In February 2015, a grand jury indicted Carter on charges of involuntary manslaughter. Her trial was scheduled for June 2017, and the day before it began, Carter waived her right to a jury trial. This meant the verdict would be decided by Judge Lawrence Moniz. Carter's lawyers, Joseph Cataldo and Cory Madera, argued that Roy had a history of suicide attempts and the final decision was ultimately his own. They also pointed to previous conversations between the two in which Carter encouraged Roy to get psychiatric treatment and attempted to talk him out of the idea of dying by suicide.
The defence also called psychiatrist Dr. Peter Breggin, who testified that Carter's antidepressant Celexa negatively impacted her impulse control. Breggin said Carter became "involuntarily intoxicated" by the medication in the days leading up to Roy's death; the prosecution argued that her aggression began before the involuntary intoxication that Breggin spoke of.
Prosecutors argued that Carter urged Roy to take his own life so she could get the attention she so desperately craved. A key piece of evidence in the prosecution's case was a text message that Carter sent to Boardman several months after Roy's death. "Sam his death is my fault like honestly I could have stopped him I was on the phone with him and he got out of the car because it was working and he got scared and I f*cking told him to get back in," Carter wrote.
On June 16, 2017, Moniz found Carter guilty of involuntary manslaughter. He also provided an explanation for how and why he reached this verdict, stating that it wasn't the text messages that led him to find Carter guilty. Rather, Moniz said the pair's last phone call (as recounted to Boardman), in which Carter told Roy to get back in the car, was what ultimately made her culpable for his death from a legal standpoint. Because there is no recording of this phone call, the defence argued there's no proof that Carter actually said these words to Roy. Others, including Carr, are also sceptical because Carter reportedly had a history of lying, exaggerating, and making contradictory statements.
Carter appealed the verdict and was allowed to remain free for two years until all state appeals had been exhausted. Her conviction was upheld, and in February she began serving her 15-month sentence. On July 8, 2019, Carter's lawyers filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to review the case. Her lawyers contend that the conviction was a violation of her First Amendment right to freedom of speech.
The Supreme Court denied Carter's appeal, though she was later released from jail in January 2020 after serving 12 months of her 15-month sentence. Regardless of the outcome, Carter's case has caused significant controversy over First Amendment protections and whether words can cross the line from immoral to illegal.