Tiarrah Dottin

Tiarrah Dottin testified for the defense on Day 55 about her friendship with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, whom she called Jahar. She described becoming closer to him at UMass Dartmouth through Cambridge friends and recalled social gatherings involving drinking, video games, television and conversation. She identified photographs of those gatherings and a Providence nightclub visit. Exhibits 3290 and 3291 were received in evidence.

Dottin described Tsarnaev as loyal, fun, laid back and friendly, and recalled him providing rides. She said she had not known he was Muslim, had not discussed religion or politics with him, and had not heard him express anti-American animus. Their contact diminished during sophomore year. The court sustained an objection to a question about her reaction to learning he was one of the Marathon bombers and stopped her answer.

On cross-examination, Dottin agreed that Tsarnaev was his own person, was not a follower and could say no. She had never seen him pushed around. She also acknowledged that, despite their close friendship, they did not confide in each other and he was somewhat private. She did not know about the extremist videos and songs Weinreb asked about. The court overruled Watkins's objection during that questioning, but her answers did not establish the alleged media use.

The parties later drew different arguments from her testimony. Defense closing argument recalled her fond memories of their college friendship. Prosecution closing argument used her description of Tsarnaev's independence to argue against the defense account of dependency and coercion.