3.Mirra Kuznetsov — Direct
160 lines(Discussion at sidebar and out of the hearing of the jury:)
MR. WEINREB: Your Honor, this witness is a bookstore owner who knew the family to some degree. Her witness statement is filled with opinion testimony and hearsay testimony. We have not had any kind of proffer from the defense about what she's going to be called for, and so we just want to make a motion in limine up front to exclude that kind of --
THE COURT: Let me just hear --
MR. FICK: I mean, she owned the Russian bookstore in the area, and because the community is relatively small, she came to know a lot of the customers very well. She would socialize with them. She would visit their house. And so I intend to ask questions about her personal observations and interactions with the family. So, you know, I do not intend to elicit sort of hearsay or opinions, but certainly she made observations, and she --
THE COURT: Like what? Give me some specifics.
MR. FICK: Well, she observed some of the changes in the family in terms of their adoption of religious beliefs. She observed sort of arguments between Anzor and Zubeidat about the development --
THE COURT: Okay.
THE COURT: Nothing about whether she thought they were crazy or not?
THE COURT: Observations are fine.
Just as long as you're here, I have a couple of administrative things. One is, to respond to your question, we checked with the jury clerk and the chief deputy clerk, and the jurors were not advised about the EAP.
The other is, we have to shorten the day to three o'clock today. I don't know if that's a problem, if you had a fairly full list. If it is a slight problem, we could take a half-hour lunch and begin at 1:30. So think about that.
MS. CLARKE: Let's see how we do.
(In open court:)
(The interpreter is duly sworn.)
MIRRA KUZNETSOV, duly sworn through interpreter.
COURT CLERK: State your name and spell your first and last name slowly for the record, keep your voice up and speak moot mistake.
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: (Through the interpreter) Okay. Mirra Kuznetsov, M-I-R-R-A, K-U-Z-N-E-T-S-O-V.
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. FICK:
MR. FICK: Good morning, Ms. Kuznetsov. And if -- the interpreter is there for your assistance if you need her, but if we can try, at least, to go back and forth in English -- can we try that way at the beginning, at least?
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: Yes.
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: I came from Russia in 1992.
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: Yes.
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: Since 2006 or '5.
MR. FICK: And what kind of work or business have you been involved in since you came to the United States?
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: I had a video store. It was in the Brighton area. And I had Russian-language books, videos, CDs.
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: Yes. I closed it in 2012.
MR. FICK: Okay. And did your store sort of serve the Russian-speaking community here in Boston, the Boston area?
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: Yes, correct.
MR. FICK: And in the course of running that store, did you come to know some of your customers who were regulars, so to speak?
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: Yes.
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: Yes, of course.
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: Yes, we delivered.
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: Yes, of course. It's small business, and we're very friendly to all our customers.
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: Yes, of course.
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: Yes.
(The question was translated by the interpreter.)
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: Probably it was in 2005 or maybe '4. I don't remember exactly.
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: Yes.
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: Yes.
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: Yes.
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: Yes.
MR. FICK: What do you remember about the family at the time? Describe your impressions of them when you first met them.
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: It was very nice-looking family, and it seems to me that they were very close to each other. And I saw them -- first, they were all of them sisters, and I saw defendant, and he was probably 10 or 11 at first. And I saw like they were hugging him and kissing him, and they were -- it seems to me that he was very loved by them.
MR. FICK: Tell me about Zubeidat, the mother. What do you remember about her? How did she dress? How did she act?
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: When I saw her first, it was very beautiful woman, and I notice how she was even gorgeous. And she was dressed very fancy, and she was smiling always. And I saw, like, she loved her kids.
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: She was always on the phone; she was always telling them, "Take these. Try to take these book or this video. Maybe we'll take these. Do one of these more," so...
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: Anzor was very quiet, and he was good-looking either. They actually were very beautiful couple. And I didn't talk to Anzor more; I -- more I talked to Zubeidat.
MR. FICK: And what did you observe about the relationship between Anzor and Zubeidat in those early years?
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: It seemed to me that they loved each other.
MR. FICK: And how about the children? What do you remember about them from when you first met the family?
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: I saw just sisters and Jahar when he was kid, and later on I saw Tamerlan, and he had brought movies and changed movies. And Tamerlan looked very -- nice-looking guy, very good shape, nice, nothing.
MR. FICK: What, if anything, did you observe about the interactions in relationship between Tamerlan and Jahar when they were both younger?
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: I saw -- second time I saw them briefly, and I even thought for myself that --
MS. PELLEGRINI: Objection as to what she thought; the question was what she observed.
THE COURT: No, overruled. I think it was about an observation she was making.
So go ahead.
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: I saw them when they changed movie again, and I think some of them, probably Jahar, was driving the car, and Tamerlan came with him. And Tamerlan said something to Jahar, and it was very powerful. I don't remember exactly words. And that's it.
BY MR. FICK:
MR. FICK: When you say he said something very powerful, even if you don't remember the exact words, what was sort of the context? What was happening?
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: Maybe "Go to the car" or something, "Wait for me," or like this.
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: It was brief like.
MS. PELLEGRINI: Objection.
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: Yeah, probably.
THE COURT: It may stand.
BY MR. FICK:
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: I hadn't seen them for a long time, maybe one year or around one year. And first I saw Zubeidat, and she came covered, and she had hijab on her, and she was dressed another way. And I was very surprised. And we talked to each other, and they said, "Oh, Zubeidat, you look other way," and she said, "Yes, I'm religious. I started to be religious, and I'm very happy." And we were talking not one time, many times. And maybe in a month or less, Tamerlan came to me, and I was scared. And when I see -- when I saw him, I didn't even recognize him because I was scared. Somebody came to me in glasses and with beard, and he looked very strange for me. And I asked, "You look other way." And he said, "Yes, yes, I know. I know."
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: Okay.
MR. FICK: So before these observations of Zubeidat in the hijab and Tamerlan in the beard, do you remember approximately when that was when you noticed the change?
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: I don't remember. Maybe 2008 or '9.
MR. FICK: Before that, had you ever known them to be dressed in religious garb, or had discussed, you know, religious topics?
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: When I talked to Zubeidat, but it was before she was religious, and once I remember she said that people who go in to kill somebody, it's not Muslim people. It's nothing common with religion.
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: Yes.
MR. FICK: When she started covering, did you observe how Anzor reacted to that, or did you observe any interactions between Zubeidat and Anzor about the subject of the religious change?
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: It's my opinion, but I --
MS. PELLEGRINI: Objection.
THE COURT: Re-put the question.
BY MR. FICK:
MR. FICK: So did you observe any interaction between Anzor and Zubeidat about Zubeidat's religious change?
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: We talked to Zubeidat, and she said that my --
MS. PELLEGRINI: Objection. Not responsive to the question.
THE COURT: About observations.
BY MR. FICK:
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: Yes. Yes. She said that she --
MS. PELLEGRINI: Your Honor, I'm going to object again.
THE COURT: I'll allow this.
BY MR. FICK:
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: She said that she was very happy that Tamerlan became very religious, and probably he will be --
MS. PELLEGRINI: Objection, your Honor. I'm going to ask that this be stricken.
THE COURT: No, it may stand.
BY MR. FICK:
MR. FICK: So -- and my question was a little bit different. What did you learn about Anzor's reaction to Zubeidat's religious development?
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: Anzor wasn't -- it seems to me that he wasn't really just -- and she was very upset that he's not so religious as her relatives are and as she.
MR. FICK: Okay. Do you remember right just a couple of days after the marathon bombing in 2013, you had called the FBI to tell them you knew about the suspects, right?
MS. PELLEGRINI: Objection, your Honor.
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: Yes.
THE COURT: Let me see you about this.
(Discussion at sidebar and out of the hearing of the jury:)
THE COURT: So what have you got?
MR. FICK: I wanted to simply -- I wanted to bring to her attention a couple of her statements to the FBI about specifically Anzor's -- what she had said back two years ago about Anzor's reaction to the newfound religiosity and what she had told them at that time about Tamerlan and Jahar's interactions.
MS. PELLEGRINI: I just don't think that was the question asked.
MS. PELLEGRINI: Well, actually, your Honor, the government has no record of -- his question was shortly after the bombing she called the FBI. She did not. We can find no record of that. If he's referring to the 302, then, again, that's getting into her impressions, and it's --
THE COURT: Was there something in the 302 that's --
MS. PELLEGRINI: Yes.
MR. FICK: I guess there were principally two things I wanted to sort of inquire about. "Anzor thought most of the practices and beliefs were bullshit. They fought repeatedly about her newfound religious dedication." That was one. And the other was a statement that "Jahar was under Tamerlan's power, and Tamerlan constantly advised and threatened Jahar."
MR. WEINREB: Your Honor, he can't impeach his own witness. If the witness says she doesn't remember, and then she could be refreshed, but she doesn't say she doesn't remember --
THE COURT: Yeah, that's what I was thinking. You could show her the 302 and see if that refreshes her recollection.
MR. WEINREB: But she's not saying she doesn't have a recollection. What matters is what she recollects now, if she has a recollection. It's only if she says she doesn't have a recollection that you can actually refresh it with something.
Throughout this whole trial, the defense has been showing witnesses things not really to refresh their recollection but just to get them to read something off of a document that they didn't remember and never knew in the first place.
This was just the notes of an FBI agent. It's not fair to put something in front of her and say, "Even though you recollect it this way today, you should adopt this because that was an FBI agent's recollection two years ago."
MR. FICK: It seems to me with any witness, any party can confront the witness with a prior statement and ask them about it.
MS. PELLEGRINI: Your Honor, again, actually, my objection is slightly different. When we first objected prior to her getting on the stand, it was about her impressions, without any kind of basis. Both of those paragraphs have no basis for why -- excuse me -- why she was providing those observations.
And from listening to this witness on the stand, she does not appear -- she's quite capable of understanding a question about her own observations and facts. She constantly starts the answer with "My opinion was," and this, again, is getting into her opinion, and it would be her opinion that she told the FBI. So now we're two and three steps removed from actuality and from any kind of fact.
MR. FICK: She made statements to the FBI about her observations, and what I was hoping to do was elicit a little bit more about what underlie the statements.
THE COURT: Well --
MS. PELLEGRINI: The question has already been asked, your Honor, about observations that she made about the relationship between Jahar and Tamerlan. She answered that fully. And now what Mr. Fick appears to want to do is to get in the opinion as to what she feels about the nature of the relationship based upon her observation.
THE COURT: Yeah, I think that's right. I'll sustain the objection.
(Discussion off the record.)
(In open court:)
BY MR. FICK:
MR. FICK: You had said a few minutes ago that you had seen Tamerlan Tsarnaev after he started -- his appearance changed, and you were scared. Can you tell us why that was?
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: As I told you, I came to America in 1992, and after these -- all 19 years -- 19th years, it was war between -- in Russia between Chechens and Russia, and --
MS. PELLEGRINI: Objection, your Honor.
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: -- I saw --
THE COURT: No, go ahead. Overruled.
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: Okay.
THE COURT: Go ahead.
MIRRA KUZNETSOV: (Through interpreter) He reminded Tamerlan Tsarnaev when I saw him.
BY MR. FICK:
MR. FICK: After that occasion you saw Tamerlan, did you ever see any of the Tsarnaevs in person again?
(The question was translated through the interpreter.)
MS. PELLEGRINI: No questions.
THE COURT: No questions? All right. Ms. Kuznetsov, thank you. You may step down.
(The witness is excused.)
MS. CLARKE: May I make sure that we have our next witness?
THE COURT: Okay.
MS. CLARKE: The defendant will call, your Honor, Dr. Alexander Niss.
THE COURT: Do we need the interpreter?
MS. CLARKE: Yes.