Page 13 - MIN JUS 10 SEPT 2015

A6
U.S. NEWSThursday 10 September
Massachusetts:
Teen charged with encouraging her boyfriend to kill self
DENISE LAVOIE
AP Legal Affairs Writer
FAIRHAVEN, Massachusetts
(AP) — At first glance, the
text messages appear to
show a disturbing case of
cyberbullying: one teen
urging another to kill him-
self.
But the texts were not sent
by a school bully. They
were from a 17-year-old girl
to her boyfriend, whom she
called the love of her life.
“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,” Michelle Carter al-
legedly wrote to Conrad
Roy III the day he parked his
truck outside a Fairhaven
Kmart and killed himself
through carbon monoxide
poisoning.
Prosecutors have charged
Carter with involuntary
manslaughter in Roy’s 2014
death. They say that in the
week before Roy killed
himself, Carter assisted by
urging him to overcome
his doubts about taking his
own life, pressuring him to
do it and even telling him
to get back in his truck af-
ter becoming frightened
that the plan was working.
Minnesota man pleads guilty in Islamic State case Roy used a gasoline-oper-
AMY FORLITI
Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — One
of seven men awaiting trial
in Minnesota on charges of
plotting to travel to Syria to dants several times to plan
join the Islamic State group
admitted Wednesday that
he knew its members had
carried out beheadings,
taken hostages and raped
women, but he believed
they were fighting evil and
he wanted to join anyway.
Hanad Mustafe Musse, 19,
pleaded guilty in U.S. Dis-
trict Court to one count of
conspiracy to provide ma-
Michelle Carter listens at Juvenile Court in New Bedford, Mass. Carter, 18, of Plainville, Mass., is death.
charged with involuntary manslaughter for allegedly pressuring Conrad Roy III, 18, of Fairhaven,
Mass., to commit suicide on July 13, 2014.
Carter’s lawyer has stren-
uously denied that she
pushed him to kill himself
and has asked a judge to
dismiss the case.
In their written response,
prosecutors included text
exchanges between Cart-
er and Roy that they say
support their claim that
Carter caused her boy-
friend’s death by “wanton-
terial support to a foreign
terrorist organization, spe-
cifically, the Islamic State
group. Musse admitted to
meeting with his co-defen-
travel to Syria. He said he
made two attempts him-
self, but was stopped.
“I have committed a ter-
rorist act and I’m guilty
of it, your honor,” Musse
told U.S. District Judge Mi- signal more to come.
chael Davis. Musse faces
a maximum of 15 years in
prison; a sentencing date
has not been set.
Musse is among a group of
ly and recklessly” helping
him poison himself.
Roy, 18, had a history of
depression and had at-
tempted suicide two years
earlier, taking an overdose
of the painkiller acetamin-
ophen.
“You can’t keep living this
way. You just need to do
it like you did the last time his own life and Carter,
and not think about it and
men arrested in April and
charged with terrorism-re-
lated offenses. Authorities
described them as friends
in the state’s large Somali
community who recruited
and inspired each other
and met secretly to plan
their travels. Another co-
defendant was arrested
earlier this year.
Musse’s guilty plea could
Defense attorney Marsh
Halberg, who is not con-
nected to this case, said
it’s common that once
one person in a conspira-
(Peter Pereira/AP)
just do it, babe,” Carter
texted him.
Carter’s lawyer, Joseph
Cataldo, said her texts
amount to speech protect-
ed by the First Amendment
of theU.S. Constitution.
He said it’s clear from the
exchanges that Roy had
made up his mind to take
now 18, did not cause his
cy flips, there is a cascad-
ing effect and more plea
deals follow.
Authorities have said
about a dozen people
have left Minnesota to join
jihadi groups in Syria.
In court Wednesday,
Musse admitted that he
and his co-defendants
were part of the conspira-
cy, along with two others:
Abullahi Yusuf, who has al-
ready pleaded guilty in the
case and is cooperating
with the government, and
Abdi Nur, who traveled to
Syria in May 2014.q
“He got the generator, he
devised the plan and he
had to go find a spot. He
parked, he had to get the
gas for the generator, he
had to turn the generator
on, he had to sit in that car
for a long period of time.
He caused his own death,”
Cataldo said.
“He had thought this out.
He wanted to take his own
life. It’s sad, but it’s not
manslaughter.”
After his earlier suicide at-
tempt, Roy spent time in
a psychiatric hospital and
received counseling, said
his aunt, Becki Maki. In the
weeks before his death, he
was excited about gradu-
ating from high school and
receiving his sea captain’s
license, she said.
“He did not have the signs
of someone who was con-
sidering that,” Maki said.
Carter and Roy met about
two years earlier while
each was visiting relatives
in Florida. They kept in
touch, mostly through texts
and email, upon return-
ing to Massachusetts. They
lived about 50 miles apart
and hadn’t seen each oth-
er for about a year before
Roy died.
ated water pump to poi-
son himself with carbon
monoxide.
While discussing the plan,
Carter appears to taunt
Roy. “But I bet you’re gon-
na be like ‘oh, it didn’t work
because I didn’t tape the
tube right or something
like that,” she wrote. “I bet
you’re gonna say an ex-
cuse like that ... you seem
to always have an excuse.”
Cataldo said Carter had
tried repeatedly to talk Roy
out of killing himself and
only decided to support his
plan when it became clear
she could not change his
mind.q