Inyoung You: Guilty Plea, Urtula’s Suicide, and Conrad’s Law

Inyoung You is a former Boston College student who pleaded guilty on December 23, 2021, to involuntary manslaughter in the suicide of her boyfriend, Alexander Urtula. The Inyoung You case became one of the most closely watched prosecutions in Massachusetts for its central question: whether a pattern of abusive text messages and psychological control can make one person criminally responsible for another’s suicide. You received a fully suspended sentence of two and a half years and 10 years of probation.¹

Who Alexander Urtula Was

Alexander Urtula was a 22-year-old biology major in Boston College’s Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, originally from Cedar Grove, New Jersey. He had finished his coursework in December 2018 and was working as a researcher at a hospital in New York.² His parents had traveled to Boston for his graduation ceremony scheduled for May 20, 2019. Hours before he was to walk at commencement, he jumped from the Renaissance Parking Garage near Northeastern University onto the lower busway of the Ruggles MBTA Station.³

The Abuse Prosecutors Described

You and Urtula were in an 18-month relationship that the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office characterized as marked by “escalating and unrelenting verbal, physical and psychological abuse” by You. Prosecutors said she exercised “complete and total control” over him, isolating him from friends and family and tracking his movements through his phone.⁴

Between March 29 and May 20, 2019, the two exchanged 75,337 text messages. You sent 47,130 of them.¹ Many, prosecutors said, told Urtula to kill himself or “go die.”⁵ The abuse reportedly intensified when Urtula asked for space, didn’t reply quickly, or tried to sleep. You also allegedly threatened to harm herself to prevent him from leaving.⁶

Before the relationship began in late 2017, Urtula had no documented mental health issues. Prosecutors, drawing on his journal entries and medical records, said his suicidality developed “only as a result of Ms. You’s near constant abuse.”¹

The Morning of the Suicide

Urtula spent the night before graduation at You’s dormitory. Instead of going to the ceremony, he took an Uber to the Renaissance Parking Garage, arriving around 7:30 a.m. He texted both You and his brother about his plans to end his life. You tracked his phone and arrived at the garage roughly an hour later. Prosecutors said she was with him on the roof before he jumped, and that she did not call authorities despite knowing his location for nearly an hour.⁷

You’s attorney, Steven Kim, gave a different account. He said that once she realized Urtula intended to kill himself, she “did everything she could to prevent it, calling, texting, pleading, begging, rushing over there.”⁸ The defense released a message from that morning in which You wrote, “ALEX. WHAT ARE YOU F—- DOING. IF U F—– LOVE ME STOP.” Kim said she had sent more than 120 messages that day begging Urtula not to go through with it.⁷

The Charge and the Theories of the Case

A Suffolk County grand jury indicted You for involuntary manslaughter on October 18, 2019. She had returned to South Korea after leaving Boston College. District Attorney Rachael Rollins said publicly that if You did not come back voluntarily, her office would “utilize the power we have to get her back.”⁹ You returned, and on November 22, 2019, she was arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court and pleaded not guilty.¹⁰

Prosecutors advanced two theories. The first was manslaughter by commission: that the sustained pattern of abuse caused Urtula’s death. The second was manslaughter by omission: that You failed to summon help when she knew he was in danger. Superior Court Judge Christine Roach dismissed the omission theory, ruling that a failure to call for help was not the legal cause of the suicide, but allowed the commission theory to proceed.¹¹

Kim framed the prosecution as a “radical expansion of the Carter doctrine” and “a departure from four centuries of established case law governing homicide.”¹² The defense and its supporters also argued that bringing criminal charges based on text messages raised serious First Amendment concerns.

The Guilty Plea and Sentence

With an appeal pending before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, You changed her plea to guilty on December 23, 2021, and dropped the appeal as part of the agreement.⁸ She was 23.

Judge Robert Ullmann sentenced her to two and a half years in the house of correction, fully suspended, with 10 years of probation. The probation conditions:

The first five years of the 10-year term are supervised.
She must perform 100 hours of community service per year for each of the first three years.
She must continue mental health treatment with a licensed provider.
She, her agents, and her assignees are barred from profiting financially from the case for the entire probationary period.

A violation of any condition exposes her to the full suspended sentence of two and a half years.¹

Rollins said the plea was reached “in close consultation with the Urtula family” and was “consistent with their desire to seek accountability and closure and to protect the legacy of Alexander.” The family read a victim impact statement in court while displaying a photo of Urtula with his nephews.¹ Kim described You as a “wonderful young woman who has deep deep remorse.”⁸

How the Case Compared to Michelle Carter’s

The prosecution drew constant comparison to Commonwealth v. Carter, the 2017 Massachusetts case in which Michelle Carter was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for pressuring her boyfriend Conrad Roy to kill himself by carbon monoxide poisoning. Carter received a 15-month jail sentence.⁴ Both cases involved young women charged over text-message conduct connected to a boyfriend’s suicide, and both forced courts to confront where protected speech ends and criminal conduct begins.

The facts differed in ways prosecutors stressed. Carter had limited physical contact with Roy and was not present when he died. You had an 18-month relationship with Urtula that included in-person contact, and prosecutors placed her at the parking garage that morning. Prosecutors described Carter’s conduct as driven by a “quest for attention”; they framed You’s as domestic violence rooted in “power and control.”⁴

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld Carter’s conviction in 2019 using a First Amendment exception for “speech integral to criminal conduct,” and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review it in 2020.¹² Because You pleaded guilty before the SJC could rule on her appeal, the appellate questions her case raised were never resolved.

Conrad’s Law

In response to both cases, Massachusetts lawmakers introduced “Conrad’s Law,” a bill that would make it a separate criminal offense to intentionally coerce or encourage someone to die by suicide, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison. State Senator Barry Finegold sponsored the bill, co-sponsored by State Representative Natalie Higgins.¹³ It was drafted with help from Conrad Roy’s mother, Lynn Roy, and a Northeastern University School of Law team led by Professor Daniel Medwed.¹⁴ Supporters argued a dedicated statute would give prosecutors clearer footing than the involuntary manslaughter theory used against Carter and You. The bill carves out exemptions for lawful medical treatment and applies only to people who know or have reason to know that the other person has expressed suicidal thoughts.¹⁵

1
Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office. Inyoung You Pleads Guilty
2
Boston College. Letter From Interim Vice President for Student Affairs Joy Moore
3
The Washington Post. Former Boston College Student Indicted on Manslaughter Charge in Boyfriend’s Suicide
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CBS News Boston. Boston College Student Inyoung You and Alexander Urtula Case
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BBC News. Inyoung You Pleads Guilty to Manslaughter
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NBC News. Former Boston College Student Pleads Not Guilty in Boyfriend’s Texting Suicide
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CBS News. Inyoung You Pleads Not Guilty
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The Boston Globe. Former Boston College Student Pleads Guilty to Involuntary Manslaughter in Suicide of Her Boyfriend
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NBC News. Former Boston College Student Charged in Boyfriend’s Suicide
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WBUR. Texting Suicide Case Inyoung You Alexander Urtula
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Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office. Inyoung You Prosecution to Proceed
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BC Heights. Former BC Student Inyoung You Pleads Guilty to Involuntary Manslaughter
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CBS News Boston. Massachusetts Suicide Bill Conrad Roy Michelle Carter
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Northeastern University School of Law. Northeastern Law Team Takes the Lead in Crafting and Advocating for Conrad’s Law
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WBUR. Massachusetts Legislation Suicide Text Case