Turns out the government gave him the alleged gun that killed Sean Collier, thus entirely discrediting the official version.
Related:
The Strange Tale of Stephen Silva
Government Silence on Silva
They just broke it:
"US paid witness in case against friend of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev" by Milton J. Valencia | Globe Staff September 10, 2014
A cooperating witness in a federal case that may involve the gun used by the suspected Boston Marathon bombers was paid more than $66,000 for his assistance, according to court records filed Wednesday.
The witness, whom authorities would not identify to protect his safety, is cooperating in the case of Stephen Silva, a close friend of alleged bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Silva was arraigned last month in federal court in Boston on seven counts of heroin distribution and conspiracy to distribute heroin, and one count of possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
I was told the Tsarnaevs liked marijuana.
Prosecutors say Silva possessed a Ruger P95 9mm pistol, with a largely defaced serial number, in February 2013.
A gun of that description was recovered in a Watertown neighborhood on the early morning of April 19, 2013, after police exchanged gunfire with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, his older brother, who was the other suspected bomber. Police later determined that the gun found in Watertown was the one allegedly used by the Tsarnaevs to shoot and kill MIT officer Sean Collier hours earlier, on the night of April 18.
Silva’s lawyer, Jonathan Shapiro, has told the Globe that federal authorities have said that Silva’s gun charge is related to the Collier shooting.
Shapiro said he could not comment on the court filing Wednesday.
Silva, 21, of Cambridge, has been held without bail. He has not talked to authorities about his case. He was called before “a federal grand jury over a year ago in connection with another matter and invoked his Fifth Amendment rights,” according to the court filing Wednesday.
The US attorney’s office has not said how they have linked Silva to the pistol.
Silva has not been charged with anything related to the Boston Marathon bombings, which killed three people and injured more than 260. He has been described by MBTA police as a “street-level” drug dealer, the lowest rung of any drug-dealing enterprise.
The documents that were filed Wednesday were presented to Shapiro as a preliminary overview of evidence in the case, and they included a history of the confidential witness, who was cooperating in the drug investigation against Silva.
The witness allegedly bought drugs from Silva, and the documents spell out his other work with the FBI.
They picked Silva out for this just as they picked out the Tsarnaevs to be the designated patsies.
The witness had at one point been a member of a violent street gang, and a relative of the witness faced federal drug and gun charges at the time the witness began cooperating. The relative, who has also cooperated with the government, has pleaded guilty to those charges and authorities have agreed to note that cooperation to the sentencing judge.
The witness has received approximately $66,000 from the government for the witness’s involvement in the Silva case and other investigations. The total includes payments for services, expenses, and relocation costs, as well as vehicle fines.
At one point, when the witness first began cooperating, he was pulled over for speeding in New Hampshire and had a suspended driver’s license. A state trooper assigned to an FBI task force advised the New Hampshire officer of the witness’s cooperation. Authorities in New Hampshire towed the witness’s car but did not cite him. The FBI task force subsequently helped the witness obtain a license allowing him to drive at certain times.
At one point, the FBI paid an outstanding fine that the witness had with a prior landlord, so that the witness could obtain Section 8 housing.
Thank you, taxpayers!
During the time the witness was cooperating with the FBI, he was arrested for failing to pay a civil fine for child support. A Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent called a state Department of Revenue attorney asking for the witness’s release, but the department refused.
The government has also helped the witness and his family relocate, and has indicated it will provide further assistance to ensure the safety of the witness and his family. The government has refused to identify the witness at this time out of fear that it would “put [the witness’s] safety and the safety of its family in jeopardy.”
And we might what scum set up Silva.
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And after three months of custody?
"Tsarnaev friend linked to gun tied to Collier murder to change plea" by Patricia Wen and John R. Ellement, Globe Staff December 15, 2014
A Cambridge Rindge and Latin alumnus charged with possessing a gun that was allegedly used later by the Boston Marathon bombing suspects to kill an MIT police officer is set to plead guilty on Friday, according to court records filed Monday.
Why did intimidation or torture just flash through my head?
The development suggests that Stephen Silva, 21, who had previously pleaded not guilty to a series of drug and weapon charges, has agreed to plead guilty to at least some of the charges in return for government leniency, and, given the timing, raises the strong possibility that he will testify against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, his former high school classmate who is charged in the bombings and the officer’s slaying.
Looks like extortion to me, and one wonders what threats the government made against him or his family. You better sign this, or else....!!
Court records did not give any specifics of the change of plea, and Silva’s lawyer, Jonathan Shapiro, did not return phone calls to his office Monday.
Mark Pearlstein, a former veteran federal prosecutor in Boston, said the timing of the plea deal is curious, coming about four months after Silva’s arraignment and only two weeks before the start of Tsarnaev’s trial. Pearlstein said he has no first-hand knowledge of the plea, but he would expect prosecutors in the Tsarnaev case to seek Silva as a witness and make a plea deal before the trial begins.
Aside from the federal gun charge, Silva has been accused of conspiracy to sell heroin and possession of heroin on six occasions in June in Medford. The conspiracy charge is the most serious offense he faces; if convicted, he would face a prison term of five to 40 years.
Pearlstein, who is now a lawyer with McDermott Will & Emery, said that if a plea arrangement made Friday is sealed, that would further suggest Silva is providing critical testimony in the upcoming high-profile bombing case.
Like he gave them the gun the government informant gave him??
In exchange, prosecutors could recommend a lighter sentence.
Then the testimony is discredited, and in fact, the entire trial is now compromised.
Meanwhile, a relative of Silva’s, who asked not to be named to avoid involvement in the case, said he has spoken with Silva on the phone since his arraignment, most recently around Thanksgiving, but had not yet heard about a plea deal.
Silva graduated from Cambridge Rindge and Latin with Tsarnaev. The two also worked together as lifeguards at Harvard University’s main pool and were close friends.
I feel so bad for the kids caught up in the patsy's circle of friends.
Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan, are accused of setting off two bombs that killed three and injured 260 others on April 15, 2013. A few days later, after the FBI published photos of the alleged bombers, the brothers went on the run and allegedly killed Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier in a failed effort to get his gun, officials said.
Tamerlan later died in a shootout with police in Watertown. His brother was captured in a dry-docked boat behind a Watertown home.
During the shootout with police, agents found a weapon — a Ruger P95 9mm — that they say was used in the killing of Collier. Federal prosecutors have charged Silva with possessing a gun of that exact model in February of 2013, two months before the bombing.
While prosecutors have not explicitly said that Silva provided the gun to the Tsarnaevs, Silva’s attorney said he was told by federal authorities that the gun charge is related to the MIT officer’s death.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty to numerous charges, including some that carry the death penalty, and is being held without bail. Jury selection is set to begin in his trial in early January.
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NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Tsarnaev friend pleads guilty to heroin, gun charges" by Patricia Wen, Globe Staff December 19, 2014
A former high school classmate of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev pleaded guilty Friday to charges that he once possessed a Ruger pistol that his lawyer said has been linked to the fatal shooting of an MIT police officer, allegedly by Tsarnaev and his brother.
As part of a deal with federal prosecutors — the details of which were kept under seal by a judge — Stephen Silva, 21, pleaded guilty to an eight-count indictment of drug and gun charges. Prosecutors did not say whether Silva would testify against Tsarnaev, or what type of sentence reduction Silva might receive in exchange for any cooperation.
So what is the government hiding?
All but one of the charges Silva faced stemmed from heroin sales he made in Medford last summer to an undercover agent. The eighth charge, however, is the one that makes the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School graduate a potential key witness linking Tsarnaev to the shooting of MIT police officer Sean Collier.
Prosecutors have alleged that a few days after the Marathon bombing last year, Tsarnaev and older brother Tamerlan murdered Collier “by shooting him in the head at close range with a Ruger P95 9mm semiautomatic handgun, and attempted to steal his service weapon.”
Investigators found a 9mm Ruger P95 after a shootout in Watertown between the Tsarnaevs and police, and identified it as the weapon used to kill Collier.
Looks like a PLANT to me!
On Friday, US District Court Judge Mark Wolf asked Silva about the government’s accusation that he had possessed a Ruger P95 9mm pistol, with an obscured serial number, in February 2013 — roughly two months before the bombing.
“Did you commit this crime?” Wolf asked Silva.
“Yes I did, your honor,” replied Silva, who used to work as a lifeguard at Harvard’s main swimming pool with Tsarnaev.
I feel sorry for anyone who crossed paths with the patsies.
The court proceedings did not provide any details linking Silva to the Ruger handgun; however, his lawyer, Jonathan Shapiro, has previously told the Globe that federal agents informed him that his client’s gun charge is related to the Collier shooting.
Later, prosecutor Peter Levitt provided some information about the evidence that Silva would have faced if he had gone trial, including extensive phone, text, and video evidence of his drug transactions with an undercover agent and a cooperating witness.
On the gun charge, Levitt said the government has evidence that, during conversations related to the heroin sales, Silva said that in February 2013 he was in possession of a specific model of a Ruger with an obliterated serial number, and that he later “transferred” the gun to “another individual.”
The government also alleged that Silva illegally obtained the gun from across state lines.
The prosecutor did not name the individual who received the gun, or say why Silva transferred the gun to that person.
After the hearing ended Friday, Silva’s attorney said he is not at liberty to disclose the terms of the plea agreement, other than to say both sides agreed to keep it sealed.
The most serious charge in Silva’s guilty plea is conspiracy to distribute heroin, which carries a minimum 5-year prison sentence and maximum 40-year term. When asked whether Silva hopes to get less than five years, based on his cooperation with the government, Shapiro said, “I certainly hope so.”
The guilty plea makes Silva the fourth friend of Tsarnaev to be convicted on charges related to the aftermath of the explosions on April 15, 2013.
Three friends from University of Massachusetts Dartmouth were found to have entered Tsarnaev’s dorm room on April 18, 2013, shortly after photos of Tsarnaev and his older brother were made public by the FBI. Two have admitted playing a role in taking an incriminating backpack from the room and later disposing of it, while another was found guilty of lying about being with them on the night the backpack was taken.
Silva’s attorney emphasized that his client had nothing to do directly with the crimes allegedly committed by the Tsarnaev brothers.
“He’s not charged with having anything to do with the bombing,’’ Shapiro said.
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