Judge Orders Michelle Carter To Start Serving Sentence In Texting Suicide Case

TAUNTON (CBS/AP) — A judge ordered Michelle Carter to begin serving her 15-month prison sentence for encouraging her suicidal boyfriend to kill himself.

Carter, 22, appeared in Taunton Trial Court Monday afternoon for a hearing to consider prosecutors' request to revoke her stay of sentence, which the judge approved.

"Miss Carter will now be taken into custody," Judge Lawrence Moniz said.

Before her appearance, the Supreme Judicial Court denied an emergency motion filed by her lawyer asking for an extended stay of her sentence.

Carter was brought to the Bristol County House of Correction in Dartmouth Monday afternoon. She was placed in a one-person, medical cell on the men's side of the facility.

The Plainville woman was convicted in June 2017 for encouraging her suicidal boyfriend Conrad Roy to kill himself in 2014. A judge found that Carter caused Roy's death when she told him to "get back in" his truck as it was filling with carbon monoxide in Fairhaven.

The judge allowed Carter to remain free while she appealed in state court, but Massachusetts' highest court upheld her conviction last week.

Outside court, Roy's family said they were happy justice is finally being served after a more than four-year ordeal.

"This has been a four-year ordeal for our family. It's been four and a half years since Conrad passed, so our heart has been broken this whole time," Roy's aunt Becki Maki said.

"His life mattered. It mattered to us and I think it mattered to a lot of people. So, Conrad, we love you," she added.

Lawyers for Carter have said they plan to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming she wasn't responsible for Roy's suicide.

"This case, legally, is not over," attorney Joseph Cataldo said.

(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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