In this March 5 courtroom sketch, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, center, is depicted between defense attorneys Miriam Conrad, left, and Judy Clarke, during his federal death penalty trial in Boston.(Photo: Jane Flavell Collins, AP)
BOSTON -- The defense came out swinging even before calling its first witness Monday. Just 30 minutes after the prosecution rested, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's team filed a motion asking for acquittal on all 30 counts.
"The government has failed to introduce evidence sufficient to establish each essential element of the offenses charged beyond a reasonable doubt," the motion said.
Tsarnaev, 21, is charged in the April 15, 2013, Boston Marathon attack that left three people dead and more than 260 injured. He faces 30 counts, including 17 that could carry the death penalty.
The seven-page motion provided a few illustrations. It pointed, for example, to one count alleging Tsarnaev took part in a carjacking that resulted in serious injury to MBTA officer Richard Donohue, who suffered gunshot wounds and nearly died.
"The government introduced no evidence that defendant or his brother did that shooting," the motion said. "Nor did the government introduce evidence that Richard [Donohue] was the victim of the carjacking offense charged."
The motion isn't likely to be granted, but it does raise at least a faint specter that Tsarnaev's team might try to mount a more vigorous defense than previously expected.
However, when time came for the defense to call witnesses, questioning focused on details that didn't provide much grist for the notion that Tsarnaev might be innocent on a host of serious charges.
Defense attorney Miriam Conrad briefly questioned FBI field photographer Michelle Gamble, who had testified for the prosecution earlier in the day. She spent just a few minutes on the stand clarifying her role in the Tsarnaev investigation.
Next up was Gerald Grant Jr., a computer forensics investigator for the Federal Public Defender's Office for the Western District of New York. Grant reviewed Tsarnaev's cell phone bills, which showed his cellphone was in the vicinity of Dartmouth, Mass., at the times when bomb-making equipment -- including pressure cookers and BBs -- was purchased in other parts of the region. That claim could help the defense distance Tsarnaev from the planning of the attacks if it turns out he was not the purchaser.
On cross examination, Assistant U.S. Attorney Aloke Chakravarty pressed Grant to admit he didn't know whether Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's older brother, Tamerlan, had bought the pressure cookers. Grant agreed: He didn't know. Chakravarty also suggested the phone could have been used at those times by someone else, perhaps a friend on a family calling plan.
Earlier Monday, prosecutors called on physicians who conducted autopsies on the youngest victims.
Jurors heard from Katherine Lindstrom, who examined the body of Lingzi Lu, 23, and Henry Nields, who examined Martin Richard, 8.
"The cause of death was blast injuries of torso and extremities," Nields said. "Overall the injuries would have been painful."
Several jurors wept as they viewed autopsy photos and Nields described his results, saying he found injuries in every area of Martin's body: head, neck, torso and extremities. Remains of the skin showed serious, third-degree burns. The boy's organs, including the spleen, liver and a kidney, were torn apart. Loops of the small intestine were found outside the body.
Inside the body, Nields found a nail, a pellet, a piece of wood and black plastic.
Jurors saw physical evidence from Martin's medical examination, including a shredded T-shirt. They saw a jagged shard of metal that Nields found in the T-shirt. Nields explained how it got there: It had sliced through the boy's abdomen and exited through his spine. Martin's aorta was mostly cut in half.
Grant, the forensics investigator, was the defense's last witness for the day. Lawyers are expected to call more witnesses Tuesday.
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