Tsarnaev guilty on all 30 charges in Boston bombing

G. Jeffrey MacDonald | Special for USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Tsarnaev guilty in Boston Marathon bombings Jurors found Dzhokhar Tsarnaev guilty in the Boston Marathon bombing trial. His lawyers had argued that his late brother was the mastermind in the attack nearly two years ago, but jurors disagreed.

BOSTON — Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found guilty Wednesday on all 30 federal counts in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing case and faces a possible death sentence.

He was convicted of a string of charges, including the deaths of four people and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction. Seventeen of the 30 counts carried a possible death penalty.

The twin bombings on April 15, 2013, killed three people and injured 260. A fourth person, an MIT security officer, was killed during a six-day manhunt for the suspects that brought the stunned city to a standstill.

Tsarnaev, flanked by his three lawyers, showed no emotion while the verdict was read, mostly staring at the defense table and occasionally looking straight ahead. At one point the 21-year-old former college student crossed his arms as the court clerk read the lengthy verdict.

The courtroom was silent as each count came down as "guilty."

Although some bombing victims and families of victims were present in the courtroom, there was no rejoicing nor smiling.

The faces of the jurors, who returned their verdict after two days, were likewise sober, as federal judge George O'Toole reminded them that "you are still a jury."

O'Toole said the penalty phase, in which the same seven-woman, five-man jury will weigh a possible death penalty for Tsarnaev, could begin "early next week."

As the jury left the courtroom, Denise Richard, mother of Martin, the 8-year-old killed in the bombing, wiped tears from both eyes.

"I don't know what justice is," said Karen Brassard, a bombing survivor when asked for her reaction to the verdict. "I am grateful to have him off the street. I'm grateful to show that everyone in the world that this is not tolerated, this is not how we behave."

The outcome of some kind of guilty verdict was in little doubt after the defense acknowledged that Tsarrnaev had placed a pressure-cooker explosive device in the crowd near the finish line of the annual race on Boston's Boylston Street.

The makeshift explosives killed Krystle Campbell, 29, a restaurant manager; Lingzi Lu, 23, a Chinese exchange students, and Richard. Tsarnaev also was found guilty of the fatal shooting of Massachusetts of Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier, 26.

The defense had argued that while Tsarrnaev was involved in the bombings, he was manipulated by his older brother, Tamerlan, who was killed during a police shootout as the manhunt unfolded.

None of the four defense witnesses suggested that Tsarnaev, an ethnic Chechen who immigrated from Russia with his parents and brother a decade before the attack, was innocent.

"We are not asking you to go easy on Dzhokhar," defense attorney Judy Clarke said in her closing argument Monday. His actions "deserve to be condemned. And the time is now."

Tsarnaev's mother, Zubeidat, sent a note to a family friend after the verdict was announced declaring that Americans are the terrorists, Vocativ.com reported. It said it found the post written in Russian on a Russian social media site.

"I will never forget it. May god bless those who helped my son,'' the post said, according to Vocativ.com. "The terrorists are the Americans and everyone knows it. My son is the best of the best."

Prosecutors described Tsarnaev, a one-time student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, as a true believer in the cause of radical, violent jihad to avenge what he saw as harm by the United States against Muslims.

"The plan was to make this bombing as memorable as it could possibly be," Assistant U.S. Attorney William Weinreb said.

Prosecutors called 92 witnesses over 15 days, including double amputees and the 8-year-old boy's father. They presented a trove of more than 4,000 hours of surveillance footage that left little doubt about the Tsarnaevs' culpability, not only in the marathon bombings but also in the murder of MIT officer Sean Collier.

Boston bombing trial: 14 facts in 45 seconds Here are the facts in the case against Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, found guilty on all 30 counts related to the Boston bombing.

"They got the slam dunk when the defendant in opening statement said, you know, he did it," said Boston College Law School professor Robert Bloom.

The family of Collier, the slain police officer, released a statement thanking the jury, FBI and prosecutors.

"Sean Collier gave his life doing what he was born to do – serving and protecting all of us as a police officer. Sean was more than a police officer to us, though. He was a caring, fun, loyal, and protective brother and son. While today's verdict can never bring Sean back, we are thankful that Dzhokar Tsarnaev will be held accountable for the evil that he brought to so many families,'' the statement said.

Listen to this story in the audio player below:

Despite the guilty verdict, defense attorneys haven't necessarily lost the end game. Their goal of avoiding a death sentence could still be attainable if they can convince even one juror to hold out for life imprisonment.

They likely notched a few meaningful successes in building rapport with the jury, according to Bloom. They likely built up trust, he said, by declining to challenge evidence against Tsarnaev or to cross-examine bombing victims.

Collier's family issued a statement thanking the jury and law enforcement for "seeking justice in this case,' and the city of Boston for its support. They also expressed their care for victims, survivors and their families.

"The strength and bond that everyone has shown during these last two years proves that if these terrorists thought that they would somehow strike fear in the hearts of people, they monumentally failed," the statement said. "We know Sean would be very proud of that."

Judge O'Toole met earlier Wednesday with attorneys for both sides for about 30 minutes to address last minute questions raised by the jurors.

The charges against Tsarnaev — totaling 30 counts — fell into four main categories. Twelve pertained to two pressure-cooker bombs used at the marathon.Three other charges dealt with conspiracy; another three covered the fatal shooting of Collier, an MIT security guard, on April 18, 2013.

The final 12 addressed what happened after Collier's murder, including a carjacking, robbery and use of improvised explosives against Watertown, Mass., police officers.