Feds present dramatic display of 22 long guns, 12 handguns recovered from refuge

By Maxine Bernstein, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore. (TNS)

Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2016 | 2 a.m.

Prosecutors rested their case Tuesday against Ammon Bundy and six co-defendants after presenting jurors with a dramatic display of firearms, including 22 long guns and 12 handguns seized from the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

The presentation capped 10 days of testimony in the federal conspiracy case against Ammon Bundy, older brother Ryan Bundy and five others. Defense lawyers and the defendants representing themselves will start their case Wednesday.

One by one, FBI agent Ronnie Walker handed each gun to fellow agent Nick Vanicelli on the witness stand.

Vanicelli held up the rifles and handguns that authorities found on the front seats of cars or the beds of trucks, stuffed under a cot or resting on top of a stump, left on the grass or inside a cooler in the west encampment of the refuge after the 41-day occupation of the bird sanctuary.

Vanicelli identified each firearm, where he discovered it and whether it had been loaded.

Then Walker took the weapon back and propped it against a white board leaning against the witness stand.

After about 20 minutes of testimony, the collection of firepower sat in a teepee-type formation in front of jurors.

Next, a cart that usually holds bound volumes of trial notebooks was wheeled in and the agents presented the handguns — 11 found at the encampment and one found in a green truck parked outside the old fire shop near the refuge headquarters — in the same manner.

Once the firearms were removed from the courtroom, FBI agents hauled in 14 large black bins, topped with bright yellow lids. They contained evidence bags holding thousands of rounds of ammunition recovered.

Federal agents bagged 18,331 separate pieces of ammunition at the refuge — including 16,636 live rounds, 1,627 spent casings at the refuge boat launch and 68 spent casings from the headquarters area, Walker testified.

As Walker was about to identify what was in each of the bags, U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown directed prosecutors to speed up their presentation. "Can't we just do a summary, please," she said. "Let's get on with it."

While defense lawyers were quick to point out through cross-examination that none of the guns or ammunition were illegal, prosecutors hoped to show that the mere volume, presence and use of some of the firearms for target practice reveal the defendants' intent to intimidate refuge employees from returning to work at the federal property.

The Bundys, David Fry, Shawna Cox, Jeff Banta, Kenneth Medenbach and Neil Wampler are charged with conspiring to prevent federal employees from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management from doing their jobs. Five of the seven are also charged with possession of a firearm in a federal facility.

Testimony showed that a Savage Arms .300 Winchester rifle purchased by takeover leader Ammon Bundy was among five long guns found on the front seat of Fry's 1988 Lincoln Town Car at the encampment — the spot where Fry and three others held out for the last two weeks of the occupation before surrendering Feb. 11.

Bundy's rifle wasn't loaded. A firearms trace showed Bundy bought it at Cabela's Retail in Glendale, Arizona, on Aug. 29, 2012.

As FBI agent Vanicelli held up the rifle and tried to place it into a gun case found at the refuge with the name "AMMON" on it, Bundy's lawyer Marcus Mumford agreed that it fit into the soft rifle case and the agent didn't need to demonstrate it.

"Mr. Bundy said it's a very nice-looking gun," Mumford added.

The judge directed jurors to disregard Mumford's comment.

Two of the five long guns in Fry's car were loaded: an SKS-style 7.62mm rifle, which had 21 rounds with it, and a Steyr PW Arms 7.62x54R caliber rifle loaded with five rounds, Vanicelli testified.

Also in Fry's car was a New England Firearms .12-gauge shotgun and a Winchester model 94A .30-caliber rifle. A Second Amendment and Tea Party Patriots bumper sticker on the back of Fry's Lincoln read, "One Right That Secures Them All."

A large tent at the encampment held the biggest arsenal — nine long guns and five handguns. Two of the long guns — a Tennessee Arms rifle and a Stevens .12-gauge shotgun — were loaded and found beneath a cot in the tent. A Remington rifle loaded with four rounds of .308-caliber ammunition was hanging on one post of the tent, beside a pair of camouflage pants, the agent testified.

A .38-caliber revolver with a wooden handle was pictured on a stump beside a lean-to at the encampment and later seen in a video jutting out of the right pants pocket of Jeff Banta, testimony revealed.

The driver's license of Shawna Cox was found on the rear passenger seat of a white government vehicle that had a Harney County Resource Center decal on its side. Inside the vehicle was a pouch containing a 9mm handgun with two magazines of ammunition, the agent said.

During cross-examination, Cox's standby counsel Tiffany Harris established that the 9mm gun didn't belong to Cox and that there was no evidence Cox had been seen driving around the refuge in the vehicle.

A Smith & Wesson .357-caliber handgun was seen lying inside a cooler, beside a container of pistachio nuts, in the tent at the encampment. It was loaded with six rounds, the agent testified.

Thousands of rounds of ammunition also were found with the firearms, in the trucks at the scene or scattered in and around the tent.

In a Chevy Silverado truck with Idaho plates that belonged to co-defendants Sean and Sandy Anderson, authorities found two rifles, three handguns and 2,639 rounds of ammunition, the agent said. A bumper sticker on the truck read, "Only Good Guys with Guns Stop Bad Guys with Guns."

The Andersons are set for trial in mid-February.

More than 3,417 rounds were discovered outside the tent and about 1,554 rounds were inside, Vanicelli testified. Ninety-eight other rounds of ammunition, for example, were scattered on the seat of an ATV parked at the site. Twenty-seven bullets, propped up in a Styrofoam container, sat on the dashboard of a truck.

Vanicelli also identified a black 9mm pistol found in a green Dodge pickup with Texas license plates that was parked beside the old fire shop at refuge headquarters. Beside the pistol, he said he found a silencer. He twisted the silencer onto the pistol to show it fit and held it up for jurors.

In the bed of that truck, the agent said he found 1,050 rounds of ammunition.

Jurors were notified before the unusual display of firearms that all the weapons were unloaded and "rendered safe."

During cross-examination, defense lawyers tried to distance their clients from the guns. They also revealed that the federal government didn't pursue indictments against everyone identified as the owners, or last purchasers, of the guns they collected from the refuge.

Fry's lawyer Per C. Olson asked, "Any of them tied back to David Fry in any way?"

Vanicelli said he didn't think so.

Defense lawyer Robert Salisbury established that his client, Jeff Banta, had lawfully bought a .12-gauge Remington shotgun found unloaded in the encampment, inside his white truck with Nevada plates.

Mumford repeatedly asked Vanicelli if he knew who drove the vehicles to the encampment or if he had done further investigation into who owned the firearms.

He said he didn't, that his sole job was to identify and collect the firearms. The agent said, under cross-examination, that he also found significant amounts of cash at the encampment but was directed not to seize the money. This was in contrast to large amounts of cash that authorities seized from other locations in the refuge.

Later testimony revealed that only three of the estimated 12 vehicles at the encampment were privately owned, belonging to Fry, Banta and co-defendants Sean and Sandy Anderson. The rest were government vehicles.

"Are any of these guns illegal?" defendant Ryan Bundy asked Vanicelli.

"Not that I'm aware of," the agent replied.

"Are any of the ammunition illegal?" Ryan Bundy asked.

"Not that I'm aware of," Vanicelli said again.

Attorney Matthew Schindler, on behalf of Medenbach, asked agent Walker, "How many live rounds were fired at employees of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge?"

Walker responded that live rounds weren't fired.

"Good point, sir," Schindler said.

During another showing of a video of men firing assault rifles from the refuge boat launch, testimony from Walker revealed that he was only able to identify one man in the video, Ryan Payne, who stood behind the firing line and appeared to be supervising.

Walker said he thinks another man in the video was either defendant Jason Patrick or Corey Lequieu but he wasn't sure. Patrick is set for trial in February; Lequieu has pleaded guilty to conspiracy.

"For the most part your case rests on photos and pictures of guns and ammo," Ryan Bundy said during his cross-examination of Agent Walker. The judge asked jurors to disregard his question.

"You know of no evidence anyone personally intimidated a refuge employee," Ryan Bundy continued. Again, the judge urged jurors to disregard his statement.

"What are the American people permitted to do to protest improper actions?" Ryan Bundy asked the agent.

The judge cut him off. "Mr. Bundy, this is improper cross," Brown told him.

Once the government rested its case at 3:25 p.m., the judge heard legal motions about jury instructions and denied a motion for acquittal offered by Medenbach.