Two plead guilty to standoff charges

Two defendants became the first on Thursday to plead guilty in Las Vegas to federal charges in an armed confrontation with U.S. officials over grazing rights near cattleman and open-range advocate Cliven Bundy’s ranch.

Gerald “Jerry” DeLemus and Blaine Cooper each admitted conspiring with others who engaged in a tense gunpoint standoff with federal Bureau of Land Management agents in April 2014 near Bundy’s property about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

Both said they weren’t physically present for the standoff. “I was calling people to participate,” Cooper told U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro.