UPDATE | Teen who killed Mass. teacher get life with chance for parole

SALEM, Mass. (AP) — A teenager who raped and killed his high-school math teacher was sentenced today to life in prison with eligibility for parole in 40 years.

The 2013 slaying of Danvers High School teacher Colleen Ritzer by Philip Chism was "brutal and senseless," Salem Superior Court Judge David Lowy said as he pronounced the sentence.

"Colleen Ritzer lived a life of quiet heroism," the judge said. "The crashing waves of this tragedy will never wane."

Chism was 14 when he followed Ritzer, who was 24, into a school bathroom, strangled her, stabbed her at least 16 times and raped her. His lawyers acknowledged he killed her but argued he was mentally ill, a contention rejected by the jury.

He will serve life in prison with the possibility of parole in 25 years on a murder charge, but he received 40-year concurrent sentences on rape and robbery charges. The net result will leave him eligible to be paroled in 40 years, when he would be in his 50s.

Ritzer's parents said Chism should never have a chance to leave prison on parole.

Her mother, Peggy Ritzer, called the sentence unacceptable. She blamed the state Supreme Judicial Court, which ruled in December 2013 that juveniles could not be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.