Plea deal in standoff:

A legal saga that included two hung juries, two trials and months of testimony ended Monday for two defendants in the Bundy Ranch standoff case with a misdemeanor plea deal. Eric Parker and O. Scott Drexler pleaded guilty to obstructing a court order.

A legal saga that included two hung juries, two trials and months of testimony in Las Vegas ended Monday for two defendants in the Bundy Ranch standoff case with a misdemeanor plea deal.

Eric Parker and O. Scott Drexler pleaded guilty to obstructing a court order and will not serve additional time in prison, getting credit for time served.

Parker and Drexler initially were charged with conspiracy, extortion, carrying weapons during crimes of violence, assaulting and threatening federal officers, and interference with interstate commerce for their roles in taking up arms against the federal government.

“We started off with 11 different felonies with the possibility of life in prison,” Las Vegas defense lawyer Jess Marchese said Monday. “Now we are talking about a year of probation.”

Marchese, who represents Parker, called the outcome a victory and said both he and his client are glad the case has been settled.

“We can chalk one up in the win column,” he said.

Parker and Drexler, both of Idaho, were among the first of six defendants to go to trial over the 2014 standoff, which pitted armed ranchers and militia members against Bureau of Land Management agents.

Federal prosecutors so far have been unable to secure a clear victory against the defendants, whom they accuse of conspiring to prevent a lawful roundup of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s cattle in a dusty wash under Interstate 15 about 70 miles north of Las Vegas.

Last year, the government charged 19 people for their roles in the standoff. Two men took plea deals.

Trials for the remaining defendants were broken into three tiers based on their alleged levels of culpability in the standoff.

A jury in April deadlocked on charges against four of the six defendants. It convicted two others on multiple counts. But jurors could not agree on conspiracy charges — a key component of the government’s case — against any of the six.

The government launched its retrial of the four defendants in July. But a second federal jury did not return any guilty verdicts after four days of deliberation.

Jurors acquitted Richard Lovelien of Oklahoma and Steven Stewart of Idaho. It returned not-guilty verdicts on the most serious charges against Parker and Drexler and deadlocked on weapons and assault charges against them.

U.S. District Court Judge Gloria Navarro ordered Parker and Drexler tried a third time on the outstanding charges.

Rather than trying them separately, she ordered them to stand trial this month alongside five others accused of leading the standoff, including Cliven, Ryan and Ammon Bundy, Ryan Payne and Pete Santilli.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Nevada could not be reached for comment Monday.

Parker and Drexler have spent 18 months in prison since their arrests.

Marchese said the maximum prison term for the obstruction charge is one year, so they both will get time served during a sentencing hearing scheduled in February.

Both will retain their rights to own weapons as part of the plea deal.

“I applaud the U.S. Attorney’s Office for making that offer,” Marchese said. “We were prepared to go to trial.”