BC Student's Girlfriend Pleads Not Guilty In His Suicide

BOSTON — A former Boston College student who prosecutors said subjected her boyfriend to "unrelenting abuse," including using a barrage of disparaging text messages, until he took his life pleaded not guilty Friday to involuntary manslaughter on allegations she sapped him of his will to live and drove him to suicide.

Inyoung You was placed into custody after a judge set a $5,000 bail, which her attorney said she would pay. You, a naturalized U.S. citizen from South Korea, was also ordered to surrender her passport and remain in Massachusetts.

The judge also granted the prosecution's request to keep the defense from releasing any information to the public. The request came after a public relations firm representing her released a text exchange purporting to show her begging Alexander Urtula not to jump from a Roxbury garage on May 20, when he took his life hours before he was to graduate.

The prosecution painted a picture of a controlling girlfriend whose psychological and emotional abuse broke a once-driven young man's will to live. A prosecutor read expletive-filled text exchanges in which You repeatedly told Urtula to take his own life.

"Do everyone a favor and go [expletive] kill yourself," one of the texts stated. Other texts threatened that if he didn't kill himself, she would take her own life, blame him and ask her family to sue him for it.

Those were similar to many of the more than 47,000 texts You sent Urtula in the last two months of their relationship, prosecutors said.

You's "abuse was the cause of Mr Urtula's suicide," the prosecution said.

Prosecutors detailed a young man who family and friends said was driven, strong-willed and a leader with no history of mental health problems prior to meeting You in early 2018. Prosecutors said You became abusive and controlling in the late summer or early fall when she learned he was not truthful about being in contact with an ex-girlfriend at BC.

You used threats of self-harm and suicide to control him, prosecutors said. Urtula's concern for her life was why he didn't feel comfortable ending the relationship, he told friends.

The prosecution said Urtula eventually felt as if You was in total control of his life.

"You own me. All of me. Only you. You have complete control of me emotionally and physically and you dictate my happiness," one text stated.

In a statement Thursday, a spokesperson for the Urtula family said they have been aching since his death.

“Since losing Alexander in May, the Urtula family and everyone who loved Alex has been devastated by his loss," David Guarino said. "Not a minute of any day goes by without those who loved Alex grieving and continually feeling the sharp pain of his passing all over again."

Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins said in announcing the indictment last month that Urtula had been subjected to physical, verbal and physiological abuse during his 18-month-long "tumultuous relationship," including thousands of text messages pushing him to commit suicide.

You was in South Korea when Rollins made the announcement.

The case recalls that of Michelle Carter, the young woman convicted of involuntary manslaughter for encouraging her boyfriend to kill himself. Carter is serving a 15-month prison sentence; her parole was denied after a September hearing.

Carter's attorneys are appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has not yet decided whether to take up the case.