DANVERS — As the mothers of Colleen Ritzer and Philip Chism each strained to maintain their composure in the courtroom, jurors heard some of the grim details of what happened to Ritzer in a Danvers High School bathroom and the nearby woods two years ago.
From a cleaning crew supervisor who compared the bathroom where Ritzer was attacked to a "slaughterhouse," to the sight of Chism's note saying "I hate you all," to the forensic scientist who held up one blood-stained item of clothing after another, the morning's proceedings in Salem Superior Court took their toll.
Chism's mother doubled over at one point; Ritzer's mother wiped at tears and swayed slightly, appearing as if she might faint.
Despite the acknowledgement of Chism's attorney that he killed the young Andover woman, prosecutors Kate MacDougall and Melissa Woodard are still legally required to prove the elements of the crimes of murder, rape and robbery, and that will require more testimony about the injuries Ritzer received.
And because Chism is claiming that he's not guilty by reason of insanity, prosecutors also have to prove that Chism was rational at the time.
A 16-year old girl who had gone to Ritzer's classroom on the afternoon of Oct. 22, 2013, for extra help with math took the stand for the prosecution.
Chism was also in the classroom that afternoon. The girl did not know him but knew he'd hung around with people she did know, she testified.
Chatting with Chism
Ritzer was talking to Chism, the girl testified, as she drew pictures of flowers on a whiteboard.
"I was kind of listening, but I think I was minding my own business," said the girl, who is from Danvers.
Ritzer started asking Chism about where he was from and, when told, said, "Oh, that's nice," and asked if he missed Tennessee, the girl said.
"She was just really nice about it," the girl told jurors.
But Chism seemed upset. "Honestly, he seemed like he wasn't happy," said the girl.
Chism responded to Ritzer in a low tone.
"Like a teenager?" prosecutor Kate MacDougall asked.
"Like, mumbling, almost," said the girl.
But when Ritzer left briefly to copy some papers, Chism's demeanor changed.
"It was just me and Philip," said the girl. He joined her at the whiteboard, and then offered to write her name in Chinese characters.
Chism towered over the petite freshman. "I did have to look up at him," she testified. She told him how her name is spelled, and he wrote something on the board that looked, at least to the girl, like Chinese.
"Then Miss Ritzer came back," said the girl. Ritzer told the teens that she would be leaving soon.
Ritzer sat down at her desk, and Chism sat at a nearby student desk, where he'd been sitting earlier, the girl testified. Shortly after that, the girl started to leave, stopping to tell Ritzer that she thought she was a "great teacher" who made math easier. She told her teacher she couldn't wait for her next class.
As they spoke, Chism listened.
How did he seem? asked the prosecutor.
Chism "just had that annoyed, angry look," said the girl, who would be the last person, other than Chism, to see Ritzer alive.
The girl was the first of what are expected to be several witnesses who will describe Chism's demeanor in the hours before the crime.
At the crime scenes
But much of the day involved testimony about the crime scenes.
Kelley King, a forensic scientist with the State Police Crime Lab, took the stand to describe what she found when investigators went to the scene. As King, her trainee and a state trooper walked through the woods with flashlights, looking for blood, the trainee noticed something near a small tree.
It was a toe with pink nail polish on it.
King went to get help. Lyons Ambulance paramedic Nicholas Henderson then walked back into the woods with her.
Moving slowly and systematically, Henderson removed the leaves from Ritzer's face, neck and upper chest, revealing deep wounds and other injuries.
"She was not viable," Henderson testified.
The decision was made by King and other investigators to return to the scene at daylight, and she made her way into the school.
Earlier in the day, the jurors heard again from Vinicio Pimentel, the SJ Services cleaning supervisor, who was back on the stand to testify further about what he saw in the bathroom.
"I had never seen anything like it," Pimentel later acknowledged under questioning by Chism's attorney, John Osler.
"Did you say to my investigator it looked like a slaughterhouse?" Osler asked. Through an interpreter, Pimentel said, "That's correct."
Blood everywhere
The floor was covered in blood, he said. He went to get a school custodian and found Danny Marshall, who worked nights at the school at the time. Pimentel said he told Marshall, in English, "I found like blood in the women's bathroom on the second floor."
But Marshall, who later took the stand, misunderstood him, thinking Pimentel was saying "blue."
"He said there was blue on the floor," Marshall told jurors.
What did Marshall think Pimentel could have meant when he said there was "blue" on the floor, asked a prosecutor.
"I thought it was a cleaner of some sort," Marshall said.
Marshall said he gave Pimentel a hose and a key to the water spigot in the bathroom and sent him back.
It took 45 minutes with the hose, a squeegee and a floor cleaning machine to remove the blood, Pimentel testified.
What blood didn't get washed down the drain wound up inside the floor cleaner and soaked into its wheels, said another witness, who works for a crime scene clean-up company.
Despite all of Pimentel's cleaning, when King and other technicians went into the bathroom, they still managed to find some blood stains, including a drip of blood running down the door frame, and other blood stains on the wall behind a toilet, between a hand dryer and an electrical outlet, and on the base of a low wall inside the restroom.
Thomas McNally, a worker from 24 Trauma, the crime scene cleaning company, testified Thursday about the job of cleaning the floor scrubber. As he and an assistant cleaned blood from the inside of the machine, the assistant found a diamond stud earring.
McNally also was asked to remove blood-stained leaves and debris from the wooded area near the school after the investigation.
He came to the spot near a tree and a fence, a rectangular shaped area of ground that had been disturbed. That was where, other witnesses had earlier testified, Ritzer's body was found.
"In my personal opinion," McNally said, "it looked like a grave."
Courts reporter Julie Manganis can be reached at 978-338-2521, via email at jmanganis@salemnews.com or on Twitter @SNJulieManganis.
