Murderer of Andover woman pleads guilty to attacking DYS worker
May 1—BOSTON — Philip Chism, who was convicted of murdering Andover resident and Danvers High math teacher Colleen Ritzer in 2013, pleaded guilty Friday to nearly killing another woman in a strikingly similar attack several months after the murder while he was in custody awaiting trial.
Chism, 25, was sentenced to 17 to 20 years in prison Friday for attempted murder, assault and battery with intent to murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and kidnapping.
He'll serve the sentence concurrently with his 40-year sentence for raping and murdering Ritzer in a Danvers High bathroom on Oct. 22, 2013, when he was her 14-year-old student.
Ritzer, of Andover, was 24 and in her second year of teaching when she was killed.
Chism's legal team filed an appeal in that case, claiming jurors should have been allowed to consider the effects of adolescent brain development, among other arguments. The Essex District Attorney's Office has not yet filed a response to the appeal.
Friday's conviction stems from Chism's brutal attack of a Department of Youth Services clinician in a Boston lockup where he was held pending trial for Ritzer's murder.
"His plan was to murder and rape the victim in this case," prosecutor David Bradley said in Suffolk County Juvenile Court Friday morning. "There are very few juvenile defendants that stand before (Juvenile Court) in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with this type of behavior, this type of pattern."
On June 2, 2014, Chism was in a residential unit of the Metro Youth Services Facility in Dorchester when he attacked the 29-year-old female DYS worker, Bradley said in court Friday.
Chism had refused to attend classes that day and was alone with another employee. While that employee was working, and as Chism was supposed to be studying, he retrieved a book and sharpened pencil from his room, sat at a table where he could see down a hallway, and pretended to read the book, Bradley said.
The victim's office was adjacent to the room where Chism was being held. He watched her work at her computer and walked into a staff-only locker room. Seeing that the worker in charge of him was not paying attention, Chism crouched down, took off his sandals and grabbed the pencil.
He walked quietly down the hallway while crouched behind a half wall to keep the other employee from seeing him. After entering the locker room, he walked toward the bathroom the victim was in and, when she opened its door, pushed her back inside the bathroom, Bradley said.
Chism trapped her in a narrow space between the sink and the wall and choked her with his hands. The victim tried screaming for help but couldn't at first because his grip was too tight, Bradley said. She was able to force one of his hands from her neck and started to scream.
Chism punched her multiple times in the face as he continued to choke her. Her screams alerted other employees, who found the pair on the floor and detained Chism.
The victim had defensive wounds from the attack and a scratch on her back that was consistent with an attack from the pencil, Bradley said.
Bradley read a statement from the victim before Chism received his sentence.
"Although the physical bruising has long disappeared, 10 years later, I still feel this force of him hitting me repeatedly, reminding me that I almost lost my life," the victim said.
She was unable to work for months and became terrified to use public bathrooms or even leave her house. She said Chism's face still haunts her, especially "the lack of any emotion" he showed as he tried to kill her.
"I have this crippling fear that I have worked through because I had to," the victim said. "I have to be able to get up each day (knowing) that what you did doesn't control me. You did not kill me, and you do not take my story.
"True monsters exist in the world," she continued. "Philip Chism is a monster, a murderer. I have no doubt that his intention was to beat me into submission and eventually kill me."
Contact Caroline Enos at CEnos@northofboston.com.
