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Travis Cox, now 21, pleaded guilty Wednesday to the federal charge of conspiring to impede federal employees from doing their work at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge through intimidation, threats or force. (Multnomah County Sheriff's Office)

Travis Cox, the youngest of the 26 facing federal indictment stemming from the takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal conspiracy charge under a plea deal that will likely have him spend six months on home detention.

Prosecutors will recommend a sentence of eight months of home detention, with credit for Cox's approximately two months already served in jail pending trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Gabriel said.

The government has a photo of Cox performing armed guard duty at the refuge with a rifle slung over his shoulder, and a video showing him with a handgun on his hip in a refuge bunk room, Gabriel said.

A search of the refuge by an FBI evidence response team in mid-February turned up a Remington .308-caliber rifle that Cox had bought in September 2015, the prosecutor said.

Cox, who now lives with his mother near Bend, said he arrived at the refuge on Jan. 9 , and was assigned to security patrols throughout his time there. While armed, he guarded the front and back gates of the refuge, he told the court.

"I went there to support what they were doing,'' he said. "I figured that was my role to help to make sure nothing bad happened.''

U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown asked Cox again to be more specific in describing his offense.

"Occupying a federal building in what they believed was a protest,'' Cox added.

Cox is the ninth person of 26 charged with federal conspiracy to plead guilty to conspiring to impede federal employees from doing their work at the refuge through intimidation, threats or force. Other defendants are set to go to trial on Sept. 7.

He left the refuge the night of Jan. 26. He was arrested April 11 in Cedar City, Utah, after turning himself in on a warrant to the Iron County Sheriff's Office, and was then transferred to custody in Oregon. On June 2, Cox was released to his mother's home in central Oregon. He was expected to return to a former employer, working at a pizza restaurant chain.

Under the plea deal, the government will dismiss the second count against Cox, possessing a firearm in a federal facility. The recommended sentence is based partly on Cox's lack of any prior criminal record, his acceptance of responsibility and early resolution of the case, Gabriel said.

With the felony conviction, he won't be allowed to possess any firearms or ammunition. He's allowed to remain out of custody with his mother in the Bend area, while he awaits sentencing, set for Dec. 2.

In related action Wednesday, co-defendant David Fry gave notice to the court that he intends to appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week's ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Robert E. Jones' decision denying his release pretrial.

Jones said he remained concerned about Fry's mental instability, threats of "suicide by cop'' hours before his surrender to FBI agents on Feb. 11, and that he came to Oregon and the refuge in violation of the conditions of his probation in Ohio.

Judge Brown also issued a written ruling, denying defense motions to suppress the Facebook account information that the government obtained on 23 defendants in the refuge takeover case. Defense lawyers had argued that federal agents lacked probable cause to obtain private Facebook messages when they applied for a search warrant, and the court lacked jurisdiction to grant the warrant since the Facebook data is stored out of state in California.

Brown found otherwise. She ruled the warrant wasn't too broad, and that given the numerous public Facebook postings related to the refuge occupation by defendants, a judge "could reasonably infer'' that evidence of the alleged crime might be found on private Facebook messages.

"In light of the evidence of public postings presented in the search-warrant affidavit as well as the information that various alleged members of the conspiracy were Facebook friends, the Magistrate Judge could reasonably infer there was a fair probability that evidence of the alleged crime could also be found in many of the private functions of Defendants' Facebook accounts,'' Brown wrote.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian