Chism Back in Court Following Rape, Murder Conviction

In closing arguments Monday, prosecutors argued the teen wasn’t mentally ill and that his actions were pre-meditated.

Chism was 14 when Danvers High School teacher Colleen Ritzer was killed on school grounds in 2013.

Prosecutors presented voluminous evidence during the month-long trial, including school surveillance videos, to support allegations that Chism followed Ritzer into a bathroom after school, raped and strangled her, and carted her body in a recycling bin to a wooded area off campus. Citing the testimony of a psychiatrist who examined Chism, defence attorney Denise Regan said the strain of moving from a supportive community in Tennessee to starting as a freshman at a new high school had triggered a psychotic break.

On Oct. 22, 2013, Ritzer asked Chism to stay after school.

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.

He was also convicted of robbery for stealing her knickers and was acquitted only of one count of aggravated rape.

Thomas Ritzer, the teacher’s father, said of the verdict, “This guilty verdict, while the beginning of justice for Colleen, is certainly no cause for celebration as there can never be true justice for the crime committed”.

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.

“When Philip Chism followed Miss Ritzer into that bathroom, he was not himself”.

Danvers High School teacher Colleen Ritzeris seen in this undated photo provided by the family of Ritzer.

For Chism to have been found guilty for this count, the jury would have had to believe she was still alive at the time.

The family of Colleen Ritzer is speaking out after a jury convicted student Philip Chism of brutally raping and killing the popular high school teacher in 2013. Adults convicted of first-degree murder in MA automatically receive life without parole.

Prosecutors say Chism knew right from wrong and plotted to kill the 24-year-old Ritzer, bringing a box cutter, gloves and other items to school. He is now 16 and is being tried as an adult.

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