An expert for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said that DNA recovered from bombs and guns found in Ed and Elaine Brown's Plainfield home did not match samples from any of the three men now standing trial for conspiring to arm the Browns and help them evade capture.

In the third day of testimony, Todd Bille, a career DNA analyst, said he was able to detect genetic material on 20 of the weapons and improvised explosive devices sent to him from the house, but defendants Jason Gerhard of Brookhaven, N.Y., Cirino Gonzalez of Alice, Texas, and Daniel Riley of Cohoes, N.Y., were excluded as sources of the material.

"Did you have a test come back positive for anybody?" asked David Bownes, Gonzalez's lawyer.

No, Bille said.

The Browns held off authorities for nearly nine months as they holed up in their self-sufficient concrete home. They threatened violence against federal agents and resisted warrants for their arrest. The Browns were convicted of several tax-related crimes last year but refused to surrender, arguing that the tax laws are invalid and they had been cheated by a vengeful prosecutor and a treasonous judge. Gerhard, Gonzalez and Riley are three of many sympathetic people who learned of the Browns' story and flocked to their hilltop home to help them.

They are accused of conspiring to prevent the marshals from making arrests, conspiring to harm the marshals, aiding and abetting the Browns, and bringing weapons to arm the standoff. Gerhard and Riley are also accused of assembling improvised explosive devices for the couple. Ultimately, the Browns were arrested without a fight when they were surprised by a team of undercover marshals who visited them while they were alone.

Lawyers for the three men all acknowledge that their clients helped the Browns, but said in their opening arguments that they did not conspire together.

On cross-examination, Bille said that not everyone sheds skin cells when they touch objects, and that DNA evidence could have been removed from items by wiping them with a cloth. His findings do not mean the defendants didn't touch the items, he said, but do not show that they definitely did.

Most of yesterday's evidence focused on the bombs and guns found in a search of the Browns' home after their arrests in October. An ATF explosives technician identified a more than dozen pipe bombs and improvised grenades found in the house as devices capable of seriously harming or killing bystanders if lit.

"The fragments would travel at high velocity in all directions," Kenneth Erickson testified, when asked what would happen if one of the pipe bombs was set off.

The bomb components were presented to Erickson in individual cardboard boxes. Inside were pieces of pipes or opened cans, caps and fuses. In some cases, the samples included nails that were taped to the outside of the bombs.

A videotaped inventory of the house that Erickson described Tuesday included many more improvised explosive devices, and prosecutors said they plan to admit at least 15 more into evidence.

Prosecution witnesses also began to describe the guns found at the Browns' house yesterday. Several ATF agents handled rifles and identified them as weapons recovered during their investigation. Those weapons included several AK-47-style semi-automatic rifles and two .50-caliber rifles capable of shooting with high accuracy over long distances. One of those rifles had been fitted with a high-powered scope and rested on a stand near an upstairs window. Weapons were scattered around the house, often stored beside magazines of matching ammunition.

Three gun salesmen testified about rifles they sold before the beginning of the standoff. According to federally required paperwork filed at the stores, they were purchased by Riley, Gerhard and Gerhard's twin brother, Justin. The three weapons sold were similar to rifles found at the house, though prosecutors have not yet asserted they were the same weapons.

Gerhard's attorneys appeared to try and raise doubt about the authenticity of documents relating to their client's purchase.

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