Michelle Carter Is Headed To Prison

TAUNTON, MA — Michelle Carter, the woman who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for using text messages to encourage her boyfriend to kill himself, started her 15-month prison sentence Monday, some five years after the 18-year-old's death.

Carter's attorney wants to appeal her involuntary manslaughter conviction to higher courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, and argued she should remain free while it's being heard. But the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled Monday afternoon to deny her attorney's request to keep her out of jail while the appeal was being pursued. The judge followed that with his ruling she be taken into custody and begin her sentence.

Carter has been free while her appeal her attorney appealed her conviction in the SJC, which upheld the conviction last week.

Her lawyers have argued Carter isn't responsible for the death of Conrad Roy III, who she told to get back into his truck as it filled with carbon monoxide in the parking lot of a Fairhaven Kmart in 2014. Carter was 17 at the time.

Patch will update this story

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In this June 8, 2017, file photo, defendant Michelle Carter listens to testimony at Taunton District Court in Taunton, Mass., in Taunton, Mass. Carter was convicted in June by a judge who said her final instruction to Conrad Roy III caused his death. Carter's attorneys filed the notice that they intend to appeal her conviction and 15-month jail sentence Wednesday, Aug. 30, in Juvenile Court in Taunton. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, Pool, File)