After weeks of showing no emotion, Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev dropped his blank façade as he wept momentarily while his aunt took the witness stand on Monday.
Tsarnaev had shown neither interest nor remorse in the course of his trial and did not even flinch as videos of the tragedy's aftermath were shown in court. However, in a rare display of emotion, the Boston bomber was seen wiping his eyes and nose after one of his aunts took the stand to testify.
Patimat Suleimanova, who had not seen her nephew since he was 8, began crying even before she started to speak. She broke down and sobbed uncontrollably, her weeping being heard throughout the courtroom, until the judge ordered that another witness be called so she could compose herself. As his aunt stepped down from the stand, Tsarnaev got some tissues and wiped tears from his eyes, according to ABC News.
In another instance, when the court called for a recess, he blew a kiss at another aunt while he was being escorted out of the room, according to The Telegraph.
Tsarnaev's lawyers sent for some of his relatives to testify, and two aunts and three cousins came from Russia. They arrived in the U.S. using S visas, which are issued to aliens who are summoned as informants but pose a security threat. The bomber's relatives were held under hotel arrest while they stayed in the United States.
Tsarnaev's lawyers are hoping to paint a more humanized picture of him by asking his relatives to testify. His relatives showed pictures of him when he was a child. One cousin said, "He was a good boy." Another cousin, Raisat Suleimanova, said she remembered how he cried when Simba's father died in "The Lion King," according to ABC News.
The trial for the Boston Marathon bombing is now on its penalty phase, in which jurors will decide if Tsarnaev will get the death penalty by lethal injection. In April, Tsarnaev was convicted of 30 federal charges, 17 of which are punishable by death.
His lawyers maintain that he was merely influenced by his older brother Tamerlan, who was the mastermind behind the bombing.
