TerrorismDzhokhar Tsarnaev’s friend convicted of lying to police investigating Boston Marathon bombing

Robel Phillipos, 21, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, a friend of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was convicted yesterday (Tuesday) of lying to police during the investigation of the 2013 attack.

Phillipos was convicted of two counts for lying about being in Tsarnaev’s dorm room three days after the attack, at the same time that two other friends removed a backpack containing fireworks and other related evidence from the room. The three friends went to Tsarnaev’s room while federal and local law enforcement were engaged in an intense search for the bombing suspects.

FBI agents testified at the trial that Phillipos told them a series of lies about the night of 18 April 2013, before finally admitting he had been in Tsarnaev’s room at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth with the two other friends, who took Tsarnaev’s backpack and computer with them.

Phillipos’s attorney told the court that Phillipos was a confused and frightened 19-year-old who was intimidated by the FBI and too high on marijuana on 18 April clearly to remember what he did that night. The defense called several friends and acquaintances of Phillipos who testified that he smoked marijuana at least half-dozen times that day.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the defense also called former Massachusetts governor and 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis to testify for Phillipos. Dukakis is an old family friend of Phillipos’s mother, and he described a phone conversation he had with Phillipos five days after the bombings. Dukakis said Phillipos told him he had been questioned by the FBI for five hours, but was so confused he did not remember what the questions were or how he had answered them.

The defense lawyers also argued that Phillipos’s confession was coerced by FBI agents.

Prosecutors dismissed Phillipos’s marijuana defense, telling the jury that he was perfectly able to recall many details about 18 April, and that lied about his activities that night precisely because he was aware he had done something wrong.

Phillipos’s sentencing is scheduled for 29 January. He faces a maximum sentence of eight years on each count of lying during a terrorism investigation. Phillipos will remain under house arrest with an electronic monitoring bracelet until sentencing.

In mid-August, Dias Kadyrbayev, 20, pleaded guilty to hiding Tsarnaev’s laptop and backpack from FBI agents who were investigating the bombing. Kadyrbayev pleaded guilty to conspiracy and obstruction of justice. Federal prosecutors advised U.S. District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock that they would recommend he serve no more than seven years in prison. If he had been convicted at trial, he could have received twenty-five years.

Kadyrbayev’s roommate, Azamat Tazhayakov, was convicted in a trial earlier this year and faces up to twenty-five years in prison.

Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty to thirty federal charges and could face the death penalty if convicted.