Philip Chism again asked Tuesday to sit out testimony at Essex Superior Court — and this time, went through with it, unlike the last time he asked to leave the trial.
On Wednesday, the jury tours Danvers High School, the woods adjacent to the school where Colleen Ritzer’s body was found, and several locations Chism visited in the hours after her death, including a movie theater and a Wendy's.
Chism stared down at the table as his grandfather testified to his “beautiful soul,” and the mental illness that hospitalized Chism’s grandmother and aunt, which defense attorneys argue Chism inherited. Chism didn’t look at his best friend, either, who had traveled from Tennessee to tell the jury Chism was like a brother to him.
Other high school friends testified that Chism changed in the days before Colleen Ritzer’s death — like this soccer teammate being questioned by a defense attorney.
“He scored a goal and our coach said something — he said something like, ‘Phil, you should be thankful,’ that someone else set up the goal for him," the teammate said. "And he just turned away and didn’t say anything, didn’t smile or anything. That’s what I noticed.”
“Did that seem different to you?” the defense attorney asked.
“Yeah, a little bit," the teammate replied. "But I didn’t think anything of it at the time.”
On cross-examination, Chism’s friends in Danvers acknowledged they had only known him a few months. Prosecutors asked people who knew Chism in Tennessee about his relationship with his mother, and they said he could be “hateful” and abrasive toward her, although always respectful to others.
