Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the slain Boston Marathon bomber, was confirmed by prosecutors as a participant in a triple homicide on September 11, 2011 in Waltham, Massachusetts, The Associated Press reported.
Prosecutors in the case said the information was revealed by Ibragim Todashev, the friend and boxing sparring partner of Tsarnaev who had been questioned weeks after the April 15 bombings. After Todashev became hostile with an FBI agent while being interrogated at his Orlando home, he was shot to death by authorities, according to a filing made by federal prosecutors in he case of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
In the Waltham murder case, "three men were found in an apartment with their necks slit and their bodies reportedly covered with marijuana. One of the victims was [allegedly] a boxer and friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev," The AP also reported.
Prosecutors wrote that "the government has already disclosed... that, according to Todashev, Tamerlan Tsarnaev participated in the Waltham triple homicide."
The continued investigation into the 2011 murders in Waltham is "reason not to allow Dzhokar Tsarnaev [who is on trial] access to documents," prosecutors said.
"Any benefit to Tsarnaev of knowing more about the precise 'nature and extent' of his brother's involvement does not outweigh the potential harm of exposing details of an ongoing investigation into an extremely serious crime, especially at this stage of the proceeding," prosecutors in the Tsarnaev case wrote in their filing.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in a gunbattle with police as authorities closed in on the brothers several days after the bombings.
Surviving brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, faces 30 federal charges, including using a weapon of mass destruction, in addition to 16 other charges, which carry the death penalty for planning and carrying out twin bombings with a pressure cooker near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15. Three people were killed and over 260 injuries, many of which were serious.
