Contained in the Disturbing Philip Chism Case, Following Second Conviction

Content material warning: The next article comprises disturbing description of violence and sexual assault.

A assassin who killed his highschool math trainer was convicted earlier this yr of an assault that had hanging similarities — and although his second sufferer survived, she spoke out about coming head to head with a “monster.”

The case of Philip Chism has disturbed many in Massachusetts for greater than a decade after the October 2013 killing of his 24-year-old math trainer, Colleen Ritzer.

Chism, who was 14 on the time of the killing, was convicted of murdering and raping Ritzer within the lady’s toilet of his college. After attacking Ritzer, he stuffed her physique right into a recycling bin, rolling it out to the woods subsequent to the college. After he’d taken her physique to the woods, he sexually assaulted her a second time.

Choose David Lowy, who sentenced Chism to life behind bars in 2016, mentioned the coed’s chilling homicide was “brutal and mindless” and mentioned “the crashing waves of this tragedy won’t ever wane,” PEOPLE reported on the time.

Greater than a decade after the homicide, Chism’s legal habits was within the information this April when he was convicted of tried homicide in an assault on a correctional officer, which befell mere months after he was taken into custody for Ritzer’s killing.

Right here’s what occurred:

The Homicide

After college set free on Oct. 22, 2013, at Danvers Excessive Faculty, ABC Information reported on the time that Chism adopted Ritzer, a 24-year-old math trainer, into the lady’s toilet and attacked her. Chism, then 14, strangled Ritzer earlier than stabbing her 16 instances and raping her, later stuffing her physique right into a recycling bin, which he rolled out into the woods close to his college, in accordance with WBUR.

The outlet reported that when Chism introduced Ritzer’s physique into the woods, he then raped the trainer once more utilizing a tree department, stole her underwear and bank cards after which lined her physique with leaves. 

PEOPLE reported on the time that Medical Examiner Dr. Anna McDonald, who carried out the post-mortem, mentioned Ritzer could have nonetheless been alive on the time of Chism’s second assault within the woods. “At minimal, she was within the dying course of,” McDonald informed the jury.

Protection Claimed Chism Was Mentally In poor health, Sufferer’s Mother Stated He Was ‘Pure Evil’

Chism’s protection attorneys questioned his grandfather Eduardo Barbieri through the trial, who informed the jury that {the teenager} comes from a household with a historical past of psychological sickness.

Barbieri mentioned his ex-wife, Chism’s grandmother, had many psychological well being episodes and that certainly one of his daughters was handled at a psychiatric hospital. The protection staff additionally questioned certainly one of Chism’s classmates, who informed the jury {the teenager} instantly turned “very quiet” and “modified fully” within the days main as much as Ritzer’s killing.

A choose, nevertheless, refused to listen to the opinions of a psychiatrist. In the meantime, the prosecution maintained Chism knew proper from unsuitable on the time of the killing. 

“He’s pure evil and might by no means be rehabilitated,” the sufferer’s mom, Peggy Ritzer, informed the court docket through the trial, in accordance with The Salem Information.

Ultimately, Chism was discovered responsible of raping and murdering his math trainer and convicted to life in jail with the potential for parole after 40 years behind bars, PEOPLE beforehand reported.

An Eerily Related Assault

Earlier in 2024, Chism pleaded responsible to a really related assault he dedicated lower than a yr after he was taken into custody, in accordance with NBC Boston.

Chism, who’s now 25, pleaded responsible to costs together with tried homicide, assault and battery with a harmful weapon and kidnapping after a Massachusetts Division of Youth Companies employee accused him of attacking her in June 2014 in an analogous method to the way in which he attacked Ritzer the October prior. The 29-year-old employee mentioned Chism adopted her into a rest room and pinned her towards a wall whereas making an attempt to strangle her and assault her with a pencil, in accordance with NBC Boston.

Wish to sustain with the most recent crime protection? Join PEOPLE’s free True Crime publication for breaking crime information, ongoing trial protection and particulars of intriguing unsolved circumstances.

“I bear in mind being unable to go away my bed room for hours for worry that he’d be ready for me, able to kill me,” the sufferer wrote in a press release learn aloud in court docket. “True monsters exist on this planet. Philip Chism is a monster, a assassin.”

Chism was sentenced to 17-to-20 extra years in jail because of the second assault, NBC Boston, CBS Information, and MassLive.com reported.