Man who loaned gun to Boston Marathon bombers to be sentenced
- 8 years ago
A man who lent the Boston Marathon bombers the gun they used to kill a police officer three days after the 2013 attack is due in court on Tuesday to be sentenced for drug and firearms charges.
Stephen Silva was not accused of playing any role in the April 15, 2013, bombing, which killed three people and injured 264, but he pleaded guilty last year to drug charges and to having possessed a handgun with its serial number filed off.
Tsarnaev was found guilty in April of carrying out the bombing attack along with his older brother as well as shooting dead Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier, 27, three days later.
Defense lawyers noted that Silva had already given the gun to Tsarnaev by the time of the drug dealing that led to the charges, when he sold heroin to a government informant in 2014 as investigators were probing his ties to the Tsarnaev brothers.
Stephen Silva was not accused of playing any role in the April 15, 2013, bombing, which killed three people and injured 264, but he pleaded guilty last year to drug charges and to having possessed a handgun with its serial number filed off.
Tsarnaev was found guilty in April of carrying out the bombing attack along with his older brother as well as shooting dead Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier, 27, three days later.
Defense lawyers noted that Silva had already given the gun to Tsarnaev by the time of the drug dealing that led to the charges, when he sold heroin to a government informant in 2014 as investigators were probing his ties to the Tsarnaev brothers.