Posted on 10/28/2014 7:32:48 AM PDT by raccoonradio
Robel Phillipos, a friend of terror suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, has been convicted of lying to authorities investigating last year’s Boston Marathon bombings that killed three spectators, including an 8-year-old Dorchester boy.
Phillipos was accused of lying about being in Tsarnaev’s dorm room three days after the bombing, when two other friends removed a backpack containing fireworks and other potential evidence, including a laptop.
Phillipos' lawyers argued he couldn’t clearly remember what happened because he had smoked marijuana heavily that day.
The fate of Phillipos, 19 when he was arrested and who turned 21 this month during his trial at U.S. District Court in South Boston, was deliberated by a federal jury for six days.
Phillipos, who graduated from Cambridge Rindge and Latin with Tsarnaev and was also his classmate at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, was one of the last people to be with the Chechen national on April 18, 2013, hours before he and his late brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev led authorities on an explosives-hurling shootout in Watertown that brought Greater Boston to a standstill.
Prosecutors say Phillipos and two other friends — Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov — went to Tsarnaev’s dorm room three days after the marathon bombing and hours after the FBI released photos of Tsarnaev and his brother as suspects in the bombing. Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov were convicted of conspiracy and obstruction of justice for removing the backpack and Tsarnaev’s laptop from his dorm room.
Phillipos is accused of telling a string of lies before finally acknowledging that he was in Tsarnaev’s dorm room with Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov . His lawyers told the jury he could not clearly remember what he did that night because he had smoked marijuana at least six times that day. They also said the FBI coerced him into signing a statement.
“This is a case about a kid high out of his mind, saying, ‘I don’t remember,’” Phillipos’ lawyer Derege S. Demissie said In his opening statement in the case. “They’re not saying he destroyed evidence. They’re not saying he touched evidence. He committed no crime.”
Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov face sentencing next month.
Tazhayakov, who faces up to 20 years in federal prison when he’s sentenced Nov. 19, could get a reduced sentence in return for his testimony against Phillipos. Kadyrbayev pleaded guilty in August to tossing the backpack and its contents in a dumpster in exchange for consideration of leniency. He will be sentenced Nov. 18.
The son of a social worker for the state Department of Transitional Assistance, Phillipos — whose mentors and character witnesses included former Gov. Michael S.Dukakis — confessed to being in Tsarnaev’s dorm room immediately after the FBI first went public with photographs of the Tsarnaev brothers as their bombing suspects, according to prosecutors. When Kadyrbayev asked what he should do about the backpack, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Capin said, Phillipos told him: “Do what you have to do.”
Demissie argued Phillipos was so stoned that day from hours of smoking marijuana that he has no memory of how he spent it.
Tsarnaev is to go on trial in January. If convicted, his jury will then be tasked with deciding if he is to be put to death.
Killed in the April 15, 2013, Boylston Street bombings and subsequent manhunt were Martin Richard, 8, Lingzi Lu, 23, Krystle Campbell, 29, and MIT officer Sean Collier, 26. Phillipos is not accused of participating in the bombing.
Howie Carr list ping
“Lied to FBI”?
Someone queue up the O RLY owl.
These guys should all get the maximum prison time if for nothing else to discourage others would may be inclined to conspire with terrorists.
“This is a case about a kid high out of his mind, saying, ‘I don’t remember,’” Phillipos’ lawyer Derege S. Demissie said In his opening statement in the case. “They’re not saying he destroyed evidence. They’re not saying he touched evidence. He committed no crime.”
OK America ... Keep it up. These are JUST the kind of legalistic monkeyshines that get you into the spot where innocent citizens become helpless targets of murdering thugs.
Seems to me a simple “I can’t recall” worked perfect for Ms Pretty-in-Pink.
Dukaka testified? From the turret of an M-1 Abrahms?
The fish rots from the head down.
No, not snoopy....Her Highness.
Oh,lympia.
What about uncle Ruslan and Katherine’s CIA connections ?
Then there is no way he can get a reduced sentence by testifying against the other two as it's on record he was so high he doesn't remember a thing. Oh, well, too bad, so sad. His cellmate will have fun with him for many long years.
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