Friend of Boston bombing suspect told string of lies, trial hears
But defence says Robel Phillipos was too high to remember what he was doing in suspect's room
A US prosecutor told a jury that a friend of Boston marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had lied repeatedly to the FBI during the investigation into the deadly attack, while the friend's lawyer said he was a frightened 19-year-old whose memory was clouded by heavy marijuana use.
The starkly different descriptions of Robel Phillipos were presented on Monday during opening statements at his federal trial. Phillipos, 21, is charged with lying to the FBI about being in Tsarnaev's dormitory room when two other friends removed Tsarnaev's backpack and other potential evidence.
Assistant US attorney John Capin told the jury that Phillipos had "created a fiction" about his movements on the night of April 18 last year, three days after the bombing and hours after the FBI released photos of Tsarnaev and his brother as suspects. Three people, including a Chinese student, died and more than 260 were injured when two bombs exploded near the marathon finish line.
Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty to 30 federal charges and is awaiting a trial scheduled to begin in January. He could face the death penalty if convicted. His brother, Tamerlan, was killed in a shootout with police several days after the bombing.
Capin said Phillipos and two friends had entered Tsarnaev's dorm room at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth after the photos were released. He said Phillipos saw the men remove the backpack and later said, "Do what you have to do" when one of them said he thought he should get rid of it.
Capin said Phillipos had told a string of lies to the FBI during several interviews until he finally confessed to being in Tsarnaev's dorm room and seeing the men remove the backpack, which contained fireworks that had been emptied of their explosive powder.
"He understood the significance of seeing those in Tsarnaev's dorm room," Capin said.