Judge Throws Out Confession of Alleged Murderer of Danvers Teacher
Statements made by teenager Philip Chism confessing to the 2013 murder of his 24-year-old teacher Colleen Ritzer in Danvers were ruled ineligible in court Tuesday by an Essex County Superior Court judge.
Judge David Lowy said that Chism did not waive his Miranda rights “beyond a reasonable doubt’’ when speaking to Danvers police October 23, 2013, just hours after the murder, and thus his statements would not be allowed in court.
Chism, who is being charged as an adult, has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder and aggravated rape.
In the written decision, Lowy said police did not adequately inform Chism of his Miranda rights, despite the then-14-year-old’s reluctance to answer questions and his mother twice asking for an attorney. However, since the confession was made voluntarily, the statements will be available to prosecutors, if Chism testifies, to discredit his testimony.
Lowy did deny Chism’s request to suppress evidence, including a blood-stained boxcutter that was taken from his backpack at the Topsfield police station. Defense lawyers had argued that it was an unconstitutional seizure, but Lowy said that the items would inevitably have been recovered by police with constitutional justification upon further questioning.
Police say Chism raped and murdered Ritzer, his math teacher, in a Danvers High School bathroom, put her body in a recycling bin, and dumped her body in the woods off a cross-country trail. Topsfield police picked him up walking along Route 1 the night after the murder.
In June 2014, Chism allegedly choked and beat a female employee at the Department of Youth Services facility in Boston where he was being held. According to reports, Chism followed the worker into a bathroom, armed with a pencil, and attacked her until other employees were able to restrain him.
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