BOSTON, July 23, 2014—A Danvers teen who allegedly tried to kill a Department of Youth Services worker while in custody on an unrelated case was held on high bail today at his arraignment, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

PHILIP CHISM (D.O.B. 1/21/99) was arraigned in the Suffolk County Juvenile Court on a youthful indictment charging him with attempted murder by strangulation, assault with intent to murder, kidnapping, and two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon – a pencil and a cinder block wall. In addition to imposing the bail requested by prosecutors, Judge Terry Craven also ordered Chism to have no contact with any witness in the case, including the victim.

Under the state’s youthful offender statute, Chism’s case is open to the public and, if convicted, he faces a range of penalties that include adult and juvenile sentences.

Assistant District Attorney Mark Zanini, chief of the DA’s Juvenile Unit, laid out a chilling narrative showing what he called “the defendant’s intent to murder.”

Zanini told the court that Chism was at a DYS facility in Dorchester while being held on a matter out of Essex County. On the afternoon of June 2, Zanini said, Chism was in the main room of that facility, which is bordered by a low wall. A DYS staffer was seated at a station behind the wall, able to look down into the room. Behind the staffer and to his left was a hallway used by DYS staff.

Because he had refused to attend classes while in custody, Chism had been instructed to sit and study at a table in the open room. Despite a rule that he sit at the table closest to his room, he allegedly sat at a table that afforded him a view of the hallway extending behind the staffer.

At some point, a 29-year-old clinician whom Chism had known for several months walked down the hallway toward the staffer. She entered a staff locker room and, within that locker room, a staff bathroom.

Zanini told the court that Chism waited for a short time to gauge the staffer’s attention to him. When he was confident the staffer was distracted, Chism kicked off his sandals – which would have made noise on the floor – and set off toward the hallway in a crouch that kept him out of the staffer’s view. As he did so, he carried a pencil in his right hand, switching it to his left hand when he opened the door to the locker room.

When the victim came out of the bathroom, Zanini said, she found Chism standing about a foot away from her, staring at her. He allegedly placed both his hands around her neck and began to choke her while pushing her back to the cinder block wall in the far left corner of the bathroom.

The victim tried to scream, Zanini said, but couldn’t do so because the defendant’s hands were so tight around her throat. When she did manage to get his right hand from her neck, he began punching her with it in the left side of her face, head, and jaw. At about this time, she was able to scream and staffers rushed in to help her and restrain Chism.

The victim sustained bruises to her face, jaw, and head, along with a scratch on her back that was in about the same location as a tear in her shirt. That tear was consistent with the pencil Chism had been carrying, which was recovered from the floor nearby.

Chism is represented by attorney Denise Regan. His case will return to court for a pretrial conference on Sept. 19, though his presence has been waived for that event.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.