How Michelle Carter urging her boyfriend to kill himself over hundreds of texts led to a jail sentence for involuntary manslaughter

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Michelle Carter

Glenn C. Silva (Associated Press)

Michelle Carter, flanked by defense attorneys Joseph Cataldo, left, and Cory Madera, after being found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the suicide of Conrad Roy.

What started out as a summer string of text messages led to one teenager's death and another's jail sentence.

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Massachusetts Judge Lawrence Moniz sentenced 20-year-old Michelle Carter Thursday to a two-and-a-half year jail sentence - only 15 months of which is to be actually spent behind bars - for repeatedly telling her boyfriend to kill himself after finding her guilty of involuntary manslaughter earlier in the year.

Carter and Conrad Roy III had met in 2014 while both were seventeen and taking family vacations in Florida. In the months after, they started sharing stories of profound emotional instability through Facebook and text messages.

Here's how a relationship that led to one young man's suicide and another young woman's jail sentence unfolded: