Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect’s Friend Azamat Tazhayakov Found Guilty of Obstruction of Justice and Conspiracy in Impeding Investigation into the Terror Bombing

GUILTY, ONE DOWN … THREE TO GO!

Azamat Tazhayakov, a college friend of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was convicted Monday of on charges of obstruction of justice and conspiracy involving impeding the investigation into the Boston Marathon bombing. Tazhayakov is scheduled to be sentenced on October 16. He faces a five-year maximum for conspiracy and 20-year maximum for obstruction. Dias Kadyrbayev faces a separate trial in September. A third friend, Robel Phillipos, is charged with lying to investigators. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty in the bombing and multiple murders is scheduled to stand trial in November. Dzhokhar faces the possibility of the death penalty if convicted.

Azamat Tazhayakov was charged with obstruction of justice and conspiracy, with prosecutors saying he agreed with a friend’s plan to remove Tsarnaev’s backpack containing altered fireworks from his dorm room a few days after the 2013 bombing.

His trial was the first stemming from the bombing, which killed three and injured more than 260 near the marathon’s finish line. Tazhayakov’s mother sobbed loudly and rocked in her seat as the jury announced the guilty verdicts, which it reached on the third day of deliberations.

Tazhayakov’s lawyers argued that it was the other friend, Dias Kadyrbayev, who removed the items from the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth dorm room and then threw them away.

Prosecutors told the jury that both men shared in the decision to remove the items and get rid of them to protect Tsarnaev. Kadyrbayev faces a separate trial in September. A third friend, Robel Phillipos, is charged with lying to investigators.

Friend convicted of impeding Boston Marathon probe.

Don’t do the crime, if you can’t do the time …

A college friend was convicted Monday of trying to protect Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev by agreeing with another friend to get rid of a backpack and disabled fireworks they took from his dorm room three days after the attack.

Azamat Tazhayakov, a baby-faced 20-year-old, put his hands over his face and shook his head as guilty verdicts were read on federal charges of obstruction of justice and conspiracy in the first trial stemming from the twin bombings, which killed three and injured more than 260 near the marathon’s finish line in April 2013. His mother sobbed loudly and rocked in her seat.