A Massachusetts district attorney said Thursday that she planned to prosecutor accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for the murder of MIT police officer Sean Collier after his current federal trial ends.
Tsarnaev already faces the possibility of the death penalty if convicted on charges he engineered the bombings, allegedly with his older brother, Tamerlan, who died in a shootout with police following Collier's killing.
Collier was killed on the night of April 18, 2013, during the frantic search for the suspects. His killing marked the start of a series of crimes the brothers allegedly committed in the manhunt's final 24 hours.
It was followed by a carjacking, a shootout with police, Tamerlan's death, and, finally, the discovery of Dzhokhar hiding in a boat parked behind a house in Watertown, a Boston suburb.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's defense lawyers have sought to portray him as under the influence of Tamerlan, whom they say masterminded the attacks.
A grand jury indicted Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for Collier's murder in June 2013.