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During the
month-long trial, prosecutors have shown evidence including
surveillance video they said showed Philip Chism, 16, following
teacher Colleen Ritzer into the bathroom where she was killed
and later wheeling her body away in a recycling bin.
Prosecutors contend that Chism raped Ritzer, 24, and cut her
throat with a box cutter before bundling her body off campus. He
is also accused of taking Ritzer’s credit card, which
prosecutors say he used to buy fast food and a ticket to a movie
at a mall.
Defense attorneys have contended that Chism, who was 14 at the
time of the attack but is being tried as an adult, had long
suffered from an undiagnosed psychosis that was worsened by his
family's move to Massachusetts from Tennessee and that he was
not in control of his actions.
The trial at Essex County Superior Court in Salem,
Massachusetts, was occasionally delayed by Chism, including on
the second day of proceedings when he refused to return to the
courtroom after a break telling his attorney that he was "about
to explode" and did "not want to hurt anyone."
The judge, David Lowy, repeatedly reminded Chism that he had a
right to be present for the proceedings but not to disrupt them.
Ritzer was a well-liked teacher at the high school in Danvers,
Massachusetts, a town of 26,000 people about 20 miles (32 km)
north of Boston, at the time of her death. Her body was found in
a wooded area behind the school.
Chism would face a mandatory sentence of life in prison without
possibility of parole if convicted of the most serious charge,
first-degree murder.
(Writing by Scott Malone; Editing by Tom Brown)
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