Federal prosecutors yesterday used e-mails, photos and online video clips to show how three men conspired to help federal fugitives Ed and Elaine Brown evade capture. Prosecutors said the men brought guns to the couple's fortified Plainfield home and, in the case of two of the men, made bombs that were found by federal agents at the end of the nine-month standoff leading up to the Browns' arrests.

But the men's defense attorneys downplayed their roles. They argued that the men left the Browns' house months before federal agents searched the property. The situation escalated in the final months of the standoff, the attorneys said, and not one of the men was there when the weapons were found.

Yesterday was the first day in the trial of Jason Gerhard of Brookhaven, N.Y., Cirino Gonzalez of Alice, Texas, and Daniel Riley of Cohoes, N.Y. All three are accused of helping the Browns escape capture after the couple refused to surrender last year following convictions on tax-related crimes.

The men face charges of using and bringing guns to the Browns' home. Gerhard and Riley are also accused of making and handling improvised explosive devices. If convicted, the men could serve decades-long prison sentences. Ed and Elaine Brown have been imprisoned since October.

Prosecutor Arnold Huftalen began yesterday by describing what U.S. marshals found when they searched the Browns' four-level home and the surrounding 100 acres: a wind generator and solar panels in case their utilities were shut off, a private well, huge stores of food, breathing apparatuses similar to those used by firefighters, bulletproof vests. They found an assault rifle in the master bathroom, pipe bombs in the bedroom and night-vision goggles on Ed Brown's nightstand. There were Ziploc bags filled with explosives nailed to trees outside; each could be detonated with a bullet shot from the house.

In short, Huftalen said, federal agents "found a house that was well-stocked and well-armed."

Riley brought the explosives for the Ziploc bags, Huftalen said, and he and Gonzalez bought .50-caliber rifles capable of hitting a target a mile away. Gerhard bought a similar rifle, he said, as well as several thousand rounds of ammunition. Gerhard also bought the makings of a pipe bomb, Huftalen said.

All three were among the hundreds of supporters who visited during the standoff. But, Huftalen said, the three men were different because, "they were there to do violence" to prevent the Browns' arrests.

Each man sat with his own attorney yesterday at separate long tables in the federal courthouse in Concord, and each attorney made an opening statement to the 18-member jury. The attorneys took slightly different approaches in their defenses but all three provided background on their clients.

Attorney Stanley Norkunas said Gerhard, who's in his 20s, was a student at a community college in New York when he first came to the Browns' home. An editor at his college newspaper, Gerhard came to write a story about the standoff. He had become interested in the tax protest movement because he was an anti-war activist and believed it was wrong that federal income taxes were funding the war in Iraq.

In May, after school was done for the year, Gerhard returned more permanently and, Norkunas said, became the Browns' "errand boy." He bought food, cleaning products, and electrical and plumbing supplies for the house's self-sustaining systems. In August, he left for Army basic training in Missouri. Norkunas did not explain what led Gerhard, a self-described war protester, to join the military.

Riley's attorney, Sven Wiberg, described his client as an electrician with his own business who, like the Browns, believes there is no law requiring citizens to pay income taxes. He said Riley went to the Browns' home because he was "worried the Browns might be attacked." Unlike others who stayed at the house, Riley came and went, Wiberg said, and was not at the house at the same time as the other men.

Gonzalez's attorney, David Bownes, gave the most in-depth description of his client. He said Gonzalez was born "on the ides of March, 1977" in a small town in Texas. Gonzalez got his GED at age 15 and after studying criminal justice at a community college for a few years, joined the Navy. As a gunman on a ship, he gained knowledge of weapons. A few years after he was discharged, he went to Iraq as a contractor.

But he became disillusioned with the war and returned home in 2006, Bownes said. He soon joined peace activist Cindy Sheehan, who was camped outside President Bush's Texas ranch. It was there that he heard about the Browns and last April, drove to New Hampshire to join them at their home.

Two months later, Gonzalez's father and brother came to the Browns' house because they feared for Gonzalez's safety, Bownes said. While at the Browns', Gonzalez's father, Jose, had an argument with Ed Brown. Brown asked him to leave, calling him "godless" and "soulless," and his son left with him.

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