Teen charged with murdering teacher will be evaluated at state hospital; trial on hold
A judge will send Philip Chism to a state hospital to have his competency evaluated. Prosecutors say the teenager is faking it.
Instead of listening to opening statements in his murder trial next week, Philip Chism will be at a state hospital under evaluation by doctors tasked with determining whether or not he’s fit to stand trial.
Judge David A. Lowy said he would order a competency evaluation despite objections from the prosecution. Chism, who is charged with murdering and raping his high school math teacher two years ago when he was 14, refused to enter the courtroom at all on Wednesday.
A court psychologist who spoke with him testified that Chism was a withdrawn, suicidal teenager who barely understood the charges against him. The 16-year-old told the clinician a voice told him not to trust his defense attorneys, who had been working with him without issue for two years.
Lowy said he didn’t have much choice but to order the evaluation. If the trial went forward, and Chism was convicted, the case would surely be appealed, he said.
“It would be a reversible error in a blink of an eye,’’ the judge said.
Chism has pleaded not guilty in Essex County to charges of murder, armed robbery and two counts of rape. Prosecutors allege he slashed the throat of his 24-year-old math teacher, Colleen Ritzer, in the bathroom of Danvers High School, and dragged her body into the woods in a recycling bin. He was found hours later walking along a road in nearby Topsfield with Ritzer’s credit cards, women’s underwear and a box cutter.
Chism will be sent to Worcester State Hospital for the evaluation. Lowy ordered that Chism should be held in an adult locked unit, with no access to any non-secure hospital grounds. He won’t be allowed out of the hospital without court permission.
Because he is 16, he will be treated as a juvenile while he is detained. But because he is facing a murder charge as an adult, he must be given maximum security treatment.
Essex County Assistant District Attorney Kate MacDougall reiterated her position that Chism is faking and manipulating the court. She has asked for video recordings of Chism’s behavior in the Salem Superior Court holding cell.
“The Commonwealth’s fears have come to fruition,’’ she said.
While Chism was absent from court Tuesday and Wednesday, he sat next to his attorneys quietly Thursday, head hung, while the judge and attorneys discussed where he would go.
Lowy asked a Department of Mental Health commissioner to make sure the evaluation — which can take up to 20 days — is done as quickly as it can comprehensively be done.
And if it can’t be done quickly, Lowy wants to know as soon as possible. That way the hundreds of people involved in the case — witnesses, jurors, experts, family members — can be informed that the trial isn’t going forward at this point, Lowy said.
Last year, prosecutors raised issues in court documents about the security surrounding Chism, noting the lax practices of Worcester State Hospital in other cases. Chism attacked a young female Department of Youth Services clinician at a facility in Dorchester in June 2014. He is facing charges in that case in Suffolk County.
During jury selection, defense attorneys have hinted at an insanity defense, which would mean that Chism did not understand that the crime he committed was wrong at the time. Competency is a different issue. A defendant must be competent — able to understand the charges against him and to assist in his own defense — to stand trial.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com