BOSTON, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Lawyers gave their opening statements Monday at the trial of Robel Phillipos, who allegedly lied to the FBI about trying to help his friend, Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Phillipos, a young man from an Ethiopian immigrant family, attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin with Tsarnaev and went on with him to the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. He allegedly went to Tsarnaev's dorm room with two other friends who took a laptop and backpack away.
A federal prosecutor charged Monday that Phillippos knowingly lied to FBI agents about the visit. But Phillipos' lawyer said he had been smoking marijuana that day and his memories were "jumbled."
Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, both from Kazakhstan, are awaiting sentencing for obstruction of justice. Tazhayakov was convicted at trial earlier this year and Kadyrbayev pleaded guilty.
Prosecutors have not charged that the three students knew Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan, were planning to set off bombs near the Marathon finish line on April 15, 2013. But they say the three recognized their friend when the FBI released pictures of the suspects.
Tamerlan was killed in a confrontation with police during the hunt for the brothers. Dzhokhar is scheduled to go on trial in January.
Derege Demissie, Phillipos' lawyer, said he will present witnesses who smoked marijuana with Phillipos the day of the dorm room visit. He said Phillipos had been using a vaporizer to smoke the drug and had also smoked it inside a closed car, a practice known as "fish bowling," and was "high out of his mind."
Phillipos faces up to eight years in prison if he is convicted.
