In her closing argument on Monday, Essex County prosecutor Kate McDougall stressed that Chism’s actions were methodical throughout the day of the attack and included bringing bags to school containing a box cutter, gloves and a change of clothes, and later shopping at a store for a hunting knife.
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The Massachusetts teenager accused of raping and brutally killing his high school math teacher in 2013 was found guilty of first-degree murder on Tuesday.
A teenager who raped and killed his maths teacher while at school faces life in prison after being convicted.
Philip Chism, 15, pleaded not guilty on a new rape charge tied to the alleged killing of teacher Colleen Ritzer. The unnamed worker suffered injuries to her face, jaw, neck and back.
Chism remained emotionless, showing no reaction as the guilty verdicts were read in court.
Jurors got the case Monday afternoon and deliberated for about three hours before being dismissed for the day. But recent federal and state court decisions regarding juveniles charged with capital crimes will spare him from spending the rest of his life behind bars without the possibility of parole. His attorneys were due back in court for a hearing in that case, but it was unclear whether Chism would attend.
Danvers High School teacher Colleen Ritzer is seen in this undated picture provided by Ritzer’s family. According to another student who also stayed behind, Ritzer started talking to Chism about how he found the new community compared to his old town of Clarksville, Tennessee.
The defense had a psychiatrist testify that Chism was mentally ill.
Ritzer was raped, strangled, cut and slashed 16 times with a box cutter in a school bathroom before she was sexually assaulted with a tree branch, officials have said.
Chism showed no emotion, but his mother sobbed quietly as she learned her son’s fate.
Defense attorneys did not contest that Chism, 16, committed the “terrible acts” against Colleen Ritzer at Danvers High School, north of Boston, in 2013. The jury resumed deliberations Tuesday morning.
“There is not one single person in this courtroom who wants to believe that a 14-year-old-boy could have done this and not be insane”.
A prosecutor says Philip Chism “knew right from wrong and could choose right from wrong”.
Chism was 14 at the time.
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