Teen convicted in rape, murder of high school math teacher

Chism claimed he was mentally unstable at the time of incident at Danvers High School in MA in October 2013. Chism has been ordered held without bail.

Philip Chism’s defense of insanity didn’t convince a jury in his case; he was found guilty of murdering his high school teacher.

Fourteen-year-old high school student Philip Chism was accused of killing Ritzer, a well-liked math teacher at Danvers High School, in Danvers, Mass., whose body was found in the woods behind the school.

Wearing their daughter’s favorite color of pink as they addressed the conviction of her killer, the parents of Colleen E. Ritzer on Tuesday vowed to make sure that she is remembered for the kindness she showed in life.

After some time, Ritzer left the classroom and – in a video shown to the jurors – she could be seen going to the bathroom down the hallway.

Chism’s mother also reported her son missing and Topsfield police found Chism walking a highway after midnight that night with the bloody box cutter, credit cards and women’s underwear.

Chism stared straight ahead and did not have any visible reaction as the verdicts were being read in Salem Superior Court.

“This guilty verdict, while the beginning of justice, is certainly no cause for celebration”, Ritzer’s father, Tom Ritzer, said. “There remains a tremendous absence in our lives, one that sadly can never be replaced”.

Legal experts said he could be eligible for parole in 15 to 25 years, depending if the judge sentences him to concurrent or consecutive prison terms on the murder, rape and robbery convictions.

“We will carry on and do our best to find the good in every day”, Peggie Ritzer said.

Jurors deliberated a little over three hours Monday in the trial of Philip Chism, charged in the 2013 killing of Colleen Ritzer, his algebra teacher at Danvers High School.

“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”, prosecutor Kate MacDougall said. Chism became upset and Ritzer changed the subject, the student said.

At his trial, prosecutors described Chism’s steps that day in chilling detail, showing the jury portions of surveillance video from some of the 140 cameras at the school. Seconds later, Chism is seen poking his head out of her classroom and looking down the hall.