TIME reports that the Korean student who was charged with her involvement in her boyfriend’s suicide has pleaded not guilty.
In October, Inyoung You, 21, was charged with encouraging her boyfriend Alexander Urtula, 22, to commit suicide.
Both You and Urtula were students at Boston College at the time of Urtula’s suicide and had been involved in an 18-moth relationship.
Urtula jumped from a Roxbury parking garage just hours before his Boston College graduation ceremony in May.
You had sent Urtula 47,000 text messages over the last two months with some messages encouraging him to “go kill yourself” or “go die”.
The South Korean woman reportedly isolated Urtula from his friends and family. She was fully aware of his depression and suicidal thoughts.
Appearing 12 minutes late at the Suffolk Superior Court, You reportedly “showed no emotion” as her texts were read out,
Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Caitlin Grasso read dozens of her texts including “go kill yourself” and others referring to Urtula as a “worthless piece of shit”.
In one message You threatened to harm or kill herself if Urtula didn’t do what she said.
Grasso described Urtula as a “slave” to You who he “ceded his autonomy” to.
“You own me, all of me, only you. You have complete control of me emotionally and physically. You dictate my happiness,” Urtula wrote to You in one message. “You owning all of me includes everything, what I think, what I feel, you own all of that. All my history, everything. Anything you want, I want to give it to you.”
You’s lawyer Steven Kim said the district attorney’s office has “branded an emotionally fragile young woman a monster to the entire world, further traumatizing her. It also happens not to be true.”
“When the facts come out it will be clear – these were two emotionally needy young adults whose relationship had become a toxic blend of need, anger, fear and love,” Kim said in a statement.
“They simultaneously faced the everyday pressures all post-adolescents encounter from family, friends, social media, college life, and the things young people try to navigate every day. And they lived their lives on their phones in a way that is hard for many of us to understand.”
“Further punishing a young woman who loved him only compounds the tragedy and tarnishes the memory of that young man,” the statement added.
You was taken into custody in handcuffs after the judge set her bail at $5,000. Kim said she would post bail immediately.
