On Thursday, a former Boston College student pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter for her involvement in driving her boyfriend to commit suicide through continuous verbal, physical, and psychological abuse, according to prosecutors.
After negotiating a plea agreement with prosecutors under outgoing District Attorney Rachael Rollins, Inyoung You, 23, entered the plea in Suffolk County Superior Court in Boston.
Prosecutors claimed Judge Robert Ullmann sentenced her to a two-and-a-half-year suspended sentence and ten years of probation, as well as prohibiting her from benefitting from her high-profile case. She may be able to avoid incarceration if she follows the requirements of her probation.
Prosecutors said You sent Alexander Urtula, 22, 47,130 text messages in the last two months of their 18-month relationship, during which she ran a campaign of harassment and told him to “go die.”
Urtula, of Cedar Grove, New Jersey, committed suicide by leaping from a parking garage hours before his graduation in May 2019.
The claims were similar to those made in the high-profile Massachusetts case of Michelle Carter, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2017 after being accused of using text messages and phone calls to persuade her teenage boyfriend to commit suicide.
You had been contesting the allegations, and her appeal of a ruling that permitted the 2019 case to proceed was set to be heard in February by the state’s highest court. Her lawyer stated, “You opted to drop that appeal and accept responsibility instead.”
In a statement, her lawyer, Steven Kim, said, “Today marks the end of a two-year living hell that has upended Ms. You’s life.”
Her probation includes mental health counseling, 300 hours of community service, and a promise not to profit monetarily from the sale of her story.
