Boston - A jury deliberated for a second day on Wednesday over whether a friend of the Boston Marathon bombing suspect was too high on marijuana to have intentionally lied to investigators about his role in the aftermath of the 2013 attack.
Federal prosecutors said Robel Phillipos, 21, repeatedly lied when questioned by the FBI after two homemade bombs exploded near the finish line of the race, killing three people and injuring more than 260 in the worst attack in the United States since September 11, 2001.
Phillipos and two other friends went to the college dorm room of the accused bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 21, after the FBI released photos of the suspect three days after the bombing, prosecutors said.
The men entered Tsarnaev's dorm room at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth and removed a backpack containing empty fireworks casings, prosecutors said.
If convicted, Phillipos faces up to 16 years in prison on two counts of lying to investigators.
The jury in US District Court wrapped up its second day of deliberations on Wednesday and planned to resume its discussions on Thursday.
In his closing statement, defence attorney Derege Demissie said his client had smoked marijuana for 12 to 16 hours straight that day and could not remember events the FBI had questioned him about.
“The funny thing about memory is, we can't really tell people what we don't remember,” Demissie said.
But Assistant US Attorney Stephanie Siegmann said Phillipos had deliberately lied in four interviews with FBI agents before eventually admitting by signing a statement in a fifth interview that he had entered the dorm room.
Demissie said the statement was drafted by an FBI agent and reflected authorities' version of events.
Earlier in the trial, an expert on marijuana abuse, Dr Alan Wartenberg, testified the drug could have impaired Phillipos' cognitive abilities and memory.
Former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, a friend of Phillipos' family, testified that the student was “so confused he didn't know what he had said” to the FBI.
The second Tsarnaev friend, Azamat Tazhayakov, was convicted in July of obstruction of justice, and the third, Dias Kadyrbayev, pleaded guilty to obstruction in August.
Tsarnaev is awaiting trial on charges that carry the death penalty. His older brother Tamerlan was killed in a shootout with police days after the bombing. - Reuters