Woman Pleads Guilty to Manslaughter in Boyfriend's Suicide

Prosecutors say she told him to take his life 'hundreds of times'
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 22, 2019 8:16 AM CST
Updated Dec 24, 2021 12:05 AM CST
Woman Charged in Beau's Suicide Airs Final Texts
Alexander Urtula and Inyoung You   (Suffolk County District Attorney's Office)

Update: The girlfriend of a Boston College student who jumped to his death on the morning of his graduation day has pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in connection with his 2019 death. Inyoung You, now 23, received a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence, but it's suspended for 10 years, meaning as long as she follows the terms of her probation she won't have to serve time behind bars, the Boston Herald reports. She has also been barred from profiting in any way off the case, the BBC reports. Prosecutors found she was abusive to Alexander Urtula during a tumultuous year-and-a-half-long romance, frequently urging him via text to kill himself. The terms of her probation include mental health treatment and community service. Her lawyer described her as "distraught" and experiencing "deep remorse." Our original story from Nov. 22, 2019, follows:

Text messages released in the case of a 21-year-old woman accused of pushing her college boyfriend to suicide show she apparently asked him to "stop." Prosecutors say Inyoung You was not only present when 22-year-old Alexander Urtula jumped from a parking garage on the morning of his Boston College graduation but encouraged him to take his own life "hundreds of times" in the two months leading up to the May 20 death. In what are said to be their final text messages, released by the PR firm representing her and obtained by the Boston Globe, You begins by grilling Urtula about where he's been and who he's seen. "I'm not talking to anyone. I won't ever again. I'm happy I got to spend my last night with you. I love you inyoung until my last breath," he replies, before adding he's "far away on a tall place" and "leaving everyone."

"WHAT SRE YOU [expletive] DOING. IF U [expletive] LOVE ME STOP. IF U EVER [expletive] LOVED ME STOP," You responds. She told Urtula to stop "many more times in more than 100 texts she sent after he stopped responding," per CNN. "I'm begging you please," she adds, per the Globe. "Please why can't we have our forever and always." A rep for the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office says it won't comment on the case "beyond what is stated in court," per CNN. You withdrew from classes at Boston College before returning to her native South Korea following Urtula's death but is back in the US to be arraigned on an involuntary manslaughter charge on Friday, per CBS Boston. (More suicide stories.)

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