Tsarnaev Family, Minus Mom, Arrives in US

Prosecution closes with video of dying boy
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 23, 2015 11:47 PM CDT
Tsarnaev Family, Minus Mom, Arrives in US
This forensics photograph made by the FBI shows the scene where the second bomb exploded on Boylston Street near the marathon finish line in Boston.   (US Attorney's Office via the AP)

The family of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has arrived in Boston—and they may be called upon to help save his life. The defense in the penalty phase of the Boston Marathon bomber's trial begins on Monday and some of his relatives may testify, the Boston Globe reports. Tsarnaev has two sisters in New Jersey, but the family members who arrived yesterday flew in on an international flight, NECN reports. Tsarnaev's parents live in southern Russia, but a police spokesman tells the Globe that his mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, was not among the relatives who arrived at Boston's Logan Airport.

Tsarnaeva—who has defended her sons and says the family should never have moved to the US—has an outstanding warrant on a shoplifting charge and could have been detained if she flew to Boston. The prosecution rested its case yesterday, showing the jurors who will decide whether Tsarnaev lives or dies a video of 8-year-old Martin Richard's mother crouching over him and resting her head on his chest as he bled to death, CBS News reports. "I heard 'please' and 'Martin' being uttered by Denise Richard," testified Steve Woolfenden, who lost a leg in the bombing and was lying on the pavement next to them. "Just pleading with her son." (More Dzhokhar Tsarnaev stories.)

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