D.J. Fife

D.J. Fife testified for the prosecution on Day 35 about property collected from Dzhokhar Tsarnaev at Beth Israel Hospital. An FBI physical scientist working in latent-print examination, he said he had come to Boston on April 19, 2013, to collect known fingerprints. His examination instead focused on the hospital property, and he clarified on cross-examination that he was not an agent.

On direct examination, Fife recalled property laid out on brown paper and photographed before bagging, with agents Crow and Lord writing the labels. Government's Exhibit 921 was admitted without objection. At Nadine Pellegrini's request, he opened the envelope and read a label stating an amount of $952.27 in currency. Separately, he recalled numerous crisp $20 bills probably totaling close to $900. He said he and others later took the evidence to an evidence location and signed it into storage.

On cross-examination, Fife confirmed that Tsarnaev was visibly injured and undergoing medical procedures when doctors removed his clothing. He had observed the collection but had not collected the clothing himself. He qualified his recollection of its transfer in biohazard bags for inventory, labeling, and photographs, and did not know whether the sweatshirt went to Massachusetts State Police, although he thought it remained with the FBI. After he read the packaging label and matched its description to the photograph, the court admitted Defendant's Exhibits 3058 and 3061 without objection. The government declined redirect.