Amanda Ransom

Amanda Ransom testified for the defense on Day 58 about Tamerlan Tsarnaev's aggression and his relationship with her former college roommate, Katherine Russell. Under Miriam Conrad's questioning, she described their initially close friendship, Katherine becoming quieter and more distant, and concerns about emotional abuse based partly on Katherine's accounts.

Ransom recounted seeing Tamerlan punch a man in the chest and hearing screaming and banging during a later apartment argument. She could not identify precisely what caused the noises. After trying to help Katherine, she said Tamerlan angrily demanded that she come downstairs and made a statement she interpreted as a threat. She barricaded her bedroom door, left with Stephanie, and never moved back. She explained that she did not call police because she expected Katherine to deny the incident and feared further agitation from Tamerlan. She also recounted Katherine's later message denying that he had threatened her.

Two photographs were admitted. The court refused admission of Ransom's email to a lawyer about leaving the lease but allowed Conrad to show it to her. Ransom identified its date as December 14, 2009, and confirmed that the apartment incident occurred then.

On cross-examination, Ransom confirmed that she had not gone downstairs when Tamerlan demanded it and had never met Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The court sustained an objection to a broad question about what she could tell the jury about the defendant but allowed the narrower question about whether she had met him. She was then excused.