In dozens of text messages and telephone calls, Michelle Carter, then 17, repeatedly urged Conrad Roy III, 18, to kill himself, prosecutor Maryclare Flynn said in opening statements at Carter's manslaughter trial.
Roy was sitting in his pickup truck in the car park of a store in July 2014 as the truck filled with carbon monoxide. After he left the truck, Carter told him to "get back in", Flynn said at the trial in juvenile court in Taunton, Massachusetts.
Carter, who never called authorities or Roy's parents while he died, wanted the sympathy and attention that came with being the "grieving girlfriend", Flynn said.
Defence lawyer, Joseph Cataldo, however, painted a starkly contrasting picture of Carter, who's now 20.
Roy was depressed after his parents' divorce, was physically and verbally abused by family members and had long thought of suicide, even researching suicide methods online, he said.
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It was Carter who urged him to get help, Cataldo said.
The couple met in Florida in 2012 but had only seen each other in person ahandful of times even though they lived just 55km apart in Massachusetts.
They communicated mostly through text messages and phone calls.
When Roy suggested they should be like Romeo and Juliet, the lovers who killed themselves in the Shakespeare play, Carter said she didn't want them to die, Cataldo said.
"Conrad Roy was on this path to take his own life for years," he said. It was Conrad Roy's idea to take his own life. It was not Michelle Carter's idea. This was a suicide, a sad and tragic suicide, but not a homicide."
Carter had her own mental health struggles and was taking medications that may have clouded her judgment, he said.
The first witness on the stand was Roy's mother, Lynn Roy. She testified that she took a walk on the beach with her son hours before he was found dead and he showed no signs he intended to harm himself. She called police later when she noticed her son's truck missing.
She also testified that after her son's death, she received text messages from Carter expressing sympathy but not mentioning any prior knowledge about suicide plans.
Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467. MensLine Australia 1300 78 99 78.
Multicultural Mental Health Australia www.mmha.org.au.
Local Aboriginal Medical Service available from www.vibe.com.au.
