A jury was seated Friday in the trial of a Massachusetts teenager charged with raping and killing his math teacher in 2013.
Seventeen jurors were seated Friday in 16-year-old Philip Chism's trial, and opening arguments will get underway at 9 a.m. Monday in Salem Superior Court. The trial is scheduled to last until the week of Dec. 21.
Chism is charged in the October 2013 rape and slaying of 24-year-old Danvers High School teacher Colleen Ritzer. He was 14 at the time but is being tried as an adult.
He pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers have indicated they will use an insanity defense.
Ritzer's body was found in the woods near the school. Prosecutors said her throat had been slit with a box cutter. A student in Ritzer's class said she overheard the teacher asking Chism to stay after school after she saw him drawing instead of taking notes.
Chism had recently moved to Danvers from Clarksville, Tennessee.
