Robel Phillipos, one of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s friends accused of being in the dorm when his potentially evidence-filled backpack was removed, was found guilty Tuesday of lying to the FBI during the 2013 investigation and now faces a maximum of 16 years in prison.
Prosecutors contended that the 21-year-old lied to investigators about being in younger Tsarnaev’s dorm room days after the bombing while two other friends disposed of a backpack containing fireworks possible evidence.
If all of that wasn’t bad enough, Phillipos also blamed the whole thing on smoking marijuana. Instead of pleading ignorance or fear, the defense team decided to call up witness after witness to attest to the half-dozen times he had smoked pot that day. We couldn’t make this up — he told the federal court that he was too high to remember what had happened that night.
Text messages from Phillipos to both Tsarnaev and another friend were entered into evidence and read as followed (as recounted by the Boston Globe):
And then after the investigation:
Clearly the court was not moved by his marijuana-induced fugue state and found Phillipos guilty. This should serve as a warning to stupid criminals out there — marijuana doesn’t make you dumb, you make you dumb.
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