One Tsarnaev Friend Testifies Against Another on Day Three of Phillipos Trial
The third day of the trial of Robel Phillipos, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s friend who is accused of lying to authorities, started with the testimony of another former friend.
Prosecutors say Phillipos, 21, lied to investigators about his whereabouts and what he saw on the day he and two friends visited Tsarnaev’s dorm room and removed a backpack of evidence after the marathon bombings in April 2013. Phillipos’ defense team contends that he was a scared 19-year-old at the time who was “high out of his mind’’ during interviews with investigators and so could not remember clearly.
Wednesday’s trial focused on testimony from Azamat Tazhayakov, who was convicted in July of charges of obstruction of justice. Tazhayakov faces up to 25 years in prison, and agreed to testify in exchange for leniency in sentencing, The Boston Globe reports.
In his testimony, Tazhayakov said he did not remember Phillipos having trouble the night they visited Tsarnaev’s dorm room, a challenge to the defense’s “high out of his mind’’ argument. Defense attorneys countered by pointing out some inconsistencies between Tazhayakov’s testimony and Phillipos’ signed confession to authorities.
Andrew Dwinells, Tsarnaev’s dorm roommate at UMass-Dartmouth, also testified on Wednesday and identified Phillipos as one of the three people who entered Tsarnaev’s dorm room the night evidence was removed from the room.
If found guilty of the lying charges, Phillipos faces a maximum of 16 years in prison.
Phillipos is the third friend of Tsarnaev to face related charges, along with Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, who pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in August. Both are due to be sentenced later this fall.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is set to face trial in November for allegedly setting off the bombs at the Boston Marathon. His brother Tamerlan was also allegedly involved in the planning of the bombing, and was killed during the police manhunt.
Testimony in the trial is expected to resume next Tuesday.
Below, we compiled updates from the trial:
[fragment number=0]
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com