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 The bomb, described as similar to the twin bombs set off at the
race, was extracted from a Honda Civic in which it embedded itself
on a Watertown, Massachusetts street after Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his
older brother, Tamerlan, detonated it during the gunfight.
The pressure cooker was the same type as was used in the bombs that
killed three people and injured 264 on April 15, 2013, said Federal
Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Brian Corcoran, though the
pieces found in Watertown were more intact than those discovered at
the race's finish line.
"Those pieces were typically more fragmented, more cut up," Corcoran
testified in U.S. District Court in Boston, looking at both the main
pot and its lid, which was found halfway down the block from the
blast site, in a child-sized soccer goal in a home's side yard.
"This was a better representation of the pressure cooker as a
whole."
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 21, could be sentenced to death if he is
convicted of charges that include carrying out the bombing and
shooting dead a university police officer three days later as he and
Tamerlan, 26, tried to flee Boston.
 The Watertown gunfight in the early hours of April 19, 2013 ended
when Dzhokhar Tsarnaev hopped into a black Mercedes and attempted to
run over three police officers who were trying to arrest Tamerlan.
The officers jumped out of the way but Dzhokhar ran over his
brother, who was briefly caught up in the vehicle's wheels and
dragged.
Tsarnaev's lawyers opened the trial early this month by bluntly
admitting he carried out the bombing and shooting. Their goal is to
convince the jury that the plot was driven by Tamerlan, with
Dzhokhar a junior partner in the scheme. Proving that could persuade
the jury to sentence the younger brother to life in prison without
possibility of parole, rather than death.
Another FBI agent testified that investigators recovered several
apparently jihadist documents on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's laptop,
including at least three copies of Al Qaeda's "Inspire" magazine,
one featuring a cover story headlined "Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of
Your Mom," and another brochure-type document titled "Jihad and the
Effects of Intention Upon It."
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The bombing killed restaurant manager Krystle Campbell, 29, graduate
student Lingzi Lu, 23, and 8-year-old Martin Richard. Massachusetts
Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier, 27, was shot
dead three days later.
Separately on Thursday, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian
Ryan said her office would pursue murder charges against Tsarnaev
for the shooting of Collier, following his current trial on bombing
charges.
Ryan's office may also soon confirm whether a transit police officer
badly wounded during the gunfight was hit by friendly fire. Local
media have reported that the officer, Richard Donohue, was wounded
after Tamerlan Tsarnaev had run out of bullets in the one working
firearm the brothers had.
"The written investigatory report concerning the Laurel Street
incident is anticipated to be completed within two months," Ryan
said in a statement. A spokeswoman said the report would include
"ballistic information" but declined to confirm whether it would
address how Donohue was wounded.
The jury earlier in the trial heard testimony about how Donohue
nearly bled to death, though prosecutors asked no specific questions
about who had fired the bullet that wounded him.
(Editing by James Dalgleish)
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