Teen Charged With Killing Teacher Will Use Mental Health Defense

Philip Chism has pleaded not guilty to killing Colleen Ritzer

A Massachusetts teenager who is charged with killing his high school math teacher will use a mental health defense, according to Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett.

16-year-old Philip Chism has pleaded not guilty to killing Danvers High School teacher Colleen Ritzer in October 2013, when he was 14.

Earlier this month, Judge David Lowy rejected a request to move the trial from eastern Massachusetts to western Massachusetts.

The trial is set to begin in Essex County Superior Court in Salem on Oct. 7.

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