16-year-old convicted of rape and murder of Massachusetts math teacher
Philip Chism during closing arguments of his murder trial in Salem, Mass.
A Massachusetts jury on Tuesday convicted a teenager of raping and murdering his high school math teacher when he was 14.
Philip Chism followed his ninth-grade algebra teacher, Colleen Ritzer, into a school bathroom, strangled her, stabbed her at least 16 times and raped her.
Chism, now 16, was tried as an adult. He was convicted of raping Ritzer inside the bathroom but was acquitted of a second rape, committed with a tree branch in woods near the school where Chism put her body. He was also convicted of first-degree murder, as well as armed robbery for stealing Ritzer’s credit cards and her underwear.
Chism stared straight ahead and did not have any visible reaction as the verdicts were read in Salem Superior Court. His mother declined to talk to reporters as she left the courthouse.
Standing later with the district attorney that prosecuted the case, Ritzer’s parents said the verdicts marked a new phase in their lives in which they hope to honor their 24-year-old daughter’s legacy.
“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,” said Thomas Ritzer, her father. “There remains a tremendous absence in our lives, one that sadly can never be replaced.”
During the trial, Chism’s lawyer acknowledged that the teen had killed Ritzer, but said he was suffering from severe mental illness and was not criminally responsible for his actions. A psychiatrist who testified for the defense said Chism was hearing voices and in the throes of a psychotic episode when he killed her.
Chism faces life in prison on the first-degree murder charge. As a juvenile, he cannot receive a life sentence without parole, following decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court and the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. Adults convicted of first-degree murder in Massachusetts automatically receive life without parole.
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