SALEM, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com/AP) - A judge found Philip Chism, a Danvers teen accused of murdering his math teacher, mentally competent on Wednesday.
Philip refused to enter the courtroom during his trial Tuesday.
According to tweets from the courtroom Chism said "I can't take this anymore. I don't want to hurt anyone."
His Defense Attorney Denise Regan said, "Given that he's a 16-year-old, a juvenile tried in superior court, he's not an adult. This is a very stressful situation, and he does have this diagnosis of this very serious mental illness."
Chism sat stone-faced at the defense table as murder victim Colleen Ritzer's mother took the stand, telling the jury her daughter was a devoted math teacher who loved her daily routine.
"She kept a jar where she would write something good from the day it was something she started doing that summer. and she would pick one thing and put it in her jar, that she was trying to keep," Peggie Ritzer said.
She also described the frantic search for her daughter after she didn't come home from work one day in October 2013.
But after Peggie came disturbing testimony an evidence. The jury was shown Colleen's empty classroom and saw blood stained evidence, blood splatter on tiles on the door frame of the bathroom where Colleen was murdered.
They even saw the bloody recycling barrel that prosecutors allege Chism used to dispose of Colleen's body behind Danvers High School. It was after that testimony that Chism refused to return to the courtroom. The prosecutor was skeptical about the timing of it all.
Prosecutor Kate MacDougall said, "He is not in charge of this process. I'm concerned that right now he thinks he is. It was a difficult morning," he said.
Judge David Lowy himself tried to talk to Chism, but the judge said he was unresponsive.
"I had an opportunity to observe the defendant who did not respond to the court or counsel's questions, and is lying on the floor, mumbling with his eyes closed," the judge said.
The judge sent the jury home early and a mental health expert was called in to evaluate Chism, who was found mentally competent on Wednesday morning.