Left: Alexander Utula. Right: Inyoung You and her boyfriend Alexander Urtula
BOSTON (AP) – The prosecutor said that a former Boston College student drove her boyfriend to commit suicide through thousands of text messages on December 23 and pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
According to the plea agreement, 23-year-old Inyoung You was sentenced to 2 1/2 years of probation and 10 years of probation, and was forbidden by a judge of the Suffolk High Court to profit from her case in any way. This sentence means that if she complies with all the terms of probation, including ongoing mental health treatment and community services, you can avoid going to jail.
The prosecutor said that in the last two months of their relationship, you sent tens of thousands of messages to 22-year-old Alexander Utula in Cedar Grove, New Jersey, many of which urged him to “go suicide.” Urtula died in Boston in May 2019, the day he graduated from Boston College.
The survey described your 18-month relationship with Urtula as “turbulent, dysfunctional and unhealthy” and found that you “have deeply disturbed and sometimes relentless verbal, physical, and psychological abuse of Mr. Urtula Behavior”, according to a statement from the office of Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins (Rachael Rollins).
The office stated that these actions intensified in the days and hours before Utula’s death.
You were born in South Korea and a naturalized citizen of the United States. From late March 2019 to his death, she sent more than 47,000 text messages to Utula, in which she “repeatedly told the victim that he should commit suicide or die, and launched a The abuse movement deprives the victims of their free will,” the office said.
“Words are important,” Rollins said in the statement. “Beneficial language, ridicule and insults affect people deeply.”
Rollins said that the plea agreement was reached after consultation with the Utula family.
In a statement read in court, the family described driving to Boston to celebrate a day, only to find that they were planning a funeral.
“We have no feelings of anger or revenge. We believe that time will take us through when we mourn and celebrate his life,” the family said.
Before she was arraigned in November 2019, she initially pleaded not guilty. You posted some text messages through a public relations company, suggesting that she was trying to stop Utula and reminded his brother the moment before Utula’s death.
You have a chance to speak in court, but you refused. Her lawyer said she was “very upset”.
Attorney Steven Kim said that you are a “very great young woman with deep regrets.”
This case is compared with the case of Michel Carter, who won national headlines and an HBO movie. The young Massachusetts woman was convicted of involuntary homicide in 2017 for using text messages and phone calls to encourage her boyfriend Conrad Roy to commit suicide in 2014 and was sentenced to 15 months in prison. Her lawyer argued that her information was protected for free speech.
