Michelle Carter Walks Free from Bristol County House of Correction [VIDEO]

NORTH DARTMOUTH — Michelle Carter, the Plainville woman convicted in a notorious texting-suicide case, walked out of Bristol County House of Correction in Dartmouth today at the age of 23.

Escorted by law enforcement officers, one carrying two plastic bags containing her belongings, Carter at approximately 9:30 a.m. walked from the jail building to the back seat of a black SUV waiting at the facility's interior rotary. A gaggle of television cameras and reporters from across the state were set up about 50 yards away. A black helicopter was seen circling overhead. The black jeep drove away escorted by a state police cruiser.

Carter had been behind bars since January of 2019 serving a 15-month sentence for involuntary manslaughter. She was released several months early for good behavior, according Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, who called Carter a "model inmate."

Carter was only 17 when she relentlessly hounded her boyfriend, Conrad Roy III of Mattapoisett, to kill himself. She did so in a series of text messages and phone calls. Roy's body was found in a vehicle in a Fairhaven KMart parking lot in July of 2014 after he killed himself with carbon monoxide from the vehicle's exhaust pipe. She was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2017 after a bench trial at Taunton District Court.

The case drew national attention because it was the first time such a case had been prosecuted. The US Supreme Court recently rejected an appeal of Carter's conviction on First Amendment grounds. Roy's family is now advocating for passage of a bill called Conrad's Law that would make it illegal to coerce someone who is known to be vulnerable to suicide.