Tsarnaev pal moving to Calif. for college, job prospects
Discouraged by repeated rejections in his pursuit of work, a Cambridge man convicted of trying to throw investigators off the trail of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is moving to southern California to restart his life.
Robel Kidane Phillipos’ past will be right behind him.
U.S. District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock has agreed to the relocation; the Central District of California is accepting responsibility for the approximately 30 months remaining on Phillipos’ supervised federal probation.
There is one condition: Phillipos, 24, must consent to anyone in law enforcement searching him, his home, vehicle, cellphone and other electronic devices “at any time, with or without warrant,” court documents signed by Phillipos and Woodlock state.
Phillipos, a childhood friend and University of Massachusetts Dartmouth classmate of Tsarnaev, 25, was released from federal prison in February after serving a three-year stretch.
But according to a court filing by U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services, “Due to the nature and circumstances surrounding Mr. Phillipos’ charges in relation to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, he has encountered hardships in finding employment opportunities in the Boston, MA, area.”
Phillipos, the report continues, has been accepted at a college in Santa Monica, Calif., and had “a lead on a part-time job at a local 7-11 convenience store.”
Tsarnaev, 25, convicted in 2015 of the terrorist attack on Copley Square that killed three people and injured hundreds of others, awaits execution at the federal Supermax penitentiary in Colorado. His first appeal is due Nov. 19.