Woman Sentenced to 2.5 Years in Jail for Text Messages Urging Boyfriend to Kill Himself

© Glenn C. Silva / Global Look Press

A Massachusetts woman who texted her boyfriend with relentless insistence that he kill himself, is to spend at least 15 months behind bars after he ended his life inhaling carbon monoxide through a portable water pump he let into in his car.

Juvenile Court Judge Lawrence Moniz in Bristol County ruled Thursday that Michelle Carter, 20, serve two and a half years in jail, but stated only 15 months will be mandatory. Moniz previously ruled in June that Carter was guilty of involuntary manslaughter for telling her boyfriend Conrad Roy III, to kill himself. Roy committed suicide at the age of 18 in July 2014.

Carter’s lawyer, Joseph P. Cataldo, successfully petitioned to have the sentence stayed, which means Carter will not go to jail until her state appeals are exhausted. The judge ordered that Carter remain free on bail for now, but that she have no contact with the Roy family.

If Carter’s sentence isn’t overturned on appeal, it will begin on August 22, 2022, when she will serve at least the mandatory 15 months, according to Buzzfeed.

Carter was 17 years old at the time when Roy was discovered dead in his Ford F-150 pickup truck in a parking lot near Boston.

One of Carter’s more straightforward text messages to Roy urging him to end his life was used as evidence in the case.

"You can't think about it. You just have to do it. You said you were gonna do it. Like I don't get why you aren't," she wrote, NBC News reported.

Carter tried to tell Roy in another text message how much better it would be if he committed suicide. "You’re finally going to be happy in heaven. No more pain. It’s okay to be scared and it’s normal. I mean, you’re about to die," according to NBC News.

During a 47-minute call with Carter shortly before his death, Roy exited his truck because the carbon monoxide was “working and he got scared.” Carter “told him to get back in,” during the call, according to court documents. It was this specifically, Moniz said, that led him to find Carter guilty.

Moniz continued with his reasoning for the guilty verdict. He elaborated that Carter became responsible when she told Roy to re-enter the vehicle because she knew the man was entering into "a toxic environment inconsistent with human life," NBC News reported.

Further, Moniz said Carter did not contact Roy’s family when she knew his location before his death, and had a responsibility to do something to stop a life-threatening risk.

Written statements from family members of both parties involved in the case were delivered to the judge outlining how they felt about Carter.

"I don’t believe she can be helped. I don’t believe she could even give one single **** about what she’s done," Roy’s aunt, Kim Bozzi said in a written statement to Moniz on Thursday. "I believe she should be kept far away from society,”according to NBC News.

Carter’s father pleaded with the judge to understand that Carter was a troubled teenager at the time and wanted a lenient sentence for the woman.

"I pray to God you will take into consideration that Michelle was a troubled, vulnerable teenager in an extremely difficult situation and made a tragic mistake," David Carter wrote in a statement to Moniz. "I am 100% sure she was only trying to do what in her mind what was right for Conrad," NBC News reported.

The defense argued that Carter was not of sound mind when she perpetrated the acts against Roy. They stated the teen was on the drug Celexa at the time of the suicide. Celexa is prescribed to treat depression that can have side effects, including irrational thinking, irritability and poor impulse control.

Prosecutors argued that days before Roy took his life, Carter went through with a “dry run,” telling classmates that Roy was “missing” even though she was in contact with him throughout those days.

“She begins to get the attention she craved for,” assistant district attorney Maryclare Flynn said of Carter’s messages to her classmates, according to NBC News.

Months after Roy’s death, Carter began to panic when authorities set out to investigate the suicide and she realized the police would read her texts. “I just got off the phone with Conrad’s mom, and she told me … [police] have to go through his phone and see if anyone encouraged him to do it on texts and stuff. Sam, they read my messages with him I'm done. His family will hate me and I can go to jail,” Carter wrote to a friend in a message.

Berlin U-Bahn Attackers Try to Set Homeless Man on Fire on Christmas Eve

Just weeks after a subway attack triggered a national outcry,

a group attacked a homeless man with fire.

Police are treating the attack as an attempted murder.

Deutschland Obdachloser sollte angezündet werden (picture alliance/dpa/P. Zinken)

A group of people attempted to set fire to a homeless person sleeping in a Berlin subway station on Christmas Eve, police said on Sunday.

Police were searching for five or six unknown assailants who threw a burning object onto the 37-year-old man, setting fire to his bedding, a police report said.

People passing by, including a train driver with a fire extinguisher, rescued the man from the flames. He was uninjured but his belongings were destroyed.

"These days we should expect charity. Instead, we are experiencing human contempt," said Berlin's state interior minister Andreas Geisel on Sunday.

Just two weeks ago the nation was shocked by an unprovoked attack

in a station three stops away on the U8 line.

A 27-year-old Bulgarian man allegedly kicked a young woman down a set of stairs in Hermannstraße, breaking her arm. The incident was captured on security cameras.

 CCTV captured a man kicking a young woman down a set of stairs (Polizei Berlin) 0:37

The unprovoked attack in a station three stops away triggered nationwide condemnation. 

"I am horrified and thank all those who have courageously helped. This is true fellow-humanity."

The attack happened in the Schönleinstraße U-Bahn station, on the border of the Kreuzberg and Neukölln districts.

Police were treating the attack, which was captured on unreleased closed circuit camera footage, as an attempted murder.

German news agency dpa said the attack was carried out by a group of teenagers. 

What they are not saying is that it appears the gang consisted of migrants. Welcome to the new Germany. 

After the attack, several police organizations called for more video surveillance in Germany, and, it appears Germans are more and more willing to accept increased surveillance.

Venezuelan Army Mixed Up in Massacre

Six more Venezuelan soldiers arrested over

Barlovento massacre

By Andrew V. Pestano  UPI

Venezuela's Public Ministry, led by chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega Díaz, said six more Venezuelan soldiers -- 18 total -- have been arrested over the deaths of 13 people in the case now known as the Barlovento massacre. The soldiers are charged with crimes including homicide and torture. Photo courtesy Luisa Ortega Díaz

CARACAS, Venezuela, (UPI) -- Venezuela's Public Ministry on Friday revealed six more soldiers are under arrest over alleged involvement in the deaths of 13 people in the case known as the Barlovento massacre.

Twelve of the victims were killed between Oct. 16 and Oct. 19 while a teenager was detained and tortured to death between Nov. 25 and Nov. 26, the Public Ministry said. The incidents occurred in the Barlovento region's Acevedo municipality.

In response to investigations coordinated by the Public Prosecutor's Office and the arrest warrants requested from the corresponding courts, a total of 18 Bolivarian National Army personnel have been deprived of their liberty for their alleged responsibility for the disappearance and death of 12 people, and a teenager," the Public Ministry said in a statement.

The soldiers, which includes high-ranking officers, are charged with crimes such as homicide, torture, inhuman treatment, forced disappearance of persons and improper use of weapons.

A dozen decomposing corpses, believed to be 12 people, including youths, who disappeared in October after a Liberation of the People, or OLP, security operation, were found late November -- most in a mass grave in mountainous terrain.

Venezuela's Chief Prosecutor Luisa Ortega Díaz previously said the victims killed did not have criminal records, adding that they were detained "without any form of judgment."

The killings of the young civilians has led to sharp criticism of President Nicolas Maduro's OLP, nationwide security program, which was created to combat Venezuela's high rates of crime and homicide.

Killing people is not the most elegant way of dealing with homicides. It would be interesting to know what these people had in common. Were they politically active? Is Maduro out of control?

'The Link Between Marijuana and Psychosis is Significant'

Gabriel Klein's tale hints at dark truth of chronic pot use on 'susceptible' young brains, doctor says

Gabriel Klein is a young man who walked into an Abbotsford High School and stabbed two young girls, one of them, Letisha Reimer, to death. Klein was a complete stranger to anyone in the school and had no interaction with the girls before attacking them. Letisha was buried yesterday with a crowd of more than a thousand people in attendance.

I live in Abbotsford, British Columbia and, in fact, the helicopter that transported the girls to the hospital flew right over my car shortly after take-off as I happened to be less than a block away. 

'The link between marijuana and psychosis is significant' says UBC psychiatrist Dr. Bill MacEwan

By Yvette Brend, CBC News 

Canadian youth have the highest rate of marijuana use in the developed world and marijuana is the most commonly-used illegal drug among Canadians aged 15 to 24 years. 

Gabriel Klein's friends say he was smoking pot every day for the past three months.

Then one day the 21-year-old changed.

A few weeks later — on Nov. 1 —  he was accused of walking into a high school and stabbing Letisha Reimer, 13, and another teen.

Klein was admitted to hospital after his arrest, certified under the Mental Health Act by one doctor and then decertified by a psychiatrist the next day, the prosecutor said.

Details about exactly what drugs Klein was using and his mental state are still emerging, but for Dr. Bill MacEwan the facts, so far, hint at the darker reality of heavy drug use for a certain percentage of chronic young pot smokers.

Homicide investigators released this photo early in the investigation, which they say shows Gabriel Klein at an undisclosed location, just hours before the fatal stabbing. (IHIT/Twitter)

While the assistant director of UBC's department of psychiatry stresses that the percentage is tiny, he and others who study the link between pot and psychosis say it should be part of the conversation.

Marijuana — framed of late as medicinal, mainstream and benign — is in common use amongst Canadian youth, who have the highest rate of pot use in the developed world for those aged 15 to 24, according to the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.

And while most smokers who start using while their brain is developing risk impaired learning and motor skills, a tiny percentage of people who smoke pot — one to three per cent — will also experience psychosis.

Playing Russian Roulette with your brain

Dr. MacEwan says the ratio approaches 30 to 40 per cent in a sub-set of young chronic pot smokers who have other risk factors.

It's worse if the person is homeless, stressed and using a cocktail of chemicals daily.

For them, MacEwan says, it's like playing Russian roulette with their brain.

"The link between marijuana and psychosis is significant," says Dr. William MacEwan of UBC's psychiatry department. (Cliff Shim/CBC)

A youth who is smoking excessive amounts, unsure what they are smoking and using marijuana to cope with stress, are at highest risk, MacEwan said.

"Psychosis in a drug-induced state is really quite common, particularly amongst vulnerable youth such as this young man.They will often have to use drugs, particularly drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine, to stay awake at night. They will often used drugs to cope with stress and those that are under really difficult situations like being homeless ... then the drugs will affect you worse."

In addition schizophrenia, unlike other mental illnesses, emerges in young adulthood — usually in the early 20s for men and later for women, and it's believed pot speeds the progression.

"Emerging evidence supports a number of associations between cannabis and psychosis/psychotic disorders, including schizophrenia," according to a 2014 review of the association between cannabis and psychosis led by Dr. Rajiv Radhakrishnan from Yale's School of Medicine.

A debate rages with many scientists saying abolishing pot would not prevent schizophrenia, and marijuana advocates deeming this a "scare tactic," claiming pot actually helps soothe anxiety and calm mental disorders.

But medical experts contend it is clear that for some smokers who start young,  heavy drug-use can precipitate psychosis,

For the lucky, it's temporary. For others, it's the first bout of a life-long struggle with schizophrenia.

"In some brains, we don't understand exactly why, we think maybe genetics or maybe trauma in the past, that these brains are then really susceptible to having the effects of drugs make them lose touch with reality," said MacEwan.

"The link between marijuana and particularly psychosis is significant." 

A protester lights a joint during a 4-20 marijuana rally on Parliament Hill. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

Some medical experts urge pot-avoidance under age 20, in case their brain has hidden vulnerabilities that will only emerge with drug use.

"Not every 14-year-old who smokes marijuana will have schizophrenia," said Dr. Romina Mizrahi, a director of the Youth Psychosis Prevention clinic at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.

She explains a myriad of factors — from genetics to trauma history — determine the risk to an individual. 

Variables from marijuana strength, user frequency to how young they are when they start, all play a part. 

A girl smokes a joint at the 4-20 event in downtown Vancouver, B.C., on Monday, April 20, 2015. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press)

Chance of psychosis 8 times higher

"If you smoke a lot of marijuana when you are young or in your teens, your chance of having psychosis later on in life is about eight times higher than other people," MacEwan said research has shown.

He suddenly changed

Klein's friends describe him as a genial "stoner."

He had no fixed address but lived at Covenant House, followed the rules and worked hard in school.

Then one night he "smoked a bowl" and told his friend Nathaniel Spidell the pot was spiked with acid or something stronger.

Spidell said his friend became fearful and paranoid.

"Everything went downhill after that. He wasn't the same person," said the 23-year-old.

From the outside, people see a person withdraw in a "fearful, angry, irritable way," said MacEwan.

"That young man's friends saying, 'oh he isn't the way he used to be' — is typical."

And that makes it worse, because the person can't relate to people who could help them.

While violence isn't the norm, it can be a result of untreated psychosis.

Klein's friends say they do not recognize the man they see in the video as Klein.

He is nothing like the friend they knew, but that's exactly what psychosis looks like. 

A stranger — perhaps even in the mirror.

    'I could just never imagine him being a violent person,' said Jordan Reid, 23 (right) standing
    with Nathaniel Spidell (left). (Kamil Karamali/CBC)