Jurors in the death penalty trial of Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev heard more information on Monday from an FBI agent who scoured his electronic devices following the Boston Marathon bombings that killed three and wounded 260 people.
Kevin Swindon, a supervisory special agent with the FBI who oversaw the examination of the devices testified in US District Court last week that he found Tsarnaev had a collection of militant materials on his computer, including an instructional article on how to “Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom.’’
The article was featured in Inspire magazine, an English-language online publication sponsored by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Several issues and other pro-jihadi propaganda were found on Tsarnaev’s laptop computer, a desktop computer in his Cambridge home, a hard drive, and on two thumb drives. Similar files showed up on Tsarnaev’s cellphones and iPods.
Swindon testified as a prosecution witness and was called in by US Attorney Carmen Ortiz’s office to show that Tsarnaev did not have an overnight conversion into violent jihadist beliefs, as attorneys for the Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School graduate have suggested.
The defense team has portrayed Tsarnaev’s brother, Tamerlan, as the mastermind of the Marathon bombings, and as the one brother with extreme Islamist views by early 2012. Tamerlan died in a violent confrontation with police in Watertown.
The defense team has argued that, around the time some of the documents were downloaded, in August 2011, Tsarnaev’s personal life was in upheaval. That summer, his parents divorced and both left for Dagestan, where they had lived before emigrating to the United States.
The next month, Tsarnaev started college at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and when he returned to the family home on Norfolk Street in Cambridge, it was occupied only by Tamerlan, his wife, Katherine, and their toddler daughter.
Defense lawyers have acknowledged that both brothers participated in the bombing at the Marathon finish line on April 15, 2013, and acknowledged the brothers also MIT Police Officer Sean A. Collier. Through his lawyer, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has admitted to the crimes, but his defense team hopes to use the trial to spare him from a death sentence.
Handout via REUTERS
A black laptop case, a portable hard drive (top left), a cell phone and spare batteries (center), and a homemade remote control device (bottom right) were entered as evidence during the Marathon bombing trial last week.
Patricia Wen can be reached at wen@globe.com. Follower her on Twitter @GlobePatty.Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at cullen@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeCullen.Milton J. Valencia can be reached at mvalencia@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @miltonvalencia.
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