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U.S. NEWS Wednesday 7 June 2017

Prosecutor: Teen in texting suicide case wanted attention

TAUNTON, Mass. (AP) — A seen each other in person ed to harm himself. She
teenager charged with us- a handful of times even called police later when
ing text messages to en- though they lived just 35 she noticed her son’s truck
courage her boyfriend to miles apart in Massachu- missing.
kill himself played a “sick setts — Roy in Mattapoi- She also testified that after
game” with another per- sett and Carter in Plainville. her son’s death, she re-
son’s life, a prosecutor said They communicated most- ceived text messages from
Tuesday. ly through text messages Carter expressing sympa-
In dozens of text messages and phone calls. thy but not mentioning any
and telephone calls, Mi- When Roy suggested they prior knowledge about sui-
chelle Carter, then 17, re- should be like Romeo and cide plans.
peatedly urged Conrad Juliet, the lovers who killed Under cross-examination
Roy III, 18, to kill himself, themselves in the Shake- she acknowledged there
prosecutor Maryclare Flynn speare play, Carter said was tension between her
said in opening statements she didn’t want them to son and his father.
at Carter’s manslaughter die, Cataldo said.
trial. “Conrad Roy was on this Camdyn Roy, Conrad Roy’s
Roy was sitting in his pickup path to take his own life 16-year-old sister, who was
in the parking lot of a store for years,” he said. “It was 13 at the time of his death,
in July 2014 as the truck Conrad Roy’s idea to take told a similar story on the
filled with carbon mon- his own life. It was not Mi- stand. Her brother did not
oxide. After he exited the chelle Carter’s idea. This seem sad at the beach,
truck, Carter told him to was a suicide, a sad and she testified.
“get back in,” Flynn said at tragic suicide, but not a ho- She also received text mes-
the trial in juvenile court in micide.” sages from Carter offering
Taunton. Carter had her own mental support after her brother’s
Carter, who never called Defendant Michelle Carter listens as prosecutor Maryclare Flynn health struggles and was death but no indication
authorities or Roy’s parents makes her opening statement Tuesday, June 6, 2017, in Taunton, taking medications that they had been in contact.
as he died, wanted the Mass. Carter is charged with manslaughter for allegedly using may have clouded her The case is being tried
sympathy and attention text messages to encourage her boyfriend, Conrad Roy III, 18, judgment, he said. without a jury in juvenile
that came with being the to kill himself. The first witness on the court because Carter was
“grieving girlfriend,” Flynn (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool) stand was Roy’s mother, a juvenile when Roy killed
said. his parents’ divorce, was said. Lynn Roy. himself. Court proceedings
Defense attorney, Joseph physically and verbally It was Carter who urged She testified that she took are open because she was
Cataldo, however, painted abused by family members him to get help, Cataldo a walk on the beach with charged as a juvenile of-
a starkly contrasting picture and had long thought of said. her son hours before he fender, which makes her
of Carter, who’s now 20. suicide, even researching The couple met in Flori- was found dead and he subject to adult punish-
Roy was depressed after suicide methods online, he da in 2012 but had only showed no signs he intend- ment if convicted.q

Utah suburb shooting leaves woman, child, male suspect dead

By BRADY McCOMBS neighborhood in Sandy Police did not know what Nielsen did not have details injuries from the car crash.
Associated Press was reported to police as a led to the dispute but about their ages or identi- Ridge Workman, a 14-year-
SANDY, Utah (AP) — A man domestic dispute, said Po- Nielsen said a passerby ties or the passerby’s name old boy who lives several
opened fire on a woman lice Sgt. Jason Nielsen. Offi- picked up a woman and or whereabouts. hundred yards away from
and children inside a car in cers were still trying to con- two juveniles in a car. The injured boy was hospi- the shooting, said he heard
the street of a Salt Lake City firm details about the rela- The suspected shooter talized in critical condition. seven to eight gunshots but
suburb Tuesday afternoon, tionships of those involved. rammed his car into the A girl was hospitalized in mistook them for fireworks.
leaving the woman, a boy Nielsen did not immediate- other vehicle and then got stable condition. Workman said he saw a
and the man dead and ly know if the man believed out of his car and started Nielsen did not know the car in the street riddled with
two other children injured, to be attacking the woman firing. kids’ relationships to the bullet holes. Its windows
police said. and children killed himself Police found the man, a adults and it wasn’t imme- were smashed in and there
The shooting outside a or if someone else involved woman and a boy dead, diately clear if the boy and was a lot of blood nearby,
home in a middle-class in the dispute had a gun. and a boy and girl injured. girl had gunshot wounds or according to Workman. q