'Fishbowling' in focus for accused Boston bomber's friend
By Scott Malone BOSTON (Reuters) - Defense lawyers for a friend of the accused Boston Marathon bomber charged with lying to investigators turned the spotlight on marijuana culture on Wednesday as they began to present their case that their client was too high to have been able to lie. The first defense witness called to testify on behalf of Robel Phillipos, 21, who is charged with lying to the FBI about a visit to the suspected bomber's college dorm room three days after the attack that killed three people and injured more than 260, said he spent much of the day of the visit smoking marijuana with the defendant. At one point they got into a car to contain the cloud of smoke, he said. "The term, if I'm correct, is 'fishbowling,' and that is basically leaving the windows completely up and letting the smoke stay in the vehicle," said Lino Rosas, 21, who like Phillipos had been a student at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth at the time of the April 15, 2013 bombing. "It's to get more affected by the marijuana." Federal prosecutors contend that Phillipos, and two other friends of accused bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, went to the suspect's dorm room three days after the attack, shortly after the FBI released photos of the suspected bombers, and removed a backpack containing empty fireworks shells. One of the Kazakhs, Azamat Tazhayakov, was convicted in July of obstruction of justice for taking the backpack. The other, Dias Kadyrbayev, pleaded guilty to obstruction in August. Phillipos, who faces the less serious charge of lying to investigators, could be sentenced to up to 16 years in prison if convicted at the end of his trial at U.S. District Court in Boston. His lawyers, who began presenting their case on Wednesday, have argued that Phillipos was too high that day to remember what he did and confessed to going to the room only because FBI agents told him he had done so. Asked to describe Phillipos' condition when he returned to Rosas' dorm room on the evening of April 18, 2013, shortly before prosecutors contend he went to Tsarnaev's room, Rosas said he was "exceedingly out of it." "He just looked in a daze, just sitting there, no words. I was myself in a daze," said Rosas, who added that he no longer smokes marijuana. Also on Wednesday, an FBI agent who had interrogated Phillipos in the days after the visit said the young man had initially denied visiting Tsarnaev's room. "The first time I asked him, he said he didn't recall entering, the second time I asked him he said he did not" enter bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's dorm room, FBI special agent Timothy Quinn testified. Earlier in the trial, agents produced a written statement from Phillipos following agents' questioning in which he admitted to visiting the room. Tsarnaev, 21, is awaiting trial on charges that carry the death penalty. (Editing by Peter Cooney and Eric Walsh)
