Alexa Guevara

Alexa Guevara testified for the defense about her friendship with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, whom she knew as Jahar, at UMass Dartmouth. On Day 55, she described him as kind, respectful, humorous, and supportive. She recalled his encouragement of her artwork, his interest in transferring to UMass Amherst to study marine biology, and the games and visits that helped distract her when she was upset. Crying, she said she missed the person she knew.

Guevara also described a spring-break outing by the Charles River in 2013. She said Tsarnaev retrieved fireworks from his car; the first did not work, and he jumped through sparks from the second. She knew little about his family and had never met his brother. When direct examination continued on Day 57, she said his parents had been outside the country during her freshman year and recalled him performing a Chechen dance for friends. The court sustained objections to questions about his brother, including what role he assumed while their parents were abroad.

On cross-examination, Nadine Pellegrini tested the extent of Guevara's knowledge of Tsarnaev. Guevara rejected the suggestion that he had substantial extra money, confirmed that he had no job at UMass Dartmouth, and acknowledged shared marijuana use. The court struck her secondhand answer about drug-sale income and stopped further questioning about purported drug-related texts after she denied such phone communications. She confirmed that the fireworks came from a backpack in his car, said she had not seen him between April 11 and April 16, 2013, and testified that he never warned her not to attend the Marathon.

On redirect, Guevara tentatively characterized the spring-break search for marijuana as a shared effort. She clarified that Tsarnaev neither supplied the marijuana nor smoked it with the group that evening.