Murdered teacher’s family tells judge of their anguish during Chism sentencing (2024)

Local News

A judge ruled the 17-year-old will be eligible for release after 40 years for killing his math teacher in 2013.

By Allison Manning @allymanning

February 25, 2016

Ever since her daughter was murdered more than two years ago, Peggie Ritzer can barely stand to take a picture of her remaining children. Instead of a trio, she’s left with two.

“To take a picture of them together brings me so much pain,’’ she said, “because Colleen’s absence is overwhelming.’’

For an hour and forty minutes, Colleen Ritzer’s friends, family, former co-workers and teachers told a judge what they lost — and what Philip Chism took from them.

Chism will spend at least 40 years in prison before he is eligible for release, Judge David A. Lowy ruled on Friday.

Chism was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison on the murder charge, the maximum amount of time. The judge could have sentenced him to life in prison on aggravated rape and armed robbery charges, but instead gave him a concurrent sentence of 40 years for each charge.

Chism will be eligible for release for the first time when he is 54 years old.

Now 17, Chism was found guilty in December of murdering, raping and robbing Ritzer on Oct. 22, 2013 in a bathroom at Danvers High School. He will automatically receive a life sentence, but could be eligible for parole after as few as 15 years.

Colleen’s father, Tom Ritzer, thinks about going to his daughter’s classroom that night she was missing, before he knew she was dead. He walked the halls of and peered into her classroom, looking for her.

It makes him sick to know how close he was to Colleen, that he walked the same path as her killer.

“A dad’s job is to protect his family,’’ he said. “I didn’t protect Colleen. A dad’s job is to fix things. I would do anything to fix this for Colleen.’’

Prosecutor Kate MacDougall stood before the judge, struggling to keep her voice firm, as she pled with him to recognize that Chism is a danger to society — and women in particular.

“This case, and these crimes, go far beyond heartbreaking and horrifying,’’ she said. “Simply put, these are crimes that make one’s soul ache.’’

She reminded the court of the pending attempted murder charges against Chism in Suffolk County — charges the Essex County jury never heard about — that accuse Chism of attacking a young clinician at the Department of Youth Services facility where he was being held as he awaited trial.

“This defendant once again purposely and planningly took steps to avoid detection,’’ she said, “snuck down a hallway and brutally assaulted a young woman in a bathroom.’’

Defense attorney Susan Oker, meanwhile, argued for the judge to give Chism a chance at meaningful release.

“The sentences imposed must allow for the possibility of consideration of release,’’ she said. “Philip Chism will change and mature and the understanding of what he did may grow and become clearer.’’

The Ritzer family — mom and dad Peggie and Tom, and Colleen’s younger siblings Dan and Laura — sat side by side at the witness stand during Chism’s sentencing hearing as they took turns describing their vivacious sister as a role model and a friend. She was a joy at home and in the world, they said.

A clear jar with colorful slips of paper sat in front of Peggie Ritzer. Months before she died, Colleen started writing a good memory from each day, and tucking it inside. She planned to read them all and reflect at the end of the year.

She never got the chance. Her mother opened the jar and read them to prepare for Friday’s hearing. Reading them, she hoped, would help the judge understand “how truly simple things brought her joy.’’

On August 28, she wrote about how she was making progress on her classroom. On September 26, she wrote of a successful open house at school. On October 5, she recalled dinner with mom and dad.

On October 21, her last night alive, she scribbled: “chocolate cream pie.’’

Ritzer was someone who found joy in the small moments in life, her loved ones said. Pizza with friends. Holiday gatherings. Dinner with mom and dad.

“Colleen’s dreams were so simple, and never selfish,’’ said her friend of 19 years, Jennifer Berger. “All she wanted in life was to love and be loved.’’

Essex County prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memorandum that Chism should be held for at least 50 years, denying him an opportunity for release until he is at least 64. They want him to serve at least 25 years on the murder charge. If he won parole then, he’d begin serving the sentences for raping and robbing Ritzer and could be eligible for parole 25 years later.

Defense attorneys want Chism to serve at least 26 years in prison, making him eligible for parole before his 40th birthday. Concurrent life sentences would be cruel and unusual, the defense said.

Chism’s name was mentioned by none of the nine people who spoke to the judge. Instead he was called evil, a coward who could never be rehabilitated. As he did throughout most of the trial, Chism stared straight ahead during their testimony.

But Peggie Ritzer pointed out that Chism’s stare wasn’t always vacant. When prosecutors played surveillance video from Danvers High School of Chism following Ritzer to the bathroom where he’d kill her, he was watching intently.

“When that video was broadcast, he was most alive in this courtroom,’’ she said.

Both Peggie and Dan Ritzer railed against the federal and state court decisions that allowed Chism to have the chance at parole at all. A 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision (and a subsequent Mass. Supreme Judicial Court decision) made life without parole for juveniles unconstitutional.

“It was just another blow to a family that had already been crushed,’’ Tom Ritzer said.

No matter what Judge Lowy decides, Peggie Ritzer said, the legal battle will never be over for her family.