1 How could the girl who's most likely to brighten your day encourage her boyfriend to take his life? CAROLYN ROBINSON: Tonight, the groundbreaking 'death by texting' trial. In reviewing the evidence... A young woman found guilty... Ms Carter, please stand. ...in the bizarre case that's still making headlines. WOMAN: He got out of the truck and said, 'I can't do this. I'm not gonna do this.' She said, 'Get back in the truck. Suck it up.' Was it to end his suffering or to become more popular and famous herself? If you really look at it, Your Honour, she's really desperate for attention. Her boyfriend died, and now she's the grieving girlfriend. Tonight, we're going back with his family to the very place where it happened. The idea that this is the spot that he was in... It shouldn't be... in a parking lot. His grieving aunt speaking out to 20/20. How did you even wrap your mind around that? He was a kid. He was ours. He was our kid. The private video diaries... I feel... What's the word? ...recorded just weeks before his death. I'm differently wired from everyone else. Like, there's something wrong with me. Her secret text messages pushing him on. 'OK, so, you wanna kill yourself? When are you gonna do it?' That doesn't make her behaviour OK or good, but the question is ` is it criminal? She said, 'You don't wanna take your life. You don't want to.' She said this to him for two years. Until she eventually says, 'Do it.' Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2017 Kia ora. I'm Carolyn Robinson. Welcome to 20/20. Tonight, a case that has attracted headlines around the world. It's the trial of the young woman who seemed to talk her boyfriend into killing himself, via text message. It's a tragic story of two American teens ` Conrad Roy and Michelle Carter ` in an intense online relationship, both struggling with depression and mental illness. And a warning before Deborah Roberts begins her report ` some viewers may find parts of her story disturbing. DEBORAH ROBERTS: Buzzards Bay on the south coast of Massachusetts. Good sailing weather. Striped bass are biting. And in Mattapoisett, the views from the historic light at Ned's point ` built to guide whaling ships to safe harbour ` are as spectacular as ever. It's the kind of summer Conrad Roy would have loved. Conrad's aunt, Kim Bozzi... Tell me about him as he was growing up. He was... kinda like the instigator in our family. He's the kid that never got in trouble. He'd start the trouble, but he somehow got away with it. Athletic? Oh yeah. Played baseball. He loved baseball. Conrad, whose family calls him Coco, excels, at least academically, in high school. He graduates in 2014 with good grades and test scores high enough to win him a free ride at a state college, but he's unsure whether to go off to school or join the family tugboat business. And did Conrad like it? Yeah. He loved it. He loved being on the water. He got his captain's licence at the age of 18, which was pretty... pretty awesome. A life by the sea with so much promise. But Conrad is adrift,... Hi, this is Conrad Henry Roy III,... reporting to you about what's going on through my mind, what's going on through my head the last few days. ...confiding deep emotional distress in private video diaries. I've created a monster out of myself... the past few years... because of my depression, racing thoughts, suicidal thoughts. It is a hard video to watch. I think we see a very troubled teenager who's obviously going through a multitude of emotions and issues. The hardest thing for me is to be comfortable in my own skin. After his parents' divorce in 2011, he begins a downward spiral. Depression, a stay in a psychiatric facility and several attempts at suicide. I feel... what's the word? I feel like I'm differently wired from everyone else. But this story really begins with his chance encounter with a girl. Conrad meets Michelle Carter while both are visiting relatives in Florida. She's a year younger and lives in Plainville, an hour north of Conrad's hometown. Like Conrad, she's athletic ` a softball player. Coach Ed McFarland says she was a decent shortstop and a nice girl. Quiet kid. Never known her to do a mean thing. Would do whatever she could to help you in the process. Classmates would later vote Michelle 'most likely to brighten your day'. But Sera Congi, a reporter for ABC Boston affiliate WCVB, says Michelle was also struggling. She suffered from depression, and she had an eating disorder. We know she took antidepressants. Something that seemed to bother Michelle most ` making and keeping friends. But Michelle's new friend Conrad apparently fills the void. They fall into an intense Facebook, texting, all-hours-of-the-day-and-night, on-again-off-again virtual romance ` one even Conrad's mother knew very little about. Does she know who she is? She just thought she was an acquaintance of Conrad's, nothing more. In fact, we can't find a single photo of the teens together. They meet in person only two or three times ` the relationship almost entirely electronic. They were intimate with each other over text message, because they talked so much about their personal feelings. But were they a traditional boyfriend and girlfriend? It's hard to say. But the relationship is clearly intense. Conrad sends Michelle this selfie. In a Facebook exchange early on, Conrad tells Michelle about his brush with death. Later, he confides he's planning to try again. He tells her pretty definitively early on that he wants to die and that he has a plan to die and that he's going to do it. By the summer of 2014, Conrad, on his own, combs the internet hundreds of times, searching terms such as 'cyanide', 'death by cop' and 'easy ways to find poisons'. He sends Michelle a photo of a rifle and a noose hanging from a tree. Then Conrad hints they should do something together. Dan Glaun's a reporter for MassLive, a digital news outlet. There's these weeks and weeks of messages where Conrad Roy is saying, 'I'm depressed. I wanna die.' And he says this to her over and over. She's overwhelmed by this caretaker role she has with her boyfriend. She can't handle it. Michelle, also emotionally fragile, repeatedly tries to talk him out of it. For two years, the relationship builds, the star-crossed teens discussing all kinds of things online. But Conrad's obsession with suicide runs through it like a sinister thread, and for most of that time, Michelle consistently encouraging him to get help. She's encouraging him to stay alive. She's trying to pull him away from that darkness. When she's hospitalised for an eating disorder, she asks Conrad to join her. Conrad warns Michelle not to tell anyone who could stop him, and she doesn't. On the 4th of July 2014, Conrad is talking more and more about ending his life. His family says they know nothing about these messages and think he's feeling better emotionally. The morning of July 12th seems to begin as a typical summer day for Conrad Roy. He goes to Horseneck Beach with his mom and younger sisters. They walked on the beach, and his mother talks about how he seemed more optimistic. She kind of felt a little more encouraged that maybe he was moving forward and that it was a good day. Ominously, though, instead of swimming or sunbathing, Conrad spends most of the afternoon in the car, feverishly texting with someone. That evening, Conrad tells his mom he's going to see a friend. His mother asks, 'Will you be home for dinner?' And he says he doesn't know; he doesn't think so. And that's the last thing that he says to his mother. Her son drives off in his black pickup truck and disappears into the summer night. And that was the last time anyone in his family saw him alive. When we come back ` the search for Conrad and the haunting messages on his mobile phone that will shatter two families. 1 Welcome back to 20/20 and tonight's story ` 'Can Words Kill?' It's the tragic tale of American teens Conrad Roy and Michelle Carter and the 'death by text message' trial. As Deborah Roberts continues, the hunt for Conrad Roy is about to take a tragic turn. And when a series of disturbing texts are found on his phone, suspicion falls on Michelle Carter. And a warning ` some of our viewers may find tonight's story distressing. DEBORAH ROBERTS: The search is on for missing teenager Conrad Roy. He had driven off from his mother's house in Fairhaven, Massachusetts on a Saturday evening, supposedly to visit a friend. But by Sunday morning, he still wasn't home. You could tell she was worried. And I said, 'Well, you really... 'need to call the authorities and see if they can start searching for him.' With no word from her son, a frantic Lynn Roy contacted the Fairhaven Police Department. An officer was soon on the case and began searching. He wound up in this Kmart parking lot. I saw in the corner of my eye a black F250 parked over there. Parked right over here. Right over there. Fairhaven officer Dave Correia finds the black pickup truck ` Conrad's lifeless body behind the wheel. He's gone, his life over at age 18. I'd seen enough people that were gone to realise just by looking at him that he was gone, that there was nothing that anybody was gonna be able to do for him. In the back seat, this portable water pump, powered by a gasoline engine. Running that engine with the windows closed filled the truck with a lethal cloud of carbon monoxide gas, enough to kill anyone inside in 20 minutes flat. Deadly as a loaded gun. It's immediately clear that it's a suicide. They contact his parents, and Lynn Roy learns that her son has died. And I just grabbed my sister and hugged her as tight as I could, and she... How did you even wrap your mind around that? You can't. There's no way. He was a kid. He was ours. He was our kid. Conrad had left notes at home for his family and Michelle Carter. He thanks her for being there for him, for supporting him, for sticking with him as he went through all of these struggles and mental health problems. Immediately, Conrad's grieving family is comforted by a friend of his they had scarcely known existed ` Michelle. She begins trying to establish a relationship with Conrad Roy's family ` with his mother, Lynn, and his younger sister, Camdyn ` telling them that Conrad would have wanted them to stay strong and to not break down over him. She begins texting, calling, emailing. Michelle, who most of Conrad's family and friends had never met, also attends his wake and his funeral. And Michelle Carter was showing up at these various times. Yeah. And even asked for... part of his ashes? Yeah, yeah. She wanted to go through his room and take some of his belongings. What did you all make of that? That's when things started to get a little weird. It was like, hmm. Yeah, you don't do that. One thing that she does is she begins organising a charity baseball tournament for Conrad. On a Facebook page, she says she wants to be an anti-suicide activist. And something else a little spooky. Even after his death, Michelle continues texting Conrad. Meantime, Fairhaven Police are working what seems to be an open-and-shut case of teen suicide, until a detective thinks to check Conrad's cell phone. I got the call the next day from Detective Gordon. He wanted to know where the phone was. He had gotten the code from the family. I told him where it was, and of course, the rest is history. On that phone, some very strange text messages with Michelle Carter. She actually begins to almost agree with him. Like, 'OK, so, you wanna kill yourself? When are you gonna do it? How are you gonna do it?' Starting about on July 2nd, she starts saying, 'Are you serious?' Like, 'You should just do it.' In early July, after Conrad apparently fails to go through with an overdose of sleeping pills, police say Michelle seems not relieved but irritated. She's almost bullying him about it. Authorities are stunned to find that in the last week of his life, Michelle asks Conrad when he's going to kill himself more than 40 times. Whenever he had doubts, she'd diminish them. Whenever he had guilt about leaving his family, she assured him that she would comfort them. Still ahead ` detectives go to school, Michelle Carter's school. How will the senior 'most likely to brighten your day' explain all those text messages? We'll have more from the police investigation when 20/20 returns after this break. 1 Welcome back. Tonight on 20/20, we're looking into a story that made headlines around the globe. It's the so-called 'death by text' case. Police investigating the death of Conrad Roy believe his girlfriend, Michelle Carter, was encouraging him to take his own life. As Deborah Roberts continues, we have a warning ` parts of her story may be upsetting for some viewers. DEBORAH ROBERTS: It seems everyone's talking about teen suicide. The Tony award-winning musical, 'Dear Evan Hansen' taking on that difficult subject. # Can anybody see? # Is anybody waving... # back at me? CHORUS: # Whoa, oh-oh-oh. # Is anybody waving? # Whoa, oh-oh-oh. # Waving,... # Whoa, whoa. # ...waving, # Whoa, oh. From Broadway to Netflix and the TV show 'Thirteen Reasons Why' about a teenage girl who takes her life. Cos I'm about to tell you the story of my life ` more specifically, why my life ended. And if you're listening to this tape, you're one of the reasons why. But for Conrad Roy, the angst was not entertainment; it was all too real. Hi. This is Conrad Roy, and I'm gonna talk to you about social anxiety. The 18-year-old documents his despair in secret video diaries just weeks before his death. What I am doing is... looking at myself so negatively. I'm looking at myself, minuscule little particle... on the face of this Earth that's no good, trash, will never be successful. Never have a wife, never have... kids, never... never learn. Now police investigating his suicide are searching through his phone and all his electronic exchanges with Michelle Carter. They're beginning to suspect her role in his death was not as innocent as it first appeared, mostly because of messages like this one. Michelle, police say, is actively helping Conrad plan his death. He gets a gas generator, but it malfunctions or it breaks down. If you're having trouble with your generator, just Google it. Hold on, I'll do it for you. And I can tell you exactly how to kill yourself. Hold, please. Instead, Conrad takes a gas-powered water pump from a relative. But as with previous attempts, he seems to waver. But the next morning, Conrad ` as authorities will later put it ` has the audacity to still be alive. That evening, Conrad still procrastinating, Michelle still pushing. Five minutes later, Conrad fires off another text. That last text message is before he drives to the Kmart parking lot, where he turns the water pump on in the cabin of his truck. And then he's gone. Months after Conrad's death, a detective goes to King Philip High School to have a talk with Michelle Carter. 'Didn't think anything of it,' she tells police, but that's not what she told her friends. A search of her phone reveals Michelle sent a series of stunning text messages to classmate Samantha Boardman after Conrad's death. When Michelle hears detectives are searching Conrad's phone, she sends Samantha a frantic message. But it gets worse. Two months after Conrad's death, Michelle sends Samantha this jaw-dropping admission. When he got out of the truck and said, 'I can't do this. I'm not gonna do this,' she said, 'Get back in the truck. Suck it up.' That is the saddest part of this whole story. The truck is filling up with carbon monoxide, and he gets out. And she tells her friend Sam that she told Conrad to get back in the truck. She did not call police. She did not call her parents, his parents, nobody. She sat there, waited for him to die and then texted her friends ` 'OMG. I think my "friend"... 'just committed suicide.' Michelle goes on to tell Samantha... We asked former prosecutor Nancy Grace and ABC chief legal analyst Dan Abrams to discuss the case. Is the question whether words can kill? Is that what it is? Oh, this was more than words. Much more than words. She researched modes of death. She said, 'You could hang yourself. You could put a plastic bag over your head. 'You could shoot yourself in the head.' And the reason that she did that is because he asked her for help. He's the one who drew her into this thing from the beginning. How would you describe this relationship between these two young people? Tragic. That's how I would describe it. It was, uh, Conrad Roy laying a lot of his baggage on Michelle Carter, and he consistently bombarded her with his suicidal thinking. I don't think that she helped him kill himself. I think she forced him to kill himself. You think she is the cause of his death? Mm-hm. Yeah. I think if it wasn't for her, he'd still be here. The text messages may sound horrible, but are they a crime? Prosecutors say yes. And six months after Conrad Roy's death, a grand jury agrees that Michelle Carter's words are a weapon, indicting her on a charge of involuntary manslaughter. That trial making national headlines. The teenage girl is facing charges in another teen's suicide. The young woman is now charged with manslaughter after her then-boyfriend killed himself. We had never heard of a story like that before, a charge like that before, a case like that before. What's novel about it is the technology, that we don't have to be at the crime scene, that we can still be present when somebody's committing a crime because we're on the phone with them. We're talking to them. We're in their head. She was virtually present. The trial up next. And look who takes the stand ` Michelle Carter. But not for the reason you might think. So why does Michelle Carter take the stand? Stay with us to find out. That's when 20/20 returns. 1 Welcome back to 20/20 and tonight's story about the tragic death of teenager Conrad Roy. Police have charged Conrad's girlfriend, Michelle Carter, with his death, saying her text messages caused him to take his own life. The so-called 'death by text' trial has the full attention of the world's media. It's new legal territory, and the question is ` can words kill? Deborah Roberts continues the story. We return now to a pretty shocking story playing out in court right now. She faces up to 20 years if convicted. Prosecutors say because of what was written in those texts. DEBORAH ROBERTS: The case some are calling 'death by text' captures the full attention of the country. The defence claims that Roy had planned the suicide and that Carter's words did not alter his plan. Michelle Carter, charged with involuntary manslaughter for allegedly causing the death of Conrad Roy, a boyfriend she'd only seen in person three times. It's a controversial accusation. This was new legal territory. This was potentially precedent-setting in the state of Massachusetts ` that someone could be held accountable for involuntary manslaughter based on their words, or in this case, their texts. Can you be responsible for killing someone from miles away with words alone? What she said is reprehensible, and it is just bone-chilling, but that's a separate question from, 'Is it criminal?' On the day of jury selection in Michelle Carter's manslaughter trial in Taunton, Massachusetts, the case takes a whiplash turn. Today was supposed to be the day that they would begin the process of selecting 16 jurors for this trial, but in a relatively surprise move first thing this morning, Michelle Carter chooses not to have a jury decide her fate. MAN: Has anyone promised you anything or threatened you in any way to make you forego your right to a jury trial? No. Carter puts her fate in the hands of one man ` Judge Lawrence Moniz. Mistake? Big mistake. What might the defence have hoped to gain by going for a bench trial? I think the defence was afraid of the response that a jury would have to these texts. They're terrible. They're very incendiary. And so I think that you are hoping that a judge will be able to view it in a more rational... Like, calmer heads prevail. And maybe focus on issues like causation and the definition of the statute as opposed to how horrible the texts are. And so the trial begins. She assisted and devised and advised and planned his suicide. She pushed him to kill himself sooner rather than later, and she mocked him when he chose to delay his death. Prosecutors Mary Clare Flynn and Katie Rayburn laying out the case and a motive. If you really look at it, Your Honour, she's really desperate for attention. 'Look at me. I lost my boyfriend.' You presented her as a girl who was manipulating, who was looking for attention. She wanted him to die, it appears, to gain attention or to gain friendships or get girls to like her more. She used him as a pawn in her sick game. The prosecution's first witness ` Conrad's mom, Lynn Roy. So, you said that you brought him to, uh, hospital in October of 2012? October 3rd. And what was the reason for that? Because he was having suicidal thoughts. Prosecutors call 14 witnesses ` the officer who found Conrad in the parking lot,... It appears to be Mr Conrad Roy. ...the medical examiner who determined it was carbon monoxide that killed him, and most important, Michelle Carter's classmates, those girls she so desperately wanted to befriend. At 8.25, does Michelle Carter send you now another text that you receive later on that night? Yes. And what does she tell you? 'I think he just killed himself.' She testifies about that incriminating text from Michelle. Isn't that pretty incriminating stuff? Yeah. Yes. And she goes on to say, 'I could have called police. I could have called his family.' But she didn't. What she did do within three minutes is start texting the guy she was trying to date and her other friend, Sam Boardman, and talking to them about 'oh, it's all about me. What am I going to do now?' She essentially put him back into a gas chamber. She listened to him gasp for air, take his last breath and die, and she did nothing. Michelle's defence resting nearly entirely on one witness ` psychiatrist Peter Breggin. How could the girl who's 'most likely to brighten your day' encourage her boyfriend to take his life? The short explanation is she thought that was the only way to help him. She had had a drastic change in medication three months earlier. Dr Breggin testifies Michelle was under the influence of involuntary intoxication caused by her antidepressants, and she was overwhelmed by what he calls Conrad's abusive talk of suicide. She didn't want him to take his life. She said, 'You don't wanna take your life. You don't want to.' She said this to him for two years. Until she eventually says, 'Do it.' She said, 'If that's what you want, do it.' She breaks. She breaks under his pressure, under the drugs. What did you make of the psychiatrist saying that she was involuntarily intoxicated? I couldn't believe that they even tried that. She's a teenager. She's got emotional troubles, and she's taking medication. Yes, she's evil. That is her trouble. What doesn't the world understand about Michelle Carter? That she loved Conrad Roy. She really cared for Conrad Roy. She thought she was supporting what he wanted. And she even talks about it in her texting. 'You're going to go to heaven,' as he talked about. 'You're gonna be a great angel.' After six days of testimony, the fast-moving trial wraps up with closing arguments. It's a new day and age, Your Honour, and the phones that we have now allow you to be virtually present with somebody. People fall in love on the internet and via text, people bully via text and the internet, and you can encourage someone to die via text, and you can commit a crime via text. You can look at the various text messages as well as the psychological records. You will see that... Mr Roy himself stated to Michelle Carter, 'I want to die.' Straight up, those words ` 'I want to die.' This is not a homicide. Michelle Carter did not kill Conrad Roy. It's sad. It's tragic. But it's just not a homicide. She absolutely knew it was wrong, and she absolutely caused the death of this 18-year-old boy. And I ask you to find her guilty. Carter, please stand. The judge's verdict ` where will Michelle Carter spend the best years of her life? I think a lot of people were a little surprised that that's what actually happened. And we'll have the judge's verdict when we return after this break. 1 Welcome back. As 20/20 continues, the judge is about to return his verdict in the trial of American teenager Michelle Carter. She's charged with involuntary manslaughter over the death of her boyfriend, Conrad Roy, in the so-called 'death by text' case in Massachusetts. The prosecution says she forced Conrad to kill himself. The defence says she was a victim of peer pressure and bullying. Here's Deborah Roberts now with the judge's verdict. DEBORAH ROBERTS: June 16th 2017 ` decision day at the usually quiet courthouse in historic downtown Taunton, Massachusetts. The press out in full force, anticipating judgement day for Michelle Carter. She strides into court escorted by court officers and her defence team, then upstairs to hear the judge's decision on whether she caused the death by suicide of boyfriend Conrad Roy. It was a packed courtroom, and many relatives of Conrad Roy were filling the first couple of rows. More than a half-dozen white-shirted court officers stand guard near the Carter and Roy families. The right side, the first few rows, filled with Conrad Roy's relatives; the left side, Michelle Carter's parents. Judge Lawrence Moniz is ready to deliver a verdict in the involuntary manslaughter trial of Michelle Carter. She's opted against a jury. We obviously expect him to say guilty or not guilty, but he chooses to give an explanation to his verdict. ...to provide some context for the decisions that have been made. As the judge begins to read, Michelle appears shaken, displaying the most emotion she's shown during the entire trial, her attorney taking her hand. This court first finds that the actions taken by Ms Carter... constituted wanton and reckless conduct by her. The commonwealth has not proven that said behaviour caused the death of Mr Roy. Hearing that, Michelle lets out a sob. He starts off by saying that it was not reasonable behaviour, but that didn't make him kill himself. Conrad's aunt Kim Bozzi sits in the tense courtroom. So, when Judge Moniz starts offering his verdict, it sounds at one point that maybe she's going to be acquitted. Yeah, it was kinda like a roller coaster of emotions. All I could think about was Conrad and how she has to be held accountable. She has to be. There's no way we went through all of this, you know? I thought it was going very well. It sounded like he was going to acquit her. But the judge goes on. However, this court finds that instructing Mr Roy to get back in the truck constituted wanton and reckless conduct by Ms Carter, creating a situation where there is a high degree of likelihood that substantial harm would result to Mr Roy. If the judge had written this for maximum dramatic tension, I don't think he could've done a better job. For 15 minutes, this courtroom was dead silent. I could hear my pen scratching on my notepad when I was taking notes. She called no one. And finally,... she did not issue a simple additional instruction ` 'Get out of the truck.' Ms Carter, please stand. This court, having reviewed the evidence and applied the law thereto,... now finds you guilty. Michelle Carter, now 20 years old, guilty of involuntary manslaughter. When you heard guilty...? Oh my God. Three years of going through this. I felt... good. I know that may seem odd, and I know it's a situation where there are no winners, but I felt like we won. The fact that we got a guilty conviction was a victory. The world would know that Conrad Roy did not commit suicide, that he was a victim of a homicide. I was very surprised. I support the judge's decision, but I really did not think the judge would have the backbone to do it. And he did. Do you regret not seating a jury? If I had to do it over again, I might pick 12 people in the box. Outside, the media pouring out of the courthouse. Out of the way, guys. Come on. Defence attorney Joseph Cataldo runs a gauntlet of cameras and microphones. I'm very disappointed with the outcome, with the verdict. We got a little closure out of this thing. Conrad Roy's father speaking to reporters after the verdict. This has been a very tough time for our family, and we'd like to just process this verdict that we're happy with. Prosecutor Katie Rayburn reminds everyone that, in the end, this case was about an 18-year-old boy, Conrad Roy. I know we all wish that he had the opportunity to grow up into adulthood, to become a tugboat captain and to enjoy his future. As she speaks, Conrad's father overcome with emotion. Given the nature of this case, I would like to conclude by reminding everyone that if you have a loved one in need or you know someone in need of help, please tell someone. A court has decided that words can kill. Yes, she was guilty of involuntary manslaughter, but does she deserve to be in jail? Now words will also dictate the fate of Michelle Carter. Will her words send her to prison for 20 years? The courthouse in Taunton, Massachusetts where Michelle Carter's future will be decided is a modern building, a fitting location for this most modern of crimes, committed amidst a tangled web of thousands of text messages. From her arrest in 2015 through her trial, Michelle Carter has not spent a day in jail. Michelle Carter continues to live her life. In those three years, despite all of this going on, she's been free on bail and has continued to do all the things that 17-, 18-, 19-year-olds have done. But that could all change. Michelle Carter back in court for sentencing on that involuntary manslaughter conviction in the death of Conrad Roy. What a travesty. There is no earthly reason why Conrad Henry Roy should not be here today. Her actions killed Conrad Roy. Ms Carter does not pose a danger to the public. I suggest that this sad, tragic manslaughter was a very unusual set of circumstances unique to these two individuals. Conrad's sister fighting back tears, telling the judge how much she misses her big brother. Not a day goes by without him being my first thought waking up and my last thought going to bed. And his dad grappling for answers. Where was her humanity? In what world is this behaviour OK and acceptable? Judge Lawrence Moniz addressing the hushed courtroom. This is a tragedy for two families. Everyone is entitled to a decision devoid of any emotion with respect to this case. The judge has the option of just sentencing her to probation ` no jail time ` or a maximum of 20 years in prison. I think any time is too much. I think the fact that they found her guilty is too much. But Judge Moniz decides that Michelle Carter was aware of her actions and should go to prison for her crime. I have not found that Ms Carter's age or level of maturity... or even her mental illness have any significant impact on her actions. Michelle standing stone-faced as the judge sentences her to 15 months in jail followed by 15 months of probation and, in a surprise move, allowing her to remain free pending appeal. When you heard that Michelle Carter was going home instead of going to prison after the sentencing ` your reaction? Uh, that was... awful. This was the second time that Michelle walked out of the courtroom. We certainly felt the family's outrage that she walked out when they don't have their son. To just have her go home tonight, you know ` what kind of justice is that? You don't wanna know our thoughts on it. No, you don't wanna. You really don't wanna. What can you tell us about Michelle's feelings about what happened? She regrets it. She is remorseful over the situation, but she's a far different person today than she was then. She has to live the rest of her life in her skin, as her,... one of the most hated people in the country. So... good luck with that. Conrad Roy, so young when he died. Now he will be forever 18. A fortnight ago, Michelle Carter had her 21st birthday at home. She is appealing her sentence. Now, if you or someone you know are experiencing feelings of depression or just feel like you need some help, then do contact Lifeline ` either through their website or their toll-free number. That's our show for tonight. Thank you for joining us. Kia ora. Nga mihi.