A DRAMATIC ADMISSION
The government in its opening statements described in precise and graphic details the circumstances that left 8 year old Martin Richard bleeding to death on a sidewalk near the Forum restaurant on Boylston.
Lead prosecutor William Weinreb said that the defendant placed a bomb there and then casually made his way to a Whole Foods in Central Square Cambridge where he picked up a carton of milk .
In her opening, defense attorney Judy Clarke –a death penalty specialist-- conceded that the government painted an accurate picture. “He did it”, she said, but with one important caveat. She suggested that Tamerlan Tsarneav greatly influenced the actions of his younger brother. She said: "Unfortunately and tragically, Dzhokhar was brought into his brother's passion, and his plans, and that led the way to Boylston St." The defense strategy is directed toward the sentencing stage of this trial many weeks from now.
CAUGHT ON CAMERA
Tsarnaev looked straight ahead at times seeming to be lost in thought as six government witnesses took the stand. The first person to take the stand was an announcer for the Boston Marathon, who could see the tragedy unfold from his perch above and near the Boston Public Library. He provided an overview of Boylston Street.
The second of two witnesses—a manager at marathon sports on Boylston--- took the stand and emotionally recalled how he and others had come to aid of customers outside the store who were injured that day in April.
A surveillance camera inside the store captured the scene on the streets. Sydney Corcoran, now a student at Merrimac College, took the stand and said she feared she would die that day and her fears were well founded. “My femoral artery was severed,” she told the jury I was bleeding out, and I had minutes.”
‘A LETTER TO TSARNAEV’
Witness Rebekah Gregory of Texas was watching the runners come in near the Lens Crafters store. Had you run a Marathon before she was asked "Heck No" Then one of the bombs went off.
"My bones were literally laying next to me on the sidewalk,” she said. “People's body parts were laying everywhere." Her then 5 year old son Noah had been playing at her feet when she was thrown into the air . He sustained serious shrapnel wounds from the explosive device loaded with nails and BBs. “On that day I thought I would die” said Gregory. She testified that was looking for her little boy and saw Krystie Campbell “and she was dead”.
After the court session ended, Gregory—who lost her leg and has undergone 17 surgeries-- took to Facebook to write a letter to Tsarnaev that reads in part “Up until now, I have been truly scared of you and because of this, fearful of everything else people might be capable of. But today, all that changed. Because this afternoon, I got to walk into a courtroom and take my place at the witness stand."
YET ANOTHER KILLING -- AT MIT
The government prosecutor said that hours after being outed on national television In April, Tsarnaev and his brother shot and killed Collier in cold blood.
A grainy picture captured on a Prosecutors said that a surveillance camera high above the scene on the street showed two men approaching the police squad car from behind and opening the door, firing and then grappling with the officer in an attempt to take his service weapon.
The gun allegedly used to shoot Collier—a Ruger 9mm semiautomatic -- was linked by authorities to Stephen Silva, a classmate of the younger Tsarnaev at Cambridge Rindge and Latin.
Silva pleaded guilty to owning the gun, as well as drug related charges to which he had previously pleaded not guilty.
In return? He is seeking government leniency. In the courtroom Tsarnaev looked directly at the lead prosecutor, William Weinreb, when he said that Silva will testify for the government against his former classmate.
