Boston bombing friend guilty
October 28, 2014
On Tuesday, a jury found that Phillipos, now 21, went to Tsarnaev's dorm with friends who removed a backpack containing potential evidence after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, which killed three and injured 260. The jury found the resident of Cambridge, Massachusetts, guilty of lying both when he told investigators that he had not gone to the dorm room and when he said he did not remember if he had.
FBI agents testified that, with a manhunt under way, Phillipos lied several times about the events of April 18, 2013, before confessing that he'd gone to Tsarnaev's dorm room with the two men who removed the bombing suspect's backpack and computer. Defense attorneys called Phillipos a frightened 19-year-old at the time who had gotten too high on marijuana to remember just what he had done that night and alleged that the FBI had intimidated him into signing a written confession during questioning. The defense called several friends who testified that Phillipos had smoked marijuana half a dozen times that day.
The defense also called former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis to testify. The 1988 Democratic presidential nominee, an old family friend of Phillipos' mother, described a phone conversation he had with the teenager five days after the April 15 bombings. Dukakis said Phillipos told him that the FBI had questioned him for five hours, during which he found himself so confused that he did not remember what he said about the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth dorm.
The defense claimed that FBI agents had coerced a confession from Phillipos. Prosecutors, however, scoffed at the marijuana defense, telling the jury that Phillipos could remember many details about April 18 and that he had lied about his activities that night because he knew he had done something wrong.
Related legal actions
Phillipos has a sentencing hearing scheduled for January 29, at which he faces a maximum sentence of eight years on each count of lying during a terrorism investigation. He will remain under house arrest with an electronic monitoring bracelet until then.
During the summer, a separate jury convicted one of the two friends who had removed Tsarnaev's backpack of conspiracy and obstruction of justice. The other pleaded guilty in August.
Tsarnaev continues to await trial for the bombing. He has pleaded not guilty to 30 federal charges and could face the death penalty if convicted.
mkg/es (Reuters, AP)