BOSTON (CBS) – Relatives of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have arrived in Boston four days before the defense begins its case to keep the convicted killer alive. The family members kept a low profile at a hotel in Revere, someone retrieving a bag and backpack from one of two vans that escorted them from Logan Airport.
Not among them is Tsarnaev’s mother Zubeidat who faces arrest for shoplifting if she enters this country. Their arrival coincides with the prosecution resting its case with searing testimony and images they hope will stay in the minds of jurors as they consider the death penalty.
Of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev lurking behind a tree just away from his youngest victim Martin Richard. Moments later his body torn apart by the bomb blast. Jurors heard Steve Woolfenden describe the explosion that took his leg, watching helpless as his 3 year old son Leo was rescued by police. And at his side a woman hovering over a boy who at one point raised his arm to her. “Denise Richard was just pleading with her son. I heard her say ‘please, Martin’ many times. I didn’t see a response.”
Jurors saw photos of survivors, an array of prosthetic limbs. They saw x-rays of Marc Fucarile’s ravaged body, his leg blown off and imbedded with shrapnel and BB’s.
Survivor Heather Abbott, who lost part of a leg outside the Forum restaurant on Boylston St. testified, “I was catapulted through the front doors of the restaurant which were open, in a puddle of chaos and glass and blood.
Now the question, are Tsarnaev’s family members here to help the defense humanize him. “They’ll probably talk about what happened when both parents went back to Russia, they’ll probably talk about the older brother being somewhat domineering,” said Prof. Robert Bloom, Boston College Law School.
The defense begins its case Monday with an opening statement, a phase that could take up to three weeks.
