Court Documents Link Tamerlan Tsarnaev to the Waltham Triple Murder

Ibragim Todashev, shot and killed by the FBI in May, implicated Tamerlan Tsarnaev in a 2011 Waltham triple murder, according to newly-filed court documents.

On September 12, 2011, Brendan Mess, Raphael Teken, and Erik Weissman were found dead in their Waltham apartment. Ever since Tamerlan Tsarnaev was implicated in the bombing at the Boston Marathon finish line, investigators have probed the older Tsarnaev’s role in that earlier crime. Now, Fox 25 reports that prosecutors filed a motion alleging that “according to Todsahev, Tamerlan Tsarnaev participated in the Waltham triple homicide.”

While questioning Todashev in Florida in connection with the murders, an FBI agent shot and killed him. Todashev’s girlfriend has since been deported. This motion confirms that first he gave them info connecting Tsarnaev to the crime.

The motion is part of an effort to block Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s defense team from obtaining every document the government has concerning the Waltham murders. The defense appears to want the material to contest a potential death penalty recommendation for their client, though the investigation’s connection to the crimes with which Dzhokhar is charged aren’t obvious. Prosecutors say that turning it over would harm the investigation and serve little purpose in Tsarnaev’s defense.