BOSTON — A college friend of the surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect, who was charged last year with hindering the investigation into blasts at the finish line of the race, is changing his plea to guilty, his lawyer said.
Dias Kadyrbayev, 20, was to go to trial on Sept. 8 on one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice and one count of obstruction of justice, but will instead appear in front of Judge Douglas P. Woodlock at Boston’s Federal District Court on Thursday afternoon. Mr. Kadyrbayev’s lawyer, Robert Stahl, declined to provide additional details before the hearing.
Federal prosecutors say that, in the days after the April 15, 2013, bombing, which left three people dead and more than 260 wounded, Mr. Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, his roommate who was also a friend of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, realized that their friend was the bombing suspect and tried to destroy evidence that might tie him to the crime.
Mr. Kadyrbayev and Mr. Tazhayakov are accused of entering Mr. Tsarnaev’s dormitory room at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and removing a backpack containing fireworks, a laptop, and other items, including a bag of marijuana. Several hours later, according to prosecutors, Mr. Kadyrbayev put the backpack in a Dumpster near the apartment he shared with Mr. Tazhayakov in New Bedford, Mass. It was found in a nearby landfill.
The same day, April 18, Mr. Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan, are accused of shooting and killing an M.I.T. police officer named Sean Collier before leading the authorities on a fiery police chase that ended in Tamerlan’s death. Dzhokhar eluded authorities for another day before he was found wounded in a boat in a backyard in Watertown, Mass.
Earlier this summer, Mr. Tazhayakov was convicted of the same charges that Mr. Kadyrbayev faces, after about a week of testimony.
The jury heard testimony from several witnesses, including law enforcement agents and Mr. Tsarnaev’s college roommate. The jurors were told that it was Mr. Kadyrbayev, not Mr. Tazhayakov, who first discovered the backpack and who disposed of it. Mr. Tazhayakov was nevertheless convicted, suggesting that Mr. Kadyrbayev’s defense team would have faced an uphill climb at trial.
Mr. Tazhayakov, who will be sentenced in October, faces up to 25 years in prison. Mr. Stahl did not say what kind of sentence he would seek for Mr. Kadyrbayev.
Robel Phillipos, another friend of Mr. Tsarnaev’s, is scheduled to be tried in September for lying to law enforcement agents investigating the bombings.
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