Alleged Boston marathon bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, entered a not guilty plea in court on Wednesday, according to The New York Times

He faces 30 counts, which include the use of a weapon of mass destruction to kill three people. The 19-year-old Chechen and naturalized American citizen entered the plea in a Boston courtroom before federal magistrate judge Marianne B. Bowler. Several survivors of the bombings were present at the courtroom to witness his plea.

Members of Tsarnaev's former high-school wrestling team were also in attendance. About a half-dozen of them stood outside the courtroom, hoping to get a glimpse of the friend they thought the once knew.

""I really want to see what his reaction is today," said Shun Tsou, a 20-year-old who spent three years on the team with the accused bomber. "If he doesn't care, if he does care - I want to see."

At the hearing, Tsarnaev leaned toward a microphone and said "Not guilty" in a Russian accent, and repeated the phrase approximately a half-dozen more times as his charges were read. Wednesday was Tsarnaev's first public appearance since Boston police captured him as he hid in a boat in a suburban home. His older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was killed in a confrontation with police shortly after the duo stole a SUV and robbed a gas station.

Prosecutors said the brothers detonated two pressure cookers filled with explosives and other harmful objects, including nails, near the finish line of the Boston marathon on April 15. Dzhokhar is also charged in the shooting death of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean A. Collier, who encountered the Chechen brothers the night they robbed the gas station.

Tsarnaev could face the death penalty or life in prison if he is convicted. He also faces more than 12 state charges from a grand jury in Middlesex County, including the murder of Collier.

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Boston bombing, Dzhokhar tsarnaev