The prosecution has painted 21-year old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as a cold blooded killer. But the defense brought witnesses to the stand this week who collectively painted a different picture of the man who would become the Boston Marathon Bomber.
The Tsarnaev family moved to the United States from Russia in 2002. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was 9.
His 5th grade teacher at the Cambridge Street Upper School, from 2003 to 2005, described him as “super kind….really smart. very quick to learn… a really lovely person.”
On the witness stand teacher, Tracy Gordon spoke earnestly and at times in hushed tones about ‘Jahar’, as though in disbelief and conflict between fond memories of a fresh-faced immigrant youth and the stoic man sitting yards from her at the defense table.
Rebecca Norris , his 7th grade teacher at the Community Charter School remembered him as a “really hard working student” who was “well behaved”. “Teachers loved him”, she said. “"He wasn't a rebel. If you asked him to do something, he'd do it."
Tiarrah Dottin met Tsarnaev as a freshman at Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School and they also attended UMass-Dartmouth together. She wept when a photo was presented in court showing her and Tsarnaev hugging at a campus party. Dottin recalled Bro’ Nights, hanging out in dorm rooms, joking drinking and playing video games.
Assistant US Attorney William Weinreb during his cross-examination succeeded in getting Dottin to agree with the government’s assertion that Tsarnaev was not the kind of guy who allowed himself to be pushed around. Also, when asked if she knew that her friend had been watching pro-jihadi videos and taking in lectures by American Al Qaeda jihadist, Anwar al-Awlaki, Dottin said no.
Twenty-one year old Alexa Guevara, another Tsarnaev classmate and friend at UMass-Dartmouth, broke into tears in the courtroom and was asked by defense lawyer Miriam Conrad, “Why are you crying?” She replied: "Because I really miss the person that I knew..he was a good friend..he was there for me”.
At least one juror seemed moved by Guevara’s testimony, according to several observers in the courtroom.
The trial will resume Monday with the government cross-examining Guevara to try to undercut her impressions of Tsarnaev as someone who was “respectful and kind”. The defense is also expected to call five Tsarnaev family members from Russia to the stand to fill in the details of Tamerlan’s visit to the Caucasus region in 2012. The defense is trying to show how Tamerlan’s hardened militant Islamic beliefs may have impacted his younger brother, who they suggest, up to that point, was more interested in hip-hop than jihad.
The prosecution is arguing that Dzhokhar and Tamerlan were equal partners in the Boston Marathon bombings, the killing of MIT officer Sean Collier and the shootout in Watertown..
Testimony in the death penalty phase of the US vs Tsarnaev was suspended Thursday because of a sick juror.
