Accused with planning to kill a federal judge, his family, and an IRS agent, Lonnie and Karen Vernon of Salcha, Alaska, have asked a federal judge to give them extra time to sort through the evidence investigators have accumulated. Under federal law, defendants have the right to go trial within 70 days after they've been charged with a crime.

The Vernons currently face serious charges in state and federal court. It is in the federal case in which they are accused of plotting a revenge-based killing spree that they are seeking a delay.

Attorneys Darrel Gardner and M.J. Haden filed the request Thursday on behalf of their clients. Gardner represents Karen Vernon, while Haden represents her husband, Lonnie.

"The discovery in this case is staggeringly voluminous," Gardner and Haden wrote in their joint court filing. "There were several confidential informants involved, and included the use of surreptitious audio and video recordings. There were other surveillance and investigative methods employed. Due to the sheer volume and complexity of the discovery, and of the interrelationships of the alleged co-conspirators and informants, this case is clearly not 'typical.'"

At a status conference Wednesday, the government began to reveal some of the evidence it plans to hand over to the defense as the case progresses. Included among the material are eight computers holding 10 terabytes of data, hundreds of CDs and DVDs, digital cameras and video cameras, 130 hours of audio and video recordings, several cell phones, about 5,000 pages of documents seized from homes and cars, and weapons including two automatic Sten guns, hand grenades and a hand gun with a silencer.

The Vernons' attorneys want the case declared complex or unusual, which would then allow the judge overseeing the case to delay the trial and give everyone more time to review the evidence and to argue over how much of it a jury should be allowed to see.

It also appears the Vernons could face even more charges. According to Gardner and Haden’s motion, hand grenades and machine guns seized during the investigation have been sent away by the government for expert analysis, which could take at least two months. If the findings yield new charges against the Vernons, they will need time to have their own experts take a look at the weapons, the attorneys wrote.

In a separate case, the Vernons are among six people charged so far in connection with an alleged militia-led conspiracy to kill a state judge, the judge's family and state troopers. Court records show prosecutors believe the Vernons acted independently of Schaeffer Cox and other members of the Alaska Peacekeepers Militia when developing their plan to kill the federal judge and IRS agent overseeing their tax case.

Contact Jill Burke at jill(at)alaskadispatch.com