By Scott Malone
BOSTON Tue Oct 14, 2014 7:23am EDT
Robel Phillipos (2nd L), a friend of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is charged with lying to investigators, leaves the federal courthouse after a hearing in his case in Boston, Massachusetts May 13, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder/Files
BOSTON (Reuters) - Text messages between the accused Boston Marathon bomber and some of his college friends will be the focus when the criminal trial of a man charged with lying to investigators resumes on Tuesday.
U.S. prosecutors contend that Robel Phillipos, 21, lied to authorities about a visit that he and two other friends made to accused bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's dorm room three days after the 2013 attack, which killed three people and injured more than 260.
Phillipos, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and two Kazakh exchange students visited Tsarnaev's room at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth on April 18, 2013, after receiving a text message from him telling them to go there and take whatever they wanted.
One of the Kazakhs, Azamat Tazhayakov, was convicted in July of obstruction of justice for taking a backpack containing fireworks during that visit. The other, Dias Kadyrbayev, pleaded guilty to obstruction in August.
James Scripture, an FBI agent who specializes in electronic searches, is due to return to the witness stand at U.S. District Court in Boston on Tuesday to testify about text messages the friends sent.
Phillipos faces up to 16 years in prison if convicted of lying to investigators about the visit. Officials last week testified that he initially denied visiting Tsarnaev's room and later said he had gone to the door but had not entered.
Phillipos' attorney contended that his client had been intoxicated on marijuana at the time and had no clear memory of his activities that night. The visit occurred during a massive manhunt for Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, that resulted in a day-long lockdown of much of the Boston area.
The elder Tsarnaev died later that night following a gun battle with police.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 21, is awaiting trial on charges that carry the death penalty.
(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Mohammad Zargham)
View the original article here
BOSTON Tue Oct 14, 2014 7:23am EDT
Robel Phillipos (2nd L), a friend of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is charged with lying to investigators, leaves the federal courthouse after a hearing in his case in Boston, Massachusetts May 13, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder/Files
BOSTON (Reuters) - Text messages between the accused Boston Marathon bomber and some of his college friends will be the focus when the criminal trial of a man charged with lying to investigators resumes on Tuesday.
U.S. prosecutors contend that Robel Phillipos, 21, lied to authorities about a visit that he and two other friends made to accused bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's dorm room three days after the 2013 attack, which killed three people and injured more than 260.
Phillipos, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and two Kazakh exchange students visited Tsarnaev's room at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth on April 18, 2013, after receiving a text message from him telling them to go there and take whatever they wanted.
One of the Kazakhs, Azamat Tazhayakov, was convicted in July of obstruction of justice for taking a backpack containing fireworks during that visit. The other, Dias Kadyrbayev, pleaded guilty to obstruction in August.
James Scripture, an FBI agent who specializes in electronic searches, is due to return to the witness stand at U.S. District Court in Boston on Tuesday to testify about text messages the friends sent.
Phillipos faces up to 16 years in prison if convicted of lying to investigators about the visit. Officials last week testified that he initially denied visiting Tsarnaev's room and later said he had gone to the door but had not entered.
Phillipos' attorney contended that his client had been intoxicated on marijuana at the time and had no clear memory of his activities that night. The visit occurred during a massive manhunt for Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, that resulted in a day-long lockdown of much of the Boston area.
The elder Tsarnaev died later that night following a gun battle with police.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 21, is awaiting trial on charges that carry the death penalty.
(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Mohammad Zargham)
View the original article here
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