High School Student Found Guilty of Math Teacher’s Brutal Murder

(CNN) – A jury in MA has found Philip Chism guilty of first-degree murder in the 2013 killing of his high school math teacher, Colleen Ritzer. He was not charged with unnatural rape.

Chism was found guilty on three of the four charges brought against him, which included one count of natural rape, one count of armed robbery, and one count of first-degree murder.

A spokesman for Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley says lawyers for Chism will be in Suffolk County Juvenile Court in Boston on Wednesday.

Prosecutors in that case say Chism had been in custody at a youth detention facility in Boston when he followed a female worker into a locker room. The worker suffered injuries to her face, jaw, neck and back.

Chism has a status hearing today in Suffolk County
Juvenile Court for the
attempted murder of a
female staffer at a Department of Youth Services
facility in Dorchester.

Chism then tossed Ritzer’s remains in a recycling bin and wheeled it out back of the school, where he dumped the beloved teacher’s body in the woods.

“There can never be true justice for the crime that was committed”, he said.

At a press conference in Essex district attorney Jonathan Blodgett’s office, Blodgett and Colleen’s parents, Tom and Peggie, thanked Judge David Lowy, the prosecution team and Danvers, Topsfield and MA state police personnel that comforted the family through the more than two years of court proceedings, while also paying respects to Colleen.

A teenager who raped and killed his maths teacher while at school faces life in prison after being convicted.

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, who is now 16, is being tried as an adult. Chism’s lawyer admitted his client killed Ritzer, but said he was suffering from severe mental illness and wasn’t criminally responsible for his actions.

She claimed the teen was in the midst of a psychotic episode when he killed his teacher.

The jury spent 10 hours deliberating before delivering the guilty verdict Tuesday. The Colleen E. Ritzer Memorial Scholarship Fund has given out thousands of dollars in educational help to high school students in Danvers and Andover.

Chism stared straight ahead and did not have any visible reaction as the verdicts were being read in Salem Superior Court. He was found not guilty on a second count of aggravated rape.

As reported by ABC News, the incident occurred on October 2013, when Ritzer asked Chism to stay after school.

Ritzer’s body was found a day later in woods near the school.