Massachusetts

Man who killed Danvers teacher at 14 to plead guilty to in-custody attack 10 years ago

Philip Chism, who raped and killed Danvers High School math teacher Colleen Ritzer in 2013, is expected to change his plea in the attack of a Massachusetts Department of Youth Services worker in Boston in 2014

NECN

A Massachusetts man who was just 14 when he raped and killed his teacher over a decade ago is planning to change his plea in an assault that allegedly happened while he was in custody months later.

Philip Chism was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole for the October 2013 killing of math teacher Colleen Ritzer at Danvers High School.

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In June of 2014, when Chism was 15, he allegedly attacked a Massachusetts Department of Youth Services worker at a facility in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood.

The Suffolk County District Attorney's Office said Thursday that Chism, now 25, "is expected to plead guilty" in that attack Friday in Boston Juvenile Court.

Chism is accused of following the 29-year-old woman into the bathroom, using a pencil as a weapon and leaving her with injuries to her head, neck, face and back.

In that incident, Chism was charged with attempted murder by strangulation, assault with intent to murder, kidnapping and two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

While Chism's lawyers appeared in court for a hearing in the DYS case the day after his murder conviction in 2015, it has still not gone to trial, the Eagle-Tribune newspaper reported in October.

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