"Philip Chism is a monster," detention center attack victim says about murderer of Danvers math teacher
BOSTON - Philip Chism, convicted of killing Danvers High School math teacher Colleen Ritzer in 2013 when he was 14 years old, changed his plea to guilty Friday for a subsequent attack at a Department of Youth Services detention center.
Chism, now 25, was 15 when he attacked and seriously injured a 29-year-old female clinician at the Boston facility on June 2, 2014. He was accused of sneaking into a staff locker room bathroom and trying to choke and kill the woman. After other employees came to the woman's rescue and freed her, Chism repeatedly yelled "I'm gonna kill them all," prosecutors said.
Chism is already serving 40 years in prison for the brutal murder of Ritzer. Investigators said he raped and killed the teacher in a school bathroom before dumping her body in a recycling barrel and moving it to the woods.
Philip Chism's victim says he intended to kill her
Chism stood expressionless in Suffolk Juvenile Court as a prosecutor read the victim's impact statement.
"True monsters exist out in the world," she wrote. "Philip Chism is a monster, a murderer. I have no doubt that his intention was to beat me into submission and eventually kill me."
The woman said Chism's face "sometimes still haunts me, that lack of any emotion just ready to kill."
"My recommendation to the courts is that he remain in prison for the rest of his life, locked away without the means to hurt another person," she said.
New sentence for Philip Chism
Judge Helen Brown-Bryant sentenced Chism to 17 to 20 years in state prison. The new sentence will run concurrent with his sentence for Ritzer's murder.
The Eagle-Tribune had reported last fall that Chism had been expected to stand trial for the nearly decade-old attack.
"He wishes to take responsibility and resolve this matter today," his lawyer said Friday.
