Crime

Michelle Carter will be released from prison next week, sheriff’s office says

“Ms. Carter continues to attend programs, is getting along with other inmates, is polite to our staff and volunteers, and we’ve had no discipline issues at all."

By Christopher Gavin

January 14, 2020

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Michelle Carter, the 22-year-old Plainville woman convicted for pressuring Conrad Roy III to commit suicide, is slated to be released from prison next week.

The Bristol County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to Boston.com Tuesday Carter, who is currently serving a sentence for her 2017 involuntary manslaughter conviction, will be released ahead of the initial date scheduled for May.

“There have been no problems and she has been attending programs, which is common at state facilities like the Bristol County House of Correction,” Jonathan Darling, a spokesperson for the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office told Boston 25 News.

Carter will be released from the Dartmouth facility on Jan. 23, according to the news station. Inmates exhibiting good behavior can earn time for an early release.

“Ms. Carter continues to attend programs, is getting along with other inmates, is polite to our staff and volunteers, and we’ve had no discipline issues at all,” Darling told the outlet.

The news came the same day the U.S. Supreme Court revealed it had denied a request from Carter’s lawyers to have the court review her case.

In 2014, Carter, then 17, encouraged Roy, 18, of Mattapoisett, to take his own life by providing him specifics on how he could follow through on his suicide plans through text messages.

On July 13, 2014, Roy filled his pickup truck with carbon monoxide and died in a Fairhaven parking lot. Records show Carter and Roy spoke in two, 45-minute phone calls that night as he was dying.

In 2017, Juvenile Court Judge Lawrence Moniz found that Carter demonstrated “wanton and reckless conduct” with her words and failed to act on her responsibility to call for help when she knew he was dying.

Carter began serving a 15-month sentence last February after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld her conviction on appeal.

The Massachusetts Parole Board denied her request for early release in September. Board members wrote at the time that they remained “troubled that Ms. Carter not only encouraged Mr. Conrad to take his own life, she actively prevented others from intervening in his suicide.”

Last year, state lawmakers partnered with Roy’s family to file “Conrad’s Law,” a bill that would criminalize suicide coercion in Massachusetts, if passed.