A lawyer for a MA teenager charged with killing his math teacher says her client has refused to go back into the courtroom because he’s “about to explode”.
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The boy, who had moved to MA from Clarksville, Tennessee, shortly before starting high school, should not be held criminally responsible, his attorney, Denise Regan, told the jury.
That bin was going to be brought into the courtroom as evidence after the break, prosecutor Kate MacDougall said.
During opening statements in the trial of Philip Chism, a prosecutor calmly described Chism’s movements on October 22, 2013.
“He said he’s about to explode and he doesn’t want to hurt anyone”, she added.
Regan’s observations were mirrored by a court officer who testified Chism warned him of violence to come if his trial, in its second day of testimony, was not stopped.
Peggie Ritzer is being called to humanize her daughter and testify about the family’s efforts to locate Colleen Ritzer after she failed to return home from work, an effort that helped lead to the discovery of Colleen Ritzer’s body in the woods adjacent to the high school.
“Where’s the girl?” a Topsfield police officer said.
But when police asked Chism if he had anything risky in his backpack, he said yes.
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A court officer also told the court that Chism said he didn’t want to hurt them or anyone else. When they searched it, they found a woman’s wallet with the bloody box cutter inside. Chism initially appeared to make a few friends and fit in at the high school, but several students had noticed changes in him, his lawyer said. She said Chism followed Colleen Ritzer into the girls’ bathroom after school, then strangled her, cut her throat with the box cutter, raped and killed her.
