AP Photo/John Locher
Supporters raise a flag outside of the federal courthouse Monday, April 24, 2017, in Las Vegas. A jury found two men guilty of federal charges Monday in an armed standoff that stopped federal agents from rounding up cattle near Cliven Bundy’s Nevada ranch in 2014. Jurors said they were deadlocked on charges against four other men, and the judge told them to keep deliberating.
Monday, Oct. 30, 2017 | 10 p.m.
Potential jurors tasked with helping determine the fate of embattled Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, his two sons and a fourth man alleged to have conspired against Bureau of Land Management officials during a 2014 standoff in Bunkerville faced hours of questions Monday about their emotional reaction to the Oct. 1 mass shooting on the Strip, their beliefs on gun control and whether protesters should be allowed to carry firearms.
Forty-nine of 60 potential jurors filled a seventh-floor courtroom at U.S. District Court Monday in Las Vegas, where a team of federal prosecutors and defense attorneys worked with Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro to narrow that number to 28 by the end of the nine-hour session. Among those who didn’t make the final tally on Monday — which will be further trimmed on Wednesday before the final 12-person jury is decided on Thursday — included a Route 91 Harvest Festival survivor and another woman who was evacuated from the Luxor on Oct 1.
“There was no right or wrong answer — we’re just trying to determine whether we can have an unbiased jury in light of recent events and the direction of our country,” Cliven Bundy’s attorney Bret Whipple told the Las Vegas Sun.
Following a three-hour morning session that saw over a dozen jurors dismissed because of financial hardships, time restraints or family obligations, U.S. prosecuting attorney Daniel Schiess questioned the remaining 32 jurors on whether they believed guns should be allowed at protests, and to what extent people should be allowed to use them.
Whipple responded by asking potential jurors what their reaction was to the Oct. 1 mass shooting, and upon finding two such jurors who had been personally involved, dug deeper with a series of questions about their ability to make unbiased decisions for the trial.
“If you were sitting over there, would you want someone in that mental state deciding on your future?” Whipple asked the Route 91 Harvest Festival survivor, pointing to Cliven Bundy, who sat quietly in his bright red inmate scrubs.
“I’d want someone that was emotionally stable,” the woman quietly responded as she held back tears. She was dismissed minutes later.
Cliven Bundy, sons Ammon and Ryan Bundy and Iraq war veteran Ryan Payne each face 22 felony charges, including counts of conspiracy against and assault on federal officers, for their role in the April 2014 standoff, which saw over 100 citizen militiamen and nearly as many federal agents point weapons at one another during a BLM-mandate roundup of Bundy’s cattle near Bunkerville. The charges could add up to life in prison for each of the four defendants if convicted.
The four sat in Navarro’s courtroom alongside their respective council on Monday, each dressed in their red inmate uniforms despite being allowed to wear civilian clothes.
Tension in Monday’s seventh-floor courtroom reached its peak as Ryan Bundy stepped to the lectern to speak with potential jurors before final cuts were made on Monday. Wearing his jumpsuit and sporting a blond handlebar mustache that extended down his chin — a stark contrast from the suit-and-tie clad attorneys at the podium before him — Bundy greeted the jurors by uttering a line from Nevada's official state song.
“Home means Nevada, home means the hills,” Bundy said solemnly, as the jurors stared back at him.
Bundy, who is representing himself with standby counsel available, said a car accident when he was 7 years old caused permanent nerve damage to the right side of his face. He played to the jurors’ emotions by first asking whether his facial paralysis would affect their decision-making during the upcoming trial.
“I am often misjudged because my facial expressions are misunderstood,” he said, as jurors nodded in sympathy.
He asked the potential jurors whether they believed the federal government “was capable of overreaching” its power, to which all raised their hands. It was the only question Monday from any of the representatives on either side of the case to draw a unanimous response from potential jurors.
But what started as an engaging back-and-forth between Bundy and the jurors soon took a rigid turn, as the inmate began describing jail restrictions that limited his access to showering and basic hygiene items like a razor blade.
He was interrupted then, and two other times by Schiess, during his initial seven minutes at the podium, who objected to him “making a statement” instead of asking potential jurors a question. Each time, Navarro sided with Schiess, and forced Bundy to pose a question.
In a move that was later hotly contested by U.S. public defender Brenda Weksler, the judge then told jurors that Bundy was offered access to regular clothes but had “not followed security protocol” as an inmate in Nevada Southern Detention Center in Pahrump. She noted that Bundy’s hair was groomed better than that of the other defendants and attorneys on either side, and that he must have had some access to hygiene.
“It’s not the time to make those kind of statements,” Navarro said. “Let’s be careful of that in the future.”
Jury selection resumes Tuesday morning with an additional 60 potential jurors scheduled to appear in Navarro’s courtroom at 8:30 a.m. Those who remain after Tuesday will be combined with Monday’s remaining potential jurors, and further cut on Wednesday before reaching a final tally on Thursday.
