Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Told Friend Martyrs Go To Heaven

Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told a friend a month before the deadly attack that he knew how to make a bomb and said it's good to be a martyr because you "die with a smile on your face and go straight to heaven," a federal prosecutor told jurors Monday at the friend's obstruction trial, according to The Associated Press.

Tsarnaev also texted the friend, Azamat Tazhayakov, 90 minutes after the bombings and said, "Don't go thinking it's me," Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Siegmann said, the AP reported. Siegmann's comments came during opening statements at Tazhayakov's trial, a prosecution that promises to provide a glimpse into the government's case against Tsarnaev.

Tsarnaev is scheduled to go on trial in November on charges that carry the possibility of the death penalty, the AP reported.

Prosecutors say he and his older brother, Tamerlan, built two bombs and placed them near the finish line of the 2013 marathon to retaliate against the U.S. for its actions in Muslim countries, according to the AP.

The explosions killed three people and injured more than 260, the AP reported. Tamerlan Tsarnaev died following a shootout with police several days later.

Tazhayakov, 20, has pleaded not guilty to obstruction of justice and conspiracy charges, according to the AP. He and his roommate, Dias Kadyrbayev, went to Tsarnaev's University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth dorm room several days after the bombing and took a laptop computer and a backpack containing fireworks that had black powder spilling out or had been emptied of their powder, Siegmann told the jury.

"The government will prove to you that the defendant and his co-conspirator removed the backpack for one reason, and that reason was to protect their friend who they had just learned was one of the two suspected marathon bombers," Siegmann said, the AP reported.

Prosecutors acknowledge that Kadyrbayev is the one who actually put the backpack in the trash but said Tazhayakov agreed to get rid of it, according to the AP. Wooldridge said it was Kadyrbayev who threw the backpack away in the trash after his girlfriend learned it belonged to Tsarnaev and told him, "Get it out of the apartment."

Tazhayakov's defense attorney, Nicholas Wooldridge, urged jurors not be swayed by the emotional impact of the marathon bombings, asking them instead to focus on Tazhayakov's actions, the AP reported.

"Azamat's actions will show that he never intended to obstruct justice. As a matter of fact, he never intended to help the bomber himself," Wooldridge said, according to the AP.

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