Bella Tsarnaeva

Witnesses identified Bella Tsarnaeva, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's older sister, in family photographs during the defense presentation. Elmirza Khozhugov identified her alongside her siblings and mother in a photograph shown to the jury. On cross-examination, he said he believed Bella and Ailina had lived with their uncle Ruslan in Kazakhstan, and testified that Ruslan supported the children and paid for their schooling.

Bella's name also arose in questioning about electronic evidence and family leadership. Defense questioning asked a computer-evidence witness about a Skype account named Bella Rizvan on the Sony computer. The witness did not verify or recall that account and said his investigative responsibilities had not involved the other siblings. During recross-examination of a cultural expert, prosecutor William Weinreb began a hypothetical question invoking statements by Bella and Ailina that their family had no leadership pattern. The court sustained the defense objection because the question exceeded the scope of redirect; the exchange did not establish those statements as evidence.