Video of weapons-filled home shown at NH trial

CONCORD, N.H. — Jurors in the trial of a tax-evading New Hampshire couple viewed video Wednesday of a vast arsenal that prosecutors say they stockpiled inside their turreted mountaintop home, including an improvised bomb on a kitchen shelf, next to the cookie jar.

Edward and Elaine Brown are accused of blockading themselves in their Plainfield home during a nine-month standoff with law enforcement in 2007 and amassing the weapons after being convicted of federal tax evasion.

The video shown by federal prosecutors moved from room to room in the labyrinth-like five-story home, revealing floor hatches into subbasement rooms, closets filled with food stockpiles and a makeshift dentist office in their living room.

Ken Erickson, an explosives officer with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, testified that his team went into the home days after the Browns’ arrest. Inside they found 21 pipe bombs, dozens of rifles, tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition and numerous bombs made out of gun powder cans encircled with strips of nails that would have sprayed out as shrapnel on detonation.

Erickson said agents also found tear gas canisters in a second-floor hallway, air tanks and masks in a bedroom closet and night vision goggles on a dresser. Trip wires, green-painted pipes and a canister of explosives hung from a tree indicated someone at the home was making more than pipe bombs, said Erickson.

“(We felt) there was a potential for booby traps out in the woods surrounding the property,” he said.

As Erickson narrated the video, he pointed out a number of .50-caliber rifles. The high-powered weapons can cause significant damage and were once used as anti-aircraft guns, Erickson said.

Federal agents planned to wait for the Browns to surrender when they fled to their home in February 2007, but when supporters began bringing the Browns .50-caliber rifles, explosives and other supplies, agents became concerned the couple was preparing for a violent standoff, Erickson said.

The Browns are facing a combined 11 charges, including that they conspired to prevent federal agents from discharging their duties, conspired against the United States and possessed a firearm in connection with a crime of violence.