Defense expert: Philip Chism expressed remorse for ‘the difficulties he’s caused’
Dr. Richard Dudley, the psychiatrist who diagnosed Philip Chism with psychosis, said under cross-examination Monday that Chism expressed remorse for killing his math teacher two years ago.
Almost two years after Philip Chism brutally murdered his math teacher, the teenager expressed his own kind of remorse, the defense’s expert witness told jurors.
It was in September, in a meeting with the hired expert, psychiatrist Dr. Richard Dudley. Chism had remorse that he hadn’t been able to ignore the commanding voices in his head on Oct. 22, 2013, when he stabbed, raped and robbed Colleen Ritzer, leaving her dead in the woods outside Danvers High School, Dudley testified Monday in Chism’s murder trial.
He was sorry he couldn’t manage those voices at age 14, Dudley said, sorry that he didn’t understand he was suffering from an illness he hadn’t yet been diagnosed with — psychosis.
Then, in another meeting just last Thursday, Dudley testified under cross-examination, Chism seemed to understand what he’d done even more profoundly.
“There was much more of a sense of having had an illness that had not been treated,’’ Dudley said. “And had that been treated, he wouldn’t have caused the difficulties he’s caused.’’
Essex County Assistant District Attorney Kate MacDougall stopped in her tracks, visibly surprised, and disgusted.
“‘Caused the difficulties that he’s caused,’ Dr. Dudley,’’ MacDougall asked, her voice dripping with disdain. Behind her, Tom and Peggie Ritzer, Colleen’s parents, looked on.
Philip Chism
It was the 11th day of testimony in the murder trial of the now-16-year-old Chism. At question for jurors isn’t whether Chism did all he’s accused of — his attorneys admitted his culpability in their opening statement — but if Chism was in his right mind, and therefore criminally responsible, for the murder.
On Friday, Dudley took the stand and told jurors that Chism was in the throes of psychosis when he killed 24-year-old Ritzer. The teenage boy heard voices that he couldn’t ignore, Dudley said, and had been suffering since he was 10.
On cross, MacDougall went after Dudley, questioning how he went about forming his opinion. He ignored evidence that went against his diagnosis of psychosis, she said, and ultimately, only relied on Chism’s own accounting of his symptoms.
She continued that questioning Monday morning, reminding jurors that 90 percent of Dudley’s report was based on Chism, not any outside evidence.
Dudley, who met with Chism seven times over the last year, didn’t consider accounts of Chism’s counselor in juvenile detention, a woman he saw nearly every day in the few months after the killing, the prosecutor said. That woman said Chism was engaging, even exuberant, not flat and withdrawn like Dudley said.
Malingering — faking or exaggerating symptoms — never comes up in Dudley’s report once, MacDougall said.
“You never even raised he possibility that what he’s telling you is not true at all or exaggerated,’’ she said.
And how could Dudley believe Chism — someone who, when given an intelligence test in March 2014 scored at or above average, but 15 months later took another test and scored in the one percentile, so low he’d barely be functioning.
If Chism is lying, and he doesn’t hear voices, is there enough evidence to conclude that he was experiencing psychosis the day of the murder, MacDougall asked Dudley.
“The auditory hallucinations are a central feature,’’ he replied.
Jurors will likely get the case on Thursday or Friday this week, the judge told them. It will be up to them to decide if Chism was hearing voices the day he killed Ritzer, and if they were enough to make him criminally insane.
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