As news of convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s guilty verdict made its way across the nation Wednesday afternoon, two women in Texas breathed sighs of relief.
Rebekah Gregory, of Houston, was standing at the finish line in 2013, cheering on runners, when the bombs exploded. She ultimately lost her left leg as a result of the explosions.
"Our lives will never, ever be the same. But I hope that with this, we can move forward and remember that we still are here for a reason, and that there's a bigger plan,” said Gregory on Wednesday.
"I may be standing on one fake leg. But I'm standing here stronger than ever because someone tried to destroy me. And he failed. They both failed,” she said.
Witnesses in the courtroom said Tsarnaev, 21, showed little emotion as the jury revealed its decision: guilty on all 30 criminal counts, including using a weapon of mass destruction and bombing a public place.
Tsarnaev now faces the death penalty.
“It’ll be nice when it’s all over and done and people can move on with their lives and not worry about him anymore,” said Weatherford resident Felicia Harvey.
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Harvey was at mile-24 during the Boston Marathon in 2013 when security officials stopped her, saying the race had been halted.
She watched the chaos unfold on a TV at a nearby church.
“It’s hard to think about. It doesn’t seem like it really happened,” she said, reflecting on that day.
Harvey said she has no remorse for the brothers who planned the attack.
“No, not at all. They killed innocent people. So no, not at all,” she said.
The sentencing phase for Tsarnaev is expected to begin early next week.
