Boston Marathon bomber trial delayed two months, judge rules

The federal judge overseeing the case of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev agreed Wednesday evening to delay the trial start date for two months, but rejected a defense request to move the case out of the Boston area.

U.S. District Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. issued the orders after a long pretrial battle between defense lawyers and government prosecutors over when and where the trial should be held. Three people were killed and more than 260 injured when two pressure cooker bombs hidden in backpacks were left near the finish line of the annual marathon in April 2013.

Defense lawyers had sought a longer delay of the trial, originally set to begin Nov. 3. They said they had been inundated with work and needed more time to review FBI evidence and interview potential witnesses, both in the U.S. and abroad.

Government prosecutors accused the defense of stalling. The case centers on Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan, who prosecutors allege planned and carried out the attack.

Tamerlan was killed in a police shootout several days after the bombings. Dzhokhar was captured hiding in a dry-docked boat in a Boston suburb.

The judge set a new trial date for Jan. 5.

Regarding the location for the trial, the defense had asked the judge to move it to western Massachusetts, New York City or Washington, D.C. They said a jury pool from Boston would be too prejudiced against their client to give him a fair trial.

Prosecutors countered that the entire country was just as informed about the high-profile bombings and that there was no need to relocate the case.

O’Toole ordered that the trial remain in Boston.

The judge said he had handled other recent high-profile criminal cases in Boston and believed “a fair and impartial jury can be empaneled.” In the other recent cases, he said, “the jurors returned mixed verdicts, indicating a careful evaluation of the trial evidence despite widespread media coverage.”

He added that the defense request for a 10-month delay did not “appear necessary.” He said a two-month delay would provide “additional, though limited, time to prepare.”

He set a final pretrial conference for Dec. 18.

@RickSerranoLAT