Michelle Carter Goes Back To Court

The national cameras move to Taunton as the involuntary manslaughter case for Michelle Carter will be heard today in Taunton Juvenile Court even as the defense waits for a decision of its appeal of a decision upholding the charge.

According to South Coast Today.com, “the case is scheduled to proceed in juvenile court, after Judge Bettina Borders in September upheld the government's case against the 18-year-old Plainville woman.”

Carter's attorney, Joseph Cataldo, stated that his appeal of Judge Bettina Borders' decision remains pending with Justice Margot Botsford of the state Supreme Judicial Court.

Cataldo would like Botsford to either dismiss the involuntary manslaughter charge or to treat his client as a juvenile and not as "a youthful offender" for which the penalties are more severe.

Carter is charged with encouraging Conrad Roy III to commit suicide on July 13, 2014. Roy's body was found in his truck a-half mile away from our WBSM/Fun 107 Studios, in the parking lot of K Mart off Route 6 in Fairhaven. He died of carbon monoxide poisoning and police found a gasoline-operated water pump in the back seat.

Borders discovered that the text messages Carter sent to Roy, encouraging him to commit suicide constituted the probable cause the grand jury needed to indict the defendant as a youthful offender.

With additional reporting by Sal Lopez