Boston Marathon Accomplice Indicted: 16 Years Maximum Sentence

A friend of the alleged Boston Marathon bomber went to court Thursday, with Robert Phillips indicted by a grand jury for allegations of giving false testimony to authorities. Phillips, a 19-year-old friend of bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, also stands accused of disposing of evidence. 

The bombings, which took place on April 15, rocked the Massachusetts capital on a day that had been, until then, long associated with city pride and the arrival of spring. Dzhokhar, 19 years old at the time, and older brother Tamerlan, 26, allegedly set off two pressure-cooker bombs at the finish line of the run, killing three people and injuring an estimated 264 more.

After the Federal Bureau of Investigation released video stills of the suspects to the general public, the brothers allegedly killed an MIT security guard, carjacked an SUV, and lead the police through the outlying suburbs of Boston. Tamerlan died after being run over by his brother in the chaos of a firefight with the police, and Dzhokhar was eventually apprehended after hiding out in a boat behind a house in Watertown.

For Phillips, son of an Ethiopian immigrant, the false testimony charge carries a maximum possible sentence of 16 years imprisonment. Philips met Tsarnaev while the two studied together at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and became friends thereafter. Phillips' attorneys claims the boy is being egregiously prosecuted. "In time, it will be clear that this prosecution should not have been brought in the first place," his attorney said in a statement, according to CBS News.

The exact charges relate to April 18, three days after the bombing and the day before the shootout and arrest - when Phillips and two friends (Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov) met Tsarnaev in his dorm room. According to authorities, the three friends left with several of Tsarnaev's possessions, including a backpack full of fireworks and Tsarnaev's laptop.

Both Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov have pleaded not guilty to the charges, as has Tsarnaev to 30 charges related to the bombing itself.

Following charges, a judge ordered Phillips released on a $100,000 bond, under house arrest and electronic confinement.