Chism was 14 when Danvers High School teacher Colleen Ritzer was killed on school grounds in 2013.
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A jury has reached a verdict in the trial of a MA teen who killed his math teacher in 2013.
“Philip Chism was under enormous stress”, Regan said in her closing statement.
Danvers High School teacher Colleen Ritzer is seen in this undated file photo provided by Ritzer’s family via The Eagle-Tribune.
A teenager from Tennessee has been convicted of murder and rape in MA.
“When Philip Chism followed Ms. Ritzer into that bathroom, he was not himself”, Regan said before the jury. Chism then raped Ritzer a second time with a tree branch and cut her throat with a plastic box cutter.
Chism, who was tried as an adult in a Salem, Mass., court, was found hours later with a bloody box cutter, the teacher’s ID, credit cards and a pair of her underwear in his backpack, cops said.
Additionally, Chism’s lawyers are also expected in court in Boston on Wednesday as the 16-year-old faces separate charges of attempted murder and assault and battery with a unsafe weapon following allegations that he attacked a state Department of Youth Services worker in June 2014 while awaiting trial.
It took the panel just nine hours of deliberations to
reject the Chism legal team’s insanity defense that he lacked criminal responsibility because he suffered from an untreated
psychosis suspected of
being early-onset schizophrenia.
Ritzer’s body was found a day later in woods near the school.
After the verdict was read, the defense filed a motion to conduct an investigation regarding the parole process, which was scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 22 at 10:30 a.m. Since Chism is under 18, he is eligible for parole after as few as 15 years due to a recent 2012 Supreme Court case, Miller v. Alabama.
“The only still image that matters in this case is the image of Colleen Ritzer in the woods”, MacDougall said.
Chism’s lawyers admit he killed Ritzer, but say he was severely mentally ill and can not be held criminally responsible for his actions. “Being great is an excellent legacy to leave behind”, will live on in the hearts and minds of those who knew and adored her”, Dana said. She graduated from Assumption College in 2011 and began teaching at Danvers High School in September of 2012. “But doing something so very bad does not make you insane”.
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“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”.
