Teacher: Tsarnaev always wanted to do right thing

Associated Press

BOSTON

As a child, Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was quiet, hardworking and “always wanted to do the right thing,” his third-grade teacher testified Wednesday to jurors who will decide whether he spends the rest of his life in prison or is sentenced to death.

Catheryn Charner-Laird testified on the third day of the defense case in the penalty phase of Tsarnaev’s trial as his lawyers shifted the focus away from his older brother, Tamerlan. The defense has portrayed Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died days after the bombing, as the mastermind of the attack.

Three people were killed and more than 260 wounded when two pressure-cooker bombs exploded near the finish line of the marathon April 15, 2013.

Tsarnaev, 21, was convicted of all 30 charges against him, including 17 that carry the possibility of the death penalty. The same jury now must decide his punishment.

On Wednesday, Tsarnaev’s lawyers called witnesses to testify about what he was like as a child, years before he became the Boston Marathon bomber.

“He was just learning English at that time,” Charner-Laird said, referring to Tsarnaev’s recent move to the U.S. from Russia with his family.

Tsarnaev was 9 in the fall of 2002 when he was one of her students in a combination class for third- and fourth-graders at the Cambridgeport School.

“He was incredibly hardworking,” she said. “He cared a lot about his studies; he tried very hard.”

Many times, he didn’t know what to do because of the language barrier, she said. But he “always wanted to do the right thing,” she said.