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 U.S. prosecutors contend that the friend, 21-year-old Robel
Phillipos of Cambridge, Massachusetts, lied about accompanying two
other men to the suspect's college dorm room three days after the
attack that killed three people and wounded more than 260 and
removing a backpack containing fireworks.
Defense attorneys in opening statements on Monday said that
Phillipos had spent much of that day, April 18, 2013, smoking
marijuana and had little recollection of what he did, but that law
enforcement agents interrogating him had refused to accept that
answer.
Dwight Schwader, a special agent with the U.S. Department of
Transportation who interviewed Phillipos as part of the massive
investigation, testified on Monday that the defendant told him he
did not remember going to Tsarnaev's dorm room at the University of
Massachusetts at Dartmouth.
 "Initially his responses were always, 'I don't remember, I don't
remember taking items,'" said Schwader, who is due back on the
witness stand at the trial at U.S. District Court in Boston on
Tuesday. "We told him that his story just didn't make any sense."
Jurors are also expected to hear from FBI Special Agent John Walker,
who also interviewed Kazakh exchange students Dias Kadyrbayev and
Azamat Tazhayakov, who prosecutors contend accompanied Phillipos to
Tsarnaev's room hours after the FBI released photos of Tsarnaev and
his older brother, identifying them as suspects.
Tazhayakov was found guilty by a jury of obstruction of justice for
removing a backpack containing fireworks shells from Tsarnaev's room
and Kadyrbayev has since pleaded guilty to the same charge.
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Phillipos faces up to 16 years in prison if convicted.
Tazhayakov, who did not testify during his own trial, will take the
stand as a prosecution witness, lawyers said on Monday.
Phillipos, Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev are not charged with playing
any role in the bombing.
Tsarnaev, 21, faces the death penalty if convicted of carrying out
the bombing. His older brother, Tamerlan, died after a gun battle
with police three days after the April 15, 2013 bombing.
(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Eric Walsh)
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