AKIPRESS.COM - Two portraits have emerged of Boston Marathon terror suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, whose trial begins Monday, January 5th.

There’s Tsarnaev the bloodied fugitive, captured by police with rifle lasers tagging his head as he surrendered from a tarp-covered boat in a homeowner’s backyard. That ended a massive manhunt for suspects four days after a pair of crude pressure-cooker bombs killed three people and injured 264 more.

Prosecutors say the ideology of Islamic extremists motivated him and that he knew what he was doing when he planted a bomb at the marathon’s crowded finish line in April 2013.

Then there’s Tsarnaev smiling from the cover of Rolling Stone, a young man who prosecutors say fell under the sway of a manipulative older brother bent on jihad.

Defense attorneys have suggested Tsarnaev was controlled by that brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed in a confrontation with police three days after the bombing. The younger drove over the older brother and escaped.

Defense attorneys also have said the family’s history played a role in shaping Tsarnaev. They note that the family, of Chechen ethnicity, experienced difficulties dating to World War II, when Josef Stalin deported mass populations to Central Asia.

The death of Tamerlan Tsarnaev leaves Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, now 21, to stand trial alone. Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in a trial that could last months. He has pleaded not guilty to more than 30 federal charges, including using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death.

“Prosecutors appear to have virtually incontrovertible evidence supporting their claim that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan, planned and executed the Boston Marathon bombing,” said CNN legal analyst Paul Callan, a former prosecutor and defense attorney.

“The defense, on the other hand, will push for a more expansive ‘War and Peace’ type presentation to create a narrative that paints Dzhokhar as the innocent pawn of a domineering older brother,” Callan added. “A more expansive presentation of Dzhokhar’s family and psychological history is more likely to be seen during the sentencing phase if the jury returns a guilty verdict.”