified.
RadarOnline.com broke the news that Carter was earning time off for her original release date of May 5, 2020.
“She is a model prisoner,” Darling explained. “She has never had a fight. She takes classes and works at a job in the prison. She is polite to staff, volunteers and other inmates,” he said about her behavior behind bars.
“She has been no problem at all.”
Darling also told RadarOnline.com that no special requests had been made for Carter’s release, explaining that most inmates are released “during business hours,” from the notorious prison where Aaron Hernandez was once held.
Carter petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn her conviction, arguing that her actions were protected by the First Amendment, but the court refused to hear the case.
"The trial judge’s verdict and the state supreme court affirmance leave no doubt that Carter was convicted for her words alone -- what she said and failed to say to Roy. Carter neither provided Roy with the means of his death nor physically participated in his suicide," her lawyers said in their argument.
She also petitioned the Parole Board for an early release but that was denied in Sept. 2019.
“Given subject’s behavior in facilitating victim’s death, release not compatible with best interest of society. Did not provide sufficient insight into reason for lack of empathy at the time of crime and surrounding time period,” the decision from the Parole Board stated.
The 20,000 text messages exchanged between Carter and Roy helped convict her of the crime.
“You're so hesistant sic because you keep overthinking it and pushing it off. You just need to do it Conrad. The more you push it off, the more it will eat at you,” Carter texted to Roy on July 12, 2014 as he wavered in his decision to kill himself.
Roy’s body was found on July 13, 2014 in his truck in a K-Mart parking lot in Massachusetts. He died by inhaling carbon monoxide and his death was ruled a suicide.
“I think he just killed himself,” Carter wrote in a text message to her friend Samantha Boardman when she stopped hearing back from Roy on the day that he died.
“Sam, he just called me and there was a loud noise like a motor and I heard moaning like someone was in pain and he wouldn’t answer when I said his name I stayed on the phone for like 20 mins that’s all I heard,” Carter wrote to her friend on the night of Roy’s death.
She was only 17 when Roy died, a factor the judge took into account when sentencing her to only 15 months for her “wanton and reckless” behavior in the case.
If you or anyone you know has thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, available 24 hours everyday.