Conrad Roy III's Father

He's been supportive of Michelle and her family and was outraged she was ever charged.

If somebody being on the phone talking about committing suicide can be held to involuntary manslaughter.

Joe Cataldo, Michelle's attorney, agrees it's a slippery slope.

He thinks the Commonwealth made a mistake.

Massachusetts has no law against encouraging suicide.

That was the basis of his whole argument.

Prosecutors misinterpreting Massachusetts law.

To him, this was clearly a suicide.

That's why he wanted a judge, not a jury, to hear the case.

And that's how he began his opening statement.

And to bolster his case, Michelle's lawyer introduced a set of text messages that the prosecution had not mentioned, ones where she tried repeatedly to help Conrad.

Have you thought about getting professional help?

Like, I think I'm going to go away to a place for my eating disorder to help me overcome it and stuff.

Where are you going?

It's called McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass.

I honestly think it would be so good for you and we would get through our issues together.

One of the main points of your argument was that Conrad Roy had tried this before.

He had researched various ways to take his own life, that this was not something that was just created by Michelle Carter.

I think that's where people have the biggest problem with this case is, why?

Why would she encourage him?