CONCORD, N.H. -- A Cohoes man accused of helping convicted tax evaders avoid capture helped assemble a deadly arsenal inside the couple's house, and built bombs rigged with nails, prosecutors told a federal jury Monday.

Prosecutors presented e-mails they said show Daniel Riley of Cohoes and two other men purchased high-powered rifles to provide a sweeping 360-degree defense of Ed and Elaine Brown's hilltop house in Plainfield, N.H.

Riley; Cirino Gonzalez of Alice, Texas; and Jason Gerhard of Brookhaven, Suffolk County; are charged with conspiring to prevent U.S. marshals from arresting the Browns last year. They also face charges of purchasing and supplying the house with .50-caliber rifles and other guns.

Riley and Gerhard are charged with building explosives to help fight off federal agents.

Defense lawyers said the roles of their clients were overstated. They said the three, during the separate visits, went to the home only to offer the Browns support in their nonviolent struggle against an oppressive government.

Another man, Robert Wolffe, of Randolph, Vt., pleaded guilty in January to aiding and abetting the Browns and conspiring to interfere with the government's efforts to arrest them. He awaits sentencing. There was no mention of him at the trial Monday.

The Browns, a retired exterminator and his dentist wife, were arrested last fall after refusing to surrender for almost nine months. They were convicted in January 2007 of plotting to evade taxes on nearly $2 million.

Following the arrests, it took five days for agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to sweep the house and grounds of homemade bombs, ammunition and booby traps, Assistant U.S. Attorney Arnold Huftalen said.

Federal agents found 21 "fully assembled and functional" pipe bombs in the house, he added.

"This is what this fortress looked like when the peaceful Browns were taken into custody," Huftalen said.

Sven Wiberg, Riley's lawyer, said jurors will see no evidence the three men ever sat down and conspired together.

"It was a very loose kind of conglomeration of people who were there to provide support," Wiberg said.

Gerhard's lawyer, Stanley Norkunas, said he ended up being an errand boy for the Browns. Riley's lawyer said his client was worried about the Browns' safety and only came to help.

Gonzalez's lawyer, David Bownes, said Gonzalez left the house last summer, before homemade bombs were placed on property or shooting nests were created.

Norkunas said he believed the jury would return a verdict of not guilty after hearing all of the evidence.

Prosecutors pointed to e-mails, video blogs and radio and TV interviews as evidence against the three men.

E-mails sent to Gerhard's personal email address, express his support for the Browns and predict that law enforcement officers would be hurt if they tried to enter the Browns' house, according to the prosecution.

In one e-mail presented at the trial, Riley writes about an incident that allegedly occurred as law enforcement attempted to take the Browns into custody. The e-mail said that 30 to 40 rounds had just been fired off behind the house in the woods. Riley wrote "everyone is at battle stations this is not a drill -- repeat, this is not a drill."

The trial is scheduled to resume this morning in the United States District Court.