John Odgren was a sixteen year old from Massachusetts who would stab a fellow student to death in the school washroom. According to court documents John Odgren would bring a knife to school and would head to the washroom where he would stab to death James F. Alenson. Immediately after the stabbing John Odgren would tell another student to go and get help. John Odgren who sufferers from Asperger’s was immediately arrested. John Odgren would be convicted and this teen killer would be sentenced to life in prison
John Odgren 2023 Information
Offender Name: ODGREN, JOHN
Custody Status:In Custody
Location:NCCI Gardner (Medium Security)
John Odgren More News
The state’s highest court Wednesday upheld the first degree murder conviction of John Odgren who was 16 when he killed Lincoln-Sudbury High School classmate James F. Alenson in 2007, a shocking crime that his lawyers attributed to his Asperger’s syndrome and mental health issues.
The Supreme Judicial Court unanimously rejected Odgren’s defense that long-term psychiatric issues including depression coupled with Asperger’s made him psychotic at the moment Alenson was murdered inside a boy’s bathroom at the school.
Odgren admitted killing the 15-year-old Alenson, whom he did not know, during his trial. His attorneys argued that as a juvenile his brain had not yet properly developed into an adult and therefore he should not face trial, conviction or sentencing as an adult.
The SJC disagreed.
“We are satisfied that in the defendant’s specific case the jury were made sufficiently aware of the impact that the defendant’s age and various diagnoses might have had on his ability to form the requisite intent to kill. Indeed, his state of mind was the central issue at trial,’’ Justice Elspeth B. Cypher wrote for the court. “In short, we discern no error.”
Odgren attacked Alenson on Jan. 19, 2007, using a kitchen knife he brought with him to school, according to the court.
Cypher wrote that “the details of the encounter were provided primarily through the testimony of another student who was using one of the bathroom stalls at the time of the murder. The witness heard a brief struggle between the defendant and the victim, during which he heard the victim exclaim, ‘What are you doing? Stop that. Ow, ow. You’re hurting me.’ He then heard the victim leave the bathroom and noticed three or four drops of blood at the foot of his stall. The defendant, who was still inside the bathroom, repeated, ‘Oh, my God. Oh, my God. What did I just do?’ several times and, after a pause, say, ‘Whoever is in that stall, I need you to go get help.’”
The witness opened the stall door, Cypher wrote, and saw Odgren “sitting on the floor with his arms wrapped around his knees, ‘kind of clutched up in a fetal-type position,’ and a large knife was on the bathroom floor. The defendant again asked the witness to find help and stated that he would not hurt him. When the witness left the bathroom, the victim was lying in the hallway just outside the bathroom door. When the witness returned to the area with help, he saw the defendant kneeling next to the victim. The defendant stated, ‘Don’t let him die. It was all me. I did this. I just went crazy.’ ”
Odgren, after several years of lengthy pre-trial court battles was convicted in 2010 and sentenced to life without parole. He’s currently serving his sentence in the medium security prison in Gardner, according to Department of Correction records.
Odgren’s lawyers said in a statement Wednesday that they were “very disappointed” by the SJC ruling.
“The decision fails to address, or even recognize, the profound and significant differences between juveniles and adults who assert a lack of criminal responsibility defense,” the statement said. “Instead of continuing to lead the criminal legal system into a more developmentally appropriate approach to cases involving adolescents, as our Court has done in the past, this decision constitutes a sharp retreat on this front. It had been our hope that the Court would recognize the unfairness of the verdict in this case and use this as an opportunity to advance the law in cases involving mentally ill children. Sadly, that did not happen.”
The Middlesex district attorney’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Patricia Garin, an attorney for John Odgren, told the Globe in December 2013 that if her client’s appeal failed, he would seek release at a later date based on an SJC ruling that year that struck down life sentences without parole for juveniles.
Lawyers said at the time of the 2013 SJC ruling that juvenile killers would have to serve at least 15 years before being considered for parole. Garin said Wednesday that Odgren will seek parole in “January of 2022 – 15 years after arrest.”
Alenson’s family, meanwhile, set up a scholarship fund in his name in 2010.
“James was passionate about Football,” the fund’s website says. “He wore his #37 Rodney Harrison jersey from August through January as he watched games and managed his fantasy team. James cherished the Holidays, the spirit of the season, and being with family. … James had many wonderful qualities. We are most proud of how considerate he was of everyone he met. We encourage those who visit this website to perform an act of kindness in a loved one’s memory.”
Julia Enright was charged in the brutal murder of Brandon Chicklis of Westminster in which his body was found beside a New Hamshire highway. According to early reports police would find Brandon Chicklis blood at Julia Enright parent’s property in Massachusetts. The two reportedly dated for awhile and no known motive has been made public. Julia Enright was featured in a documentary featuring women who were awaiting trial in Massachusetts that I will include below. Julia Enright was arrested in 2019 however due to COVID her trial has been postponed numerous times. Julia Enright trial has started in October 2021. Julia Enright would be convicted of 2nd degree murder
Julia Enright More News
A 21-year-old Ashburnham woman accused of murdering a former high school classmate was ordered held without bail after pleading not guilty Thursday morning in Worcester Superior Court.
Julia Enright of 171 Packard Hill Road, Ashburnham was indicted Dec. 21 on a charge of first-degree murder in the slaying of 20-year-old Brandon Chicklis of Westminster on or about June 23 in Ashburnham.
Accompanied by her lawyer, Louis M. Badwey, Ms. Enright entered a not-guilty plea at Thursday’s arraignment.
Assistant District Attorney Terry J. McLaughlin told Judge Janet Kenton-Walker that he and Mr. Badwey were in agreement that Julia Enright be held without bail without prejudice, which would allow for a future bail hearing in the case. The judge held Ms. Enright without bail without prejudice and continued her case to Feb. 28.
Mr. McLaughllin told Judge Kenton-Walker Thursday that the death of Mr. Chicklis was ruled a homicide and that he suffered multiple stab wounds. He said an analysis of the victim’s cellphone led investigators to Ms. Enright’s home and also showed the phone was at that address on June 23.
He said Julia Enright gave police varying accounts of her activities on June 23 and eventually said she and the victim had spent a good part of the day at her home. According to court records, she told investigators she and Mr. Chicklis had been drinking and that he left to buy drugs and never returned.
Mr. Chicklis and Ms. Enright both graduated in 2015 from Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical High School in Fitchburg.
A judge has denied a defense motion to suppress evidence seized by investigators in searches of an Ashburnham murder suspect’s car and house.
The challenged evidence included bloodstains that prosecutors say were found in Julia Enright’s Toyota Prius and linked her to the stabbing death last year of her former high school classmate, 20-year-old Brandon Chicklis of Westminster.
Julia Enright 22, of 171 Packard Hill Road, Ashburnham, is awaiting trial in Worcester Superior Court on a first-degree murder charge in the slaying.
Chicklis left his Westminster home on June 23, 2018, and was reported missing the next day, after he did not arrive at his father’s house in New Hampshire. His car, unlocked and with the keys inside, was found on June 29, 2018, in a Hannaford Supermarket parking lot on Route 202 in Rindge, New Hampshire. His decomposed body, wrapped in blankets and trash bags, was discovered about six miles away, on the side of Route 119 in Rindge, on July 10, 2018.
He had suffered multiple stab wounds and his death was ruled a homicide.
As part of their investigation, state police detectives obtained call detail records for the victim’s cellphone, which revealed that Chicklis had been at 171 Packard Hill Road in Ashburnham from 11:30 a.m. through 3 p.m. on June 23, 2018. There was no further activity on the phone after that date.
On July 13, 2018, during questioning by police, Julia Enright gave varying accounts of what occurred on June 23, 2018, ultimately admitting that Chicklis had been to her house that day, according to court records. She related that she and Chicklis smoked marijuana and drank alcohol on the day in question and were intimate in his car, according to court records. She further stated that Chicklis left to buy cocaine and never returned, the records show.
Enright reportedly told police that she and Chicklis dated and had a sexual relationship when they were in high school and that they had recently been communicating “off and on.”
Her car was seized by police on July 13, 2018, after she drove herself to the Ashburnham police station at the request of investigators. The seizure came after Trooper Shawn Murphy said he walked around the Prius looking for any dents or damage and saw red or brown stains on the floor mat behind the driver’s seat that he believed could be blood. A briefcase or computer bag was also seen in the backseat.
Police later obtained a search warrant for the vehicle. A cutting was taken from one of the stains on the floor mat, after a confirmatory test for blood was positive, and the cutting was sent for DNA processing. The genetic profile generated from the bloodstain was consistent with Chicklis’ DNA profile, according to court records.
A laptop computer that was in the car was seized.
Enright’s lawyer, Louis M. Badwey, filed a motion to suppress evidence obtained as a result of the seizure of the car, as well as a consent search of Enright’s home. The defense lawyer contended the seizure of the vehicle was not legally justified because the requirements for a plain view seizure had not been met and and that the consent to search Enright’s bedroom that was given by Enright and her father, John, was conditional on Enright being present during the search.
Regarding the seizure of the car, Badwey maintained it would have been impossible for Trooper Murphy to see the the stains from outside the Prius as he testified during an Aug. 26 hearing on the motion.
Judge Jane E. Mulqueen denied the motion in a nine-page ruling issued Oct. 11.
According to court records, the search of the bedroom turned up what Trooper Matthew Prescott described as “numerous documents, notebooks and business cards with Julia’s picture on it which indicated that Julia is a ‘dominatrix’ and participated in activities related to ‘BDSM’ with persons that met her and paid for these services.” A dominatrix is a woman who subjects her masochistic sexual partner or partners to bondage or the infliction of ritualistic punishments.
Notes detailing Enright’s relationship with Chicklis were also found, according to an affidavit authored by Prescott. She allegedly wrote that her relationship with Chicklis was “Damn near therapeutic” and “nearly a kismesis.”
“I can be mean and rude to him or kind and he’ll initiate a warm hug and invite me back soon after,” one of the notes found allegedly stated.
Ms. Enright also wrote in a notebook about her fantasy of killing someone, according to Prescott’s affidavit.
“She wrote, ‘I daydream about it on occasion. I just have this insatiable curiosity to kill a person.’ The note indicated that she wanted to cure the world of overpopulation. Julia was asked about the notes and she acknowledged writing them, however she attributed them to a creative writing class,” Prescott said in his affidavit.
Mulqueen ruled that the police observations of suspected bloodstains in the back of Enright’s car, coupled with the knowledge that Chicklis’ last known location was at her house and that he had been stabbed multiple times, provided probable cause to search the vehicle. She said she credited the testimony of Murphy and other investigators that they were able to view the stains from outside of the car.
The judge further found that the evidence elicited at the hearing on the motion did not support the defendant’s argument that both she and her father placed limitations on their consent to search her bedroom. John Enright’s written consent contained no limitations, according to Mulqueen’s ruling, and Enright’s comments to police about her needing to “be there” were “clearly an expression that she needed to be in the house and her bedroom to take a shower and get ready to leave for New York” and were “not intended as a limitation on her consent to search her room,” Mulqueen wrote.
Prosecutors have said that Chicklis’ blood was also found in a treehouse adjacent to the Enright property. According to Prescott’s affidavit, the treehouse appeared to have been recently cleaned when it was examined by police on July 14, 2018. “There appeared to be a new piece of carpeting on the floor and handles attached to the walls near all four corners low to the floor, presumably used to attach restraint devices,” Prescott wrote.
The neighbor who owned the property where the treehouse was located told investigators she had been in the treehouse in April 2018. She said she planned to clean it out for use by her children and removed the carpeting that was present. She also said she saw no handles in the treehouse at that time.
When questioned by police, Enright’s boyfriend, John Lind, said he and Enright had spent time in the treehouse in recent months and that they would cut each other there and smear blood over each other’s bodies, according to Prescott’s affidavit. Lind related that the treehouse needed to be cleaned because he had defecated in it during sexual activity with Enright, the affidavit states.
Investigators said they found a receipt from Home Depot for a piece of carpeting purchased on June 26, 2018. “The video and transaction data was obtained from Home Depot and it shows Julia Enright purchasing the carpeting. She appeared to be alone,” Prescott wrote.
Julia Enright, who has pleaded not guilty, remains in custody without bail. A trial date has not been set in her case.
The boyfriend of Julia Enright, an Ashburnham woman accused of murdering an ex-classmate in 2018, told a judge Monday he intends to invoke the Fifth Amendment on most questions prosecutors seek to ask at trial.
The man, John Lind, told Worcester Superior Court Judge Daniel M. Wrenn he would only answer questions about his work and school background if called to the stand.
Lind, who has not been charged with a crime, allegedly told investigators that carpeting Enright purchased several days after the murder was needed because of defecation that took place during a sex act between the two.
Prosecutors allege Julia Enright actually purchased carpeting to cover up traces of blood in a treehouse where she murdered 20-year-old Brandon Chicklis of Westminster on June 23, 2018
They allege Julia Enright, a phlebotomist who allegedly had a side business as a dominatrix, lured Chicklis to a treehouse near her home and murdered him to satisfy a growing urge to kill.
Chicklis’ body was found wrapped in trash bags and blankets on the side of Route 119 in Rindge, New Hampshire, July 10, 2018, about two weeks after he was last seen alive.
Assistant District Attorney Terry J. McLaughlin read off a long list of questions in court Monday that he would like to ask Lind, including where he was on June 23.
McLaughlin indicated to Wrenn that Enright had texted Lind around the time of the alleged killing and told him there could be a “surprise.”
He also said the two had discussed “bloodplay” in a sexual context and have talked extensively in jailhouse recordings.
Wrenn, after conducting a hearing with Lind and speaking to his lawyer at sidebar, ruled that he had a valid Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination as to most of the areas of questioning.
Wrenn said he would reserve a ruling on questions about jailhouse calls until Lind’s lawyer, Kevin Larson, had a chance to listen to the calls in question and advise his client.
Julia Enright who was 21 at the time of the killing, was a phlebotomist with a side business as a dominatrix, prosecutors have said. She allegedly journaled about an “insatiable curiosity” of killing someone, as well as about her sexual proclivities and other topics prosecutors argue jurors should hear.
Entries discussed Monday include one McLaughlin said Enright wrote about a failed plot to get pregnant and have an abortion in order to bring the fetus home.
Julia Enright had a fixation with bones, McLaughlin said — she would decay dead animals in bags to use their bones as art — and journaled about a desire to obtain bones of a fetus.
According to McLaughlin, Julia Enright got pregnant and had an abortion at Planned Parenthood, but failed at attempts to “bribe” the organization to give her the remains.
The abortion, McLaughlin said, occurred just eight days before the murder. He told Wrenn that prosecutors believe the failed plot is relevant to Enright’s state of mind — and possibly motive — prior to her alleged crime.
nright’s lawyer, Louis M. Badwey, disagreed, saying prosecutors have no evidence linking the abortion plot to Chicklis’ murder.
The aborted fetus was not Chicklis’, Badwey said, and referencing the episode would be unfairly prejudicial to Enright.
Julia Enright at the defense table Monday — argued that Wrenn should not admit large swaths of evidence the prosecution is seeking to offer.
McLaughlin has sought to introduce evidence that shows Julia Enright had a fascination with death, an interest in dissecting animals and sexual interests that involved cutting and “bloodplay.”
Badwey argued there is no evidence that Chicklis — who Enright dated in high school — was interested in such things. He said the evidence indicates that Chicklis was a young man who had been trying to rekindle his relationship with Enright, not a person with interest in her alternative sexual practices.
McLaughlin argued that Enright’s journal entries speak to motive and her state of mind around the time of the murder. On the subject of cutting, he noted that Chicklis had been stabbed as many as 13 times.
Another point of disagreement was a journal entry in which Julia Enright allegedly wrote that she wanted to “murder and hide in the woods.”
Badwey, after consulting with Julia Enright, said it was his understanding the entry was written in 2016 at a time in which the woman was upset with her father and a prior boyfriend.
“Both this fellow and her father are still alive,” Badwey said, again arguing inclusion would be unfair
Also unfair, Badwey argued, would be videos the prosecution is trying to offer showing Enright cutting up animals, including a deer, and “playing with” their insides.
Badwey argued any interest in biology or taxidermy Enright had is irrelevant to the case because, he said, Chicklis’ body was not found “disemboweled.”
At one point in her journal, lawyers said Monday, Enright wrote that while she wished to murder a person, she would “never” look to kill an animal unless it was for mercy.
Other journal entries discussed Monday related to Enright’s psychological status.
In some of the writings, lawyers said, Enright discussed self-diagnosing herself as a sociopath or with some other condition — evidence McLaughlin argued could be relevant depending on the results of ongoing psychological examinations.
Julia Enright was scheduled to be examined Monday by a psychiatrist for the prosecution. Wrenn and the lawyers have said rulings regarding evidence could be influenced by the findings, and by the kind of testimony the defense elects to offer on the subject of mental health.
Badwey has argued for a cautious approach in which Wrenn excludes evidence before trial, and then potentially admits it should it be deemed relevant during the proceedings.
Arguments regarding evidence are expected to continue later this week. Aside from the journal entries, prosecutors have several key pieces of evidence, including DNA matches for Chicklis’ blood in the treehouse and in Enright’s car.
Julia Enright was found guilty of second-degree murder Monday in the 2018 killing of a man in Massachusetts.
The verdict was announced around 11 a.m. Monday in Worcester Superior Court after roughly two days of deliberations. The case had gone to the jury on Nov. 23 following 10 days of testimony.
Enright is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 18.
Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said she will be given a life sentence with the possibility of parole. He also said his office hasn’t ruled out charging an accomplice in this case.
Enright, 24, was accused of luring 20-year-old Brandon Chicklis to a treehouse near her Ashburnham home to kill him. Prosecutors said it was a gruesome gift for her boyfriend, with whom she shared dark passions.
She admitted to stabbing Chicklis several times, but said it was in self-defense after Chicklis sexually assaulted her.
Prosecutors pointed to her time as a professional dominatrix, as well as entries in her journal, where she wrote, “I have an insatiable curiosity to kill a person,” and mentioned a fascination with death, using the skeletons of dead animals to build what she called “bone art.”
Prosecutors also brought up text messages to her boyfriend before the killing, asking, “Do you think we could add bubbles to a blood bath?”
Enright told the jury all of that was fantasy, an attempt to seem dark and foreboding. She said she did intend to have sex with Chicklis that day, but changed her mind, and he tried to force her.
In one journal entry, Enright wrote about her disappointment that her boyfriend didn’t seem to like her “gift.” Prosecutors said that gift was killing Chicklis, but she said the gift was a skeleton stolen from a crypt.
Enright and her boyfriend wrapped Chicklis’ body in a tarp and duct tape, and dumped it in Rindge, New Hampshire. It was found a few weeks later
Investigators said Julia Enright killed Chicklis by a treehouse near her home in Ashburnham, which police were able to trace from the victim’s cell phone records.
Chicklis’ blood was found on the stairs to the treehouse, inside it and under it.
A family member of Chicklis told NBC10 Boston that Enright and Chicklis once dated and remained friends even after breaking up. Prosecutors said the two had been classmates at Montachusett Regional Vocational High School in Fitchburg.
Julia Enright, 24, was sentenced to the maximum penalty under Massachusetts law on Friday for the 2018 murder of 20-year-old Brandon Chicklis, a former classmate and boyfriend.
Worcester Superior Court Judge Daniel Wrennsentenced the defendant to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years after hearing victim impact statements from nine of Chicklis’s family and friends, according to MassLive’s court reporterErin Tiernan.
One after another, each of the nine described the hole that was left in their lives following the young man’s brutal murder. And, in turn, each asked for the judge to return the harshest penalty against Enright.
Chicklis’s mother, Trisha Edwards-Lamarche, explained her grim and daily predicament, according to reports from the courtroom.
“Every day when drive to work, I get to choose: Do I drive by where she dumped my son’s body today, or do I drive by where she dumped his car?” the grieving mother told the judge.
“I love you Brandon, you’ll always be my bumble bee,” the deceased man’s grandmother, Louisa Rocha, said in court.
Chicklis was stabbed at least 10 times inside the Enright family’s Ashburnam, Mass. treehouse on June 23, 2018, the trial revealed. His body was found by a jogger on July 10, 2018 on the side of Route 119 in Rindge, New Hampshire, a town just across the state line from Massachusetts. The corpse was in an advanced state of decomposition by the time it was discovered — which became a key point of discussion during the trial due to Enright’s uncontested fixation with dead animals, decomposition, and death, in general
During trial, one witness reportedly testified the defendant would occasionally try to speed up a dead animal’s decomposition by leaving its body out in the elements and wrapped up in a tarp. Prosecutors tried to use the testimony to suggest a parallel to how Chicklis may have been treated.
In her defense, Enright told jurors her occult-adjacent interests were a side effect of her then-obsession with shock rocker Marilyn Manson.
The trial also featured some focus on the defendant’s side business as a dominatrix – much to the defense’s chagrin and prior protestations.
Enright herself lodged an unsuccessful claim that she killed Chicklis in self-defense in response to an alleged attempted sexual assault in the treehouse. Jurors didn’t accept that version of the story.
Prosecutors argued the slaying was a “gift” for John Lind, the defendant’s then-boyfriend. Lind was indicted by a Worcester County Grand Jury for accessory after the fact to murder, misleading a grand jury, and perjury earlier this year. Originally charged in December of last year, he is alleged to have shared many of the same macabre interests as the convicted woman.
Lind first made waves in the case months prior.
In October 2021, Lind pleaded the fifth during one of Enright’s pre-trial evidentiary hearings when asked to account for what, exactly, moved his girlfriend to replace part of the carpet in the treehouse. Previously, he allegedly told police the textile had been replaced due to a sex act between the two that resulted in damage from human feces
Evidence later suggested there was never any carpet in the treehouse before the murder at all. And, in the area where the carpet had allegedly been replaced, investigators found Chicklis’s blood and DNA.
“His DNA is in your treehouse,” a state trooper told Enright during her second interview with the Massachusetts State Police on the day she was arrested. “How could his DNA, his blood, be in your treehouse?”
She got up and tried to leave at that point but, from that point on, would remain in the custody of law enforcement.
As for Lind, during trial she testified he helped her get rid of the body.
“There is not a day that goes by that don’t think about this or don’t wish I could go back,” Enright said in a bid to lessen her sentence. “Maybe you need to hear me say this: I’m sorry to everyone. His parents, his siblings, his loved ones, my parents, friends, everyone.”
According to MassLive, she never said her victim’s name and only turned to slightly address his family in court on Friday.
“I want you to know how much I’ve thought about everything,” she continued. “I need you to know I mean it. I need you to know that every night I pray for my family. I’m praying for yours too.”
“I won’t lie and pretend like being with my family and loved ones isn’t the only thing I want,” she went on
Gary Sampson was sentenced to death by the Federal Government for the murders of three people in Massachusetts. According to court documents Gary Sampson, who is a convicted bank robber, would be picked up hitchhiking by Philip McCloskey who he would later beat to death. Sampson would then murder Jonathan Rizzo who would also pick up Gary who again was hitchhiking. Rizzo would be tied to a tree and stabbed 24 times. The third victim, Robert Whitney, was murdered in New Hampshire after being strangled. Gary Sampson would attempt to murder a fourth victim but the person survived. Gary Sampson would confess to the three murders and be sentenced to death. Gary Sampson would die behind bars in December 2021
It was a day not so much of emotion, but of exhaustion.
Sixteen years after the killings, 13 years after the first jury sentenced him to death and six years after a judge overturned that verdict on account of juror misconduct and ordered a new trial, the latest trial of admitted killer Gary Lee Sampson also ended in a death penalty verdict.
A federal jury decided Monday afternoon that Sampson shall be executed for the 2001 carjacking and slaying of college student Jonathan Rizzo.
“Gary Lee Sampson will pay for his life for all the heinous crimes he committed,” said Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz. “And he received the maximum sentence that the law provides.”
The verdict against Sampson marks the second time in two years (the other was Dzhokhar Tsarnaev) that a federal jury has imposed the death penalty in Massachusetts, a state that has no death penalty and has not executed a defendant since 1947.
For the killing of grandfather Philip McCloskey, Sampson, however, escaped the death penalty and was sentenced by the jury Monday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
There was an economy of tears and dramatics from those who had endured the ordeal, bearing witness to twice-told testimony and twice-shown photos of the corpses of their loved ones.
“It’s a very somber and sobering day for us, but we know justice has prevailed,” said Michael Rizzo, the father of 19-year-old Jonathan.
Seven men and five women filed into the courtroom — the forewoman holding the large verdict form to her chest — after 16 hours of deliberations. In his first trial, Sampson had wiped tears from his eyes upon hearing the verdict. Second trial was a dry one.
This time around, after imposing the death penalty for the death of Jonathan Rizzo, the jurors failed to reach unanimity on the verdict regarding victim McCloskey, age 69.
“We are disappointed in the verdict in the way it was split,” Ortiz said Monday.
The juror’s decision, which spares Sampson from a second death penalty for taking McCloskey’s life, seemed puzzling. Jurors had heard Sampson’s graphic, unremorseful confession to police about stabbing the older man over and over again, in a frenzy that nearly decapitated him.
Philip McCloskey’s son, Scott McCloskey, however, took comfort in knowing death by execution for killing someone else, namely Rizzo, would still be Sampson’s fate.
And practically speaking, one execution of Sampson is as good as two.
“It all ended up with the verdict of death so I’m happy with the results,” said Scott McCloskey. “It’s done, and hopefully, we’ll never have to go through this again. God bless my father. May he rest in peace. That’s all I got.
In filling out a 29-page verdict form, the jury had shown some consideration for Sampson. One or more of them agreed that he was mentally ill and suffered a mild traumatic brain injury as a child, that he had been the victim of physical and sexual violence in prison.
But not one juror agreed that traumatic brain injury explained his “lifetime struggles to control his behavior” or that he demonstrated any acceptance of responsibility for killing his victims.
One of the mitigating factors the defense submitted for the jurors was this: “Gary Sampson wants to love and be loved.” To that, every juror voted “no,” a devastating rejection of the defense’s call for mercy.
“This is what we wanted, this is what we fought for and this is what we’ve been here for for the last 15 years,” Michael Rizzo said, giving thanks.
One death penalty was enough to be shared by three families, said Mary Rizzo, Jonathan’s mother. Sampson was also sentenced to a separate life sentence for the 2001 killing of Robert ‘Eli’ Whitney in New Hampshire.
“Philip, Eli and Jonathan all are in my heart and in my pictures in my wallet every single day. This has been brutal,” she said. “I am so glad it is over.”
What is not over, however, as the history of the federal death penalty demonstrates, are the years of likely appeals should the 57-year-old Sampson live that long.
Until then, the other sentence, the one imposed with regard to McCloskey will suffice: life in prison without the possibility of parole, until Sampson is cleared for his execution.
Gary Sampson, of Abington, who murdered three people during a 2001 killing spree across the South Shore and into New Hampshire, died at a federal medical prison in Springfield, Missouri, on Tuesday, Dec. 21, at age 62.
Over the course of four days in July 2001, Sampson killed Jonathan Rizzo, 19, of Kingston; former Quincy resident Philip McCloskey, 69, of Taunton; and Robert Whitney, 58, of New Hampshire.
After pleading guilty, Sampson was sentenced to death in 2003 for the deaths of Rizzo, a college student, and McCloskey. That initial death sentence was overturned after a federal judge determined that one of Sampson’s jurors had lied about her background.
He was sentenced to death a second time following an eight-week death penalty trial in federal court in February 2017.
Sampson was tried separately for Whitney’s murder and received a life sentence. Massachusetts does not have a state death penalty, but defendants charged with federal crimes in the state can be put to death.
After the second trial, survivors of Sampson’s victims faced him.
“You showed no remorse, and your apology was robotic,” Philip McCloskey’s son, Scott McCloskey, told Sampson. “Rot in hell.”
Family members spoke of their hatred for Sampson, of the devastation he’d caused in their lives, and of their commitment to bringing him to justice. Some of them said they could not bear the thought of him enjoying himself in prison with access to books and television.
“I don’t know if you will ever receive the death penalty, and I don’t really care,” said Mary Rizzo, Jonathan Rizzo’s mother. “I do care that you will have more restriction on death row.”
Rizzo said she was able to push Sampson out of her head during the day, but her nights were still haunted by images of her son’s death. For years, she said she was unable to be the wife and mother her family deserved because of the “dark hole” she found herself in.
“I waited up for them on the couch, thinking that if they didn’t come home it would be my fault and no one else’s, just as I thought Jonathan’s death was my fault,” she said of her two sons.
On Jan. 11, Sampson’s appellate attorneys, Judith Mizner, Madeline Cohen and Sara Cohbra, filed a new brief arguing his death sentence should be overturned.
In 2016, Sampson’s attorney argued that he was terminally ill and that should be a good enough reason to not give him the death penalty.
Shortly before the murders, Sampson, a drifter who grew up in Abington, called the FBI to turn himself in for a series of bank robberies in North Carolina. After the FBI didn’t send anyone to arrest him, he started his killing spree on July 24, 2001, according to court documents.
McCloskey, a retired plumber, offered Sampson a ride in Weymouth. Sampson walked McCloskey up a hill in Marshfield, where he killed him and tried unsuccessfully to steal his car, according to court documents.
While Sampson was hitchhiking in Plymouth three days later, Rizzo offered him a ride. Sampson held him at knifepoint and ordered him to drive him to Abington, where he killed him and took his car, according to court records.
Sampson fled to New Hampshire and broke into an empty vacation home. He was discovered by a family friend of the owner, Whitney, on July 30. After a fight, he tied Whitney to a chair and strangled him with a rope, according to court records. He stole Whitney’s car and fled to Vermont, where he abandoned it a day later. Hitchhiking again, he was picked up by William Gregory, who escaped from his moving car after Sampson threatened him with a knife.
Sampson broke into another vacation house, called 911 and surrendered to Vermont state troopers, according to court records.
Philip Chism was fourteen years old when he sexually assaulted and murdered his teacher. According to court documents Philip Chism would follow the teacher into a washroom where he would sexually assault the twenty four year old woman before murdering the woman. Phillip Chism would steal her credit card and use it to buy movie tickets. Phillip Chism would attempt an insanity plea however the jury did not go for it and in the end this teen killer would be sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for forty years
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Peggie and Tom Ritzer and their two remaining children have 38 years before they will have to face Philip Chism again.
They say that’s too soon.
In an emotionally charged day in Salem Superior Court, the Ritzers spoke about the loss of their daughter Colleen, killed at 24 years old at the hands of one of the students she taught.
Philip Chism, then 14, raped, murdered and robbed Ritzer in the bathroom of Danvers High School on Oct. 22, 2013, leaving her body posed in the woods just outside the school.
A jury in December found him guilty of first-degree murder with deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity and cruelty. They rejected the defense’s argument that Philip Chism was insane when he killed Ritzer with a box cutter.
Judge David A. Lowy sentenced Philip Chism to life in prison, with the possibility of parole after 25 years on the murder charge — the maximum he could levy on that count. But he also gave the now 17-year-old boy a 40-year concurrent sentence on the charges or aggravated rape and armed robbery, meaning Chism will be 54 before he gets a chance at freedom.
“One cannot see and hear what this court has during the course of this case without feeling that the crashing waves of this tragedy will never wane,’’ Lowy said as he handed down the sentence. “No math will ever erase the reality that this crime was committed by a 14-year-old boy.’’
Back in October 2013, when Chism pulled his hoodie on and followed Ritzer into the girls’ bathroom, juveniles found guilty of first-degree murder were automatically sentenced to life without parole, just like adults.
But two months after Ritzer was buried, the Mass. Supreme Judicial Court, following a U.S. Supreme Court decision, made life without parole for juveniles
unconstitutional, and limited the number of years juveniles could be held without parole.
The Ritzers railed against the “disrespectful’’ decision the courts made.
“Colleen’s family, friends, students and those who admired her have been given a life sentence without parole, but not the individual who committed the heinous act,’’ Peggie Ritzer said after the sentence was announced. “This is wrong and unjust.’’
Her husband, Tom, added that a criminal like Philip Chism shouldn’t get a second chance. They plan on fighting for an amended law that would prevent other families from going through what they will have to.
Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said the high court’s decision “redefined justice’’ for families of murder victims by prohibiting life without parole for juvenile killers.
“Often times, when courts make decisions, the impact of those decisions can seem very remote,’’ Blodgett said. “I want everyone to see the impact of that decision. This family, that has suffered beyond measure, cannot close the book on this case.’’
Prosecutors had asked for Philip Chism to serve at least 50 years before he was eligible for release — two consecutive life sentences for the murder, then the rape and robbery, each with parole eligibility after 25 years.
His defense, meanwhile, requested parole eligibility after 26 years, with Chism eligible for release before he turned 40.
It was an emotional morning, as friends and family of Colleen Ritzer spoke to the judge about their loss. Ever since her daughter was murdered more than two years ago, Peggie Ritzer can barely stand to take a picture of her remaining children. Instead of a trio, she’s left with two.
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Phillip Chism is currently incarcerated at the Souza Baranowski Correctional
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Phillip Chism is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole until 2056
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A Massachusetts judge sentenced a teenager convicted of raping and murdering his high school math teacher to serve at least 40 years in prison, and the victim’s father called the killer “pure evil.”
Philip Chism, 17, was convicted in December of killing Colleen Ritzer, a 24-year-old math teacher at his suburban Boston high school. The sentence of life in prison, with the possibility of release after 40 years, was less than the 50 years prosecutors had asked Essex County Superior Court Judge David Lowy to impose.
“When something terrible happens, people will often say, ‘It could always be worse,'” Lowy said. “It is difficult for this court to imagine what could be worse for an individual and family to endure than the brutal murder of Colleen Ritzer.”
Chism was a 14-year-old freshman who had just moved from Tennessee when he killed Ritzer, cutting her throat with a box cutter and using a recycling bin to dump her body.
“I will never forgive him. He is evil, pure evil,” father Tom Ritzer said. He was one of nine friends and family members of the victim who spoke at the sentencing.
Chism’s attorneys had asked the judge to make him eligible for parole when he turned 40
“Witnesses … testified that he was nice, respectful, kind,” said public defender Susan Oker. “So what happened? We stand here today not understanding.”
Chism’s mother expressed sympathy for the Ritzer family.
“Words can’t express the amount of pain and sorrow these past two and a half years have been,” Diana Chism said. “There is no one who has suffered more than the Ritzer family.”
Hours after murdering Ritzer, who had stayed late to help students, Chism was found wandering along a state highway carrying a bag containing Ritzer’s identification and the box cutter.
During the trial, defense attorneys did not deny that Chism had attacked Ritzer but contended he was not criminally responsible for his actions due to a long-undiagnosed severe mental illness that was aggravated by the move.
The trial was occasionally delayed by Chism, who was once observed beating his head on a floor, and at another point, refused to return to the courtroom, telling his lawyer he was “about to explode.
Mathew Borges was fifteen years old when he murdered a classmate in a a brutal fashion. According to court documents Borges was upset that the victim spent time with his girlfriend so he would lure the other teenager to a remote location where he was stabbed over seventy times. Mathew would then cut off the head of the victim along with his hands so he would be harder to identify. This teen killer would be sentenced to two life sentences with no parole.
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A teenager was found guilty of stabbing his 16-year-old classmate 76 times before cutting his head off. Mathew Borges, 18, was convicted of murdering Lee Manuel Viloria-Paulino, whose body was found on the Merrimack River in Lawrence, Massachusetts in December 2016. Authorities said Mathew Borges beheaded Viloria-Paulino and cut off his hands so he would not be identified. His head was found in a plastic bag near his body, although his hands were never located. Prosecutor Jay Gubitose said Mathew Borges, who was 15 when killed Viloria-Paulino, committed the heinous act of violence because he was jealous Viloria-Paulino had spent time with his girlfriend. According to Gubitose, there was a ‘mountain of evidence’ against Borges that includes text and messages with friends, as well as a notebook that planned the murder, CBS reported.
The prosecutor cited a text message that Mathew Borges sent, saying ‘This (text message) is to Stephanie, 24 hours before he kills Lee: “Take a good look at my eyes the next time we talk because that may be the last time you see them like that ever again.’ Gubitose continued: ‘She says “don’t say that, I don’t want to see your eyes dead.” (Borges replies) “No, don’t, it’s true. I know what I’m going to do and I can’t do anything about it. People will notice a big difference in me once my eyes turn dead.’”
Four teenagers testified that Mathew Borges lured Viloria-Paulino away from his home, down to the river to smoke weed, on November 18, 2016 so they could steal clothes and a Playstation from his home. After the burglary, the teen claimed Borges called them and said, on speaker phone, that he had killed Viloria-Paulino, according to MassLive. Borges’ attorney, Ed Hayden, dismissed both the theory that his client killed out of jealousy, as well as the teens’ testimony about the robbery.
He said: ‘Mathew Borges is their “stay our of jail” card and they play it masterfully…none of these kids went to the river to see if a body was there? That’s not believable.’ Hayden questioned the prosecutors case, citing a lack of evidence against Mathew Borges, saying ‘There is no crime scene. There is no scene where the body was dismembered. There is no murder weapon, no tool used to dismember the body, no DNA, no blood, no fingerprints and there is no motive.’
Gubitose called Hayden’s questions ‘distractions’ and said: ‘Every piece of evidence points to him. Maybe it’s hard to believe a 15-year-old kid can kill someone, but that’s the world we lived…He’s the only one. He killed Lee.’ On Tuesday, a jury delivered their guilty verdict after deliberating for approximately nine hours in Salem Superior Court. Mathew Borges faces 25 to 30 years in prison with a possibility for parole in 25, years according to the Essex County District Attorney’s Office. He is set to be sentenced on July 9, according to the Eagle Tribune.
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The Lawrence High School student who beheaded his classmate in 2016 and left his decapitated body near the Merrimack River, was sentenced to 30 years to life in Salem Superior Court on Tuesday for each of his charges.
Mathew Borges, 18, was found guilty of first-degree murder with premeditation and extreme cruelty and atrocity following his 10 day murder trial in April and May. Borges was sentenced to 30 years to life for each charge, to be served concurrently. He will be eligible for parole on both charges after 30 years.
Though Borges was 15 when he killed Lee Manuel Viloria-Paulino he was tried as an adult.
Prosecutors relied heavily on social media and text conversations as they presented their case against Borges. The defense did not call any witnesses and Borges did not testify on his own behalf.
Borges and a group of friends reportedly planned to rob Viloria-Paulino the day he went missing. He was to take the 16-year-old to the Merrimack River to smoke weed while friends stole Viloria-Paulino’s PlayStation, clothes, belts and other items, Borges’ friends testified during the trial.
“He said he stabbed him” and cut off his head “so he wouldn’t be caught,” Jonathan Miranda, 18, testified, according to The Eagle Tribune.
A motive for the slaying has never been identified.
During the trial, Ed Hayden, who represented Borges, pointed to a lack of physical evidence. He said though the Borges and Viloria-Paulino families deserved the truth, they did not get it during trial.
“There were too many witnesses who lied, there are too many unanswered questions and there is too little evidence,” Hayden said in his closing arguments. “There is no crime scene. There is no scene where the body was dismembered. There is no murder weapon, no tool used to dismember the body, no DNA, no blood, no fingerprints and there is no motive.”
All of the teenagers called to testify said Borges and Viloria-Paulino were friendly. But two of Borges’ ex-girlfriends spoke about his jealousy.
Leilany DeJesus, who dated Borges during their freshman year of high school, told the court that after she and Borges broke up he asked if she was sleeping with other boys at school. He mentioned Viloria-Paulino by name, she said.
Stephanie Soriano, who also dated Borges, testified that he got angry at her for saying hello to Viloria-Paulino at school.
Borges sent Soriano a message saying she was his and he would kill anyone “who get in way of me getting what I want.”
In other conversations with Soriano, Borges spoke about demons.
“I think of killing someone and I smirk. It’s all I think about every day but I control myself. I see people I don’t like [and] that comes to mind. I’m going insane,” he wrote in one message.
On Nov. 17 2016, a day before Borges killed Viloria-Paulino, he asked Soriano if his eyes looked dead.
“Eyes that are dead are scary…makes you think about what that person has done. What they’ve been through. What they’ve seen. Eyes that don’t shine, that are full of darkness,” Borges said in the recording. “It’s just sad. It’s like these people are different. They’ve done things that make them lose their humanity. Like they have no soul, they just have big black pupils,” Borges said in a voice message sent to Soriano
He told Soriano to look carefully at his eyes the next time she saw him.
He would have dead eyes soon, too, he said
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A Massachusetts teenager convicted of fatally stabbing and then decapitating a high school classmate has been sentenced to life in prison.
Mathew Borges, 18, of Lawrence, will be eligible for parole in 30 years under the maximum allowable sentence handed down on Tuesday by Superior Court Judge Helene Kanzajian.
A jury convicted Borges in May of first-degree murder in the November 2016 killing of 16-year-old Lee Manuel Viloria-Paulino. Viloria-Paulino’s decapitated body and head were found along the banks of a river by a dog walker.
Prosecutors say Borges was jealous the victim had spent time with a girl he liked.
Under Massachusetts law, a first-degree murder conviction carries a life sentence without the possibility of parole for adults. But parole eligibility must be added if the crime was committed as a juvenile.
Matthew Borges is currently incarcerated at the Old Colony Correctional Center
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Matthew Borges is serving life without parole
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