A self-proclaimed friend of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev testified against the alleged Boston Marathon bomber in court on Tuesday, March 17. Stephen Silva, a Boston native and Cambridge high school graduate alongside Tsarnaev, entered a plea agreement with the U.S. Government to receive a lesser sentence for his own gun possession and drug charges.
Silva took the stand wearing a grey jumpsuit. He’s currently serving time for pleading guilty to possessing a P95 Ruger pistol – the same one the prosecution contends was used to kill MIT Police Officer Sean Collier (the defense argues by Tamerlan) – and conspiracy to distribute heroin after getting pinched by a confidential government informant. He sold heroin to the undercover about 8 to 10 times.
He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years for each count, 160 total years.
But, if he cooperates and provides ample insight into Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, that could be knocked down to 5 to 7 years.
Tsarnaev and Silva struck up a friendship when both were in eighth grade. They had hung out together frequently and even started working at a Harvard pool in Allston as lifeguards.
Upon graduating, Tsarnaev enrolled at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth while Silva attended college in Tampa, Fla., though the two kept in touch “pretty often” via texts, phone calls and Facebook.
Like normal young adults, they discussed the likes of adjusting to collegiate life, parties, girls and when they’d reunite at home they’d go swimming in reservoirs, smoke marijuana, drink at parties and do “normal teenager stuff.”But Silva earned money by doing more than just lifeguarding. He became a marijuana dealer, subsequently selling upwards of $2,000 worth of weed on a weekly basis.
Silva’s twin brother, who dealt pot with him, was eventually robbed of some $6,000 to $10,000 worth of product which prompted Silva to seek protection by way of a firearm.
Another friend, identified as Howie, happened to be looking to hide his P95 Ruger pistol – a rusted weapon with the serial number scratched off – when Silva jumped at the chance to stash it for him. Silva used it to pull off a robbery during a drug deal, taking the money but keeping the weed and using the gun to intimidate the buyers.
When he told Tsarnaev, Silva said, “he laughed.”
In January 2013 Tsarnaev would come to ask Silva to borrow the gun along with some ammunition to supposedly rob people from the University of Rhode Island. His friend for many years gladly obliged under the pretense he’d get it back in a few weeks time.
He didn’t.
Howie needed his gun back so Silva kept pushing Tsarnaev for it. But, Silva testified, “he just kept coming up with excuses.”
In April 2013, the last time Silva saw Tsarnaev before the former identified the latter in court Tuesday, Tsarnaev had yet another excuse for not forfeiting the gun to Silva.
Days after the Boston Marathon bombing, when the first images of the Tsarnaev brothers as the primary suspects were released, Silva was sent into a “state of huge shock, disbelief, [and] paranoia.”
He even briefly stopped selling marijuana before picking it back up again, though this time with more severe narcotics like cocaine, molly and prescription pills. And, of course, heroin.
For her part, Tsarnaev defense attorney Miriam Conrad questioned Silva about Tsarnaev’s temperament and personality.
Despite tiptoeing around objections to questions like “Did you think he was easily corruptible?”, Conrad’s questioning was able to paint a picture of Tsarnaev being humble, nonviolent, kind-hearted but also manipulable.
She cited prior claims Silva made to the government that stated he peer pressured Tsarnaev into smoking marijuana, though he later backtracked on those saying that he used the incorrect phraseology to make himself appear more favorable.
Even more momentously, she referred the court to a Facebook post Silva made after suspect photos of the Tsarnaev’s were released, which read, “Must’ve been his brother who got him into it.”
Conrad’s cross-examination culminated with a series of questions that suggested Silva was simply looking for the best possible deal with the most reduced sentence and that his entire testimony was predicated on that fact. She got him to admit that he had previously lied to the government about the aforementioned robbery.
By doing that, she told Silva, prompting a bewildered look on his face, his plea deal was subject to termination.
Silva is the first close friend or family member of Tsarnaev’s to take the stand thus far in trial. So far, testimony has been delivered mostly by victims and survivors, analysts and special agents, law enforcement officials and eyewitnesses.
From the overflow room, it’s difficult to gauge any reaction Tsarnaev may have conveyed while his former friend testified against him. But, given that Tsarnaev has been under lock and key for almost two years now, I can’t imagine it didn’t incite any emotion.
