Published Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017 | 10:21 a.m.
Updated Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017 | 3:02 p.m.
A prosecutor relied heavily on photos Tuesday during closing arguments to a jury being asked to find four men guilty of wielding assault-style weapons and threatening federal agents during a protest to stop a roundup of cattle belonging to rancher and anti-government figure Cliven Bundy in April 2014.
Scott Drexler, Ricky Lovelien, Eric Parker and Steven Stewart had firearms, not flags or signs, at the confrontation near the rural southern Nevada town of Bunkerville, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nadia Ahmed.
"They did it. They helped each other do it. They agreed with each other to do it," Ahmed said as trial drew to a close after five weeks of testimony in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas.
One photo showed the four men with their rifles standing in a row on a freeway overpass after a tense high-noon confrontation involving hundreds of protesters convinced about 30 heavily armed federal Bureau of Land Management agents to give up the roundup and release several hundred Bundy cows.
Parker and Drexler were each photographed earlier, prone on the pavement of the Interstate 15 overpass and looking with assault-style rifles through seams in a concrete roadside barrier toward the federal agents in a U-shaped dry riverbed below.
Attorneys for the four men will summarize their defenses before the jury begins deliberating on 10 conspiracy, weapon, assault on a federal agent and other charges. The defendants could face decades in prison if they're convicted.
Proving conspiracy will be crucial for prosecutors ahead of another trial expected later this year for the Bundy family patriarch, his eldest sons Ammon and Ryan, and two other defendants. They each face 15 charges.
Six other defendants, including two other Bundy sons, are slated for trial next year.
A jury in April found two co-defendants guilty of some charges, but failed to reach verdicts for the four now being retried.
Cliven Bundy says he doesn't recognize federal authority over public lands — a position that echoes the anti-government sentiment that sparked the Sagebrush Rebellion more than 40 years ago seeking state and local control of vast tracts of federally owned land in the West.
The issue has grown as federal officials designate protected areas for endangered species and set aside tracts for mining, wind farms and natural gas exploration.
