By Matt Smith, CNN
May 2, 2013 -- Updated 0933 GMT (1733 HKT)
(CNN) -- A laptop, some empty fireworks and a jar of
Vaseline landed three friends of Boston Marathon bomb suspect Dzhokhar
Tsarnaev in jail Wednesday, charged with trying to throw investigators
off their buddy's trail.
Those are the items
federal prosecutors say Azamat Tazhayakov, Dias Kadyrbayev and Robel
Phillipos took from Tsarnaev's dorm room at the University of
Massachusetts-Dartmouth in the hours after the FBI released photos of
Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan, the suspects in the marathon
bombings. According to FBI affidavits, they quickly recognized their
friend from the pictures.
When Kadyrbayev texted
his friend to tell him "he looked like the suspect on television,"
Tsarnaev texted back "lol" and added, "come to my room and take whatever
you want," the affidavit states. Phillipos, Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev
went to the room, where Kadyrbayev noticed a backpack containing
fireworks that had been "opened and emptied of powder," according to the
affidavit.
"Kadyrbayev knew when he saw the empty fireworks that Tsarnaev was involved in the marathon bombing," the affidavit states.
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All three are accused of
removing items from Tsarnaev's dorm room after the April 15 bombings,
which killed three people and wounded more than 260. According to the
affidavit, they left with the backpack, the Vaseline -- which Tazhayakov
believed could be used to make bombs -- and Tsarnaev's laptop.
By the time they got back
to the apartment in New Bedford that Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev shared,
the Tsarnaev brothers had been named as bomb suspects, and the three
friends "started to freak out," Phillipos recounted after what the
affidavit stated had been four previous interviews.
"According to Kadyrbayev,
they collectively decided to throw the backpack and fireworks into the
trash because they did not want Tsarnaev to get into trouble," the
affidavit states.
Investigators found the
pack, fireworks and Vaseline in a landfill last week after a two-day
search. The complaint doesn't state what happened to the laptop.
Kadyrbayev and
Tazhayakov, both from Kazakhstan, were already in federal custody on
immigration charges. They're charged with obstruction of justice, while
Phillipos, a U.S. citizen, is charged with lying to federal agents
probing the bombing.
Probe stretches from Boston to Russia
Wednesday's developments
come after more than two weeks of intensive investigation that has
stretched from Boston to the restive Russian republic of Dagestan, where
the Tsarnaev brothers' parents now live.
Federal officials say
investigators remain very interested in talking with Tamerlan Tsarnaev's
widow, Katherine Russell, about what she may have known about her
husband's travel and associations, as well as about any encounters she
may have had with the two suspects in the aftermath of the attack.
Russell told
investigators that she spoke to her husband after his picture appeared
on national television as a suspect, two sources familiar with the
investigation told CNN on Wednesday. The nature of the conversation
remains under investigation, but the sources said there was some concern
that Russell spoke with her husband but did not call authorities who
were still seeking to identify the men in the photos.
Russell's lawyers had no
immediate comment on that report. On Tuesday, attorney Amato DeLuca
said Russell "will continue to meet with law enforcement, as she has
done for many hours over the past week, and provide as much assistance
to the investigation as she can."
Officials say Dzhokhar
Tsarnaev has told investigators his brother was the mastermind of the
attack. Investigators are looking into whether Tamerlan Tsarnaev was
influenced toward radical Islam during a six-month visit in 2012 to
Dagestan, a region where Russian forces are battling jihadist
guerrillas.
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The elder Tsarnaev's
body remained unclaimed in a state medical examiner's morgue Wednesday.
His wife wants his family to claim the body, DeLuca said Tuesday.
Lawyers say Dzhokhar's friends cooperated
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's
friends made their first appearance before a judge Wednesday afternoon,
when they were read the charges against them and informed of their
rights.
All three started at the
University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth in 2011, along with Tsarnaev.
Only Tazhayakov is still enrolled, and he's been suspended "pending the
outcome of the case," university spokesman Rob Lamontagne said.
They waived bail
requests until a later court date. At one point, Magistrate Judge
Marianne Bowler admonished Phillipos, "I suggest you pay attention to
me, rather than looking down."
Tazhayakov and
Kadyrbayev appear in a photograph with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev taken in New
York's Times Square during an earlier visit. They were taken into
custody last month on charges that they had violated the terms of their
student visas, Kadyrbayev attorney Stahl said last week.
All three were
questioned at length on April 19, when the manhunt for Tsarnaev was in
full swing. Tsarnaev's brother Tamerlan had been killed in a gun battle
with police early that morning, while Tsarnaev was captured alive but
badly wounded that night. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is being treated for gunshot
wounds at a federal Bureau of Prisons medical center in Devens,
Massachusetts.
About a month before the
marathon attack, Tsarnaev had told Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov "that he
knew how to make a bomb," according to an FBI affidavit recounting the
charges. Kadyrbayev told investigators that Tsarnaev "appeared to have
given himself a short haircut" two days after the bombings.
Kadyrbayev's lawyer
Robert Stahl said his client "did not have anything to do" with the
bombing and disputed charges that he tried to obstruct the
investigation. And Harlan Protass, who represents Tazhayakov, said his
client "has cooperated fully with the authorities and looks forward to
the truth coming out in this case."
On Wednesday, he said
Kadyrbayev was accused of a "technical violation" of a student visa "for
not regularly attending classes." Federal law enforcement sources said
at the time that the Kazakh students were being detained "in an
abundance of caution" because authorities wanted detailed information on
the Tsarnaevs' movements in the weeks and days before the attack.
Phillipos faces up to
eight years in prison if convicted, along with a $250,000 fine; the
charges against Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov carry sentences of up to five
years and $250,000 in fines.
Alan Dershowitz, a
prominent defense attorney and Harvard law professor, called the
obstruction charge "weak," suggesting it was meant to pressure the
suspects into providing more information on Tsarnaev.
"If that's the best the
feds have now, then they're just squeezing," Dershowitz told CNN. "It
doesn't sound like they have very much new here."
One of the reasons
Kadyrbayev drew investigators' attention was because of changes to his
Facebook page, a source briefed on the Boston probe said. Kadyrbayev and
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev changed their profile photos within 15 minutes of
each other in the pre-dawn hours of April 19, while the Tsarnaevs were
on the run, the source said.
Tsarnaev, who appears to
have had access to a wireless device at that time, changed his to a
black-and-white photo, while Kadyrbayev changed his photo to one of him
wearing an Iron Man mask, the source said.
