Lawyer seeks deal in poker pro Bilzerian's explosives case

LAS VEGAS (AP) A lawyer for flamboyant professional poker player Dan Bilzerian said Friday he hopes to arrange a plea deal and avoid trial on felony charges that Bilzerian and a friend illegally blew up the cab of a tractor-trailer with a homemade bomb in the desert outside Las Vegas.

Bilzerian, a 34-year-old Instagram celebrity, and Jeremy David Guymon, 36, didn't appear in person for a brief hearing at which Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Joseph Sciscento gave attorney Richard Schonfeld time to talk with prosecutors.

Schonfeld represents Guymon, and law partner David Chesnoff represents Bilzerian.

The judge set the case for a status check on Feb. 6. Bilzerian and Guymon remain free on bond.

Bilzerian was arrested Dec. 11 at Los Angeles International Airport and Guymon was arrested separately after police reported finding Instagram postings documenting the Nov. 4 explosion and fire on federal land that's used by target shooters several miles south of the Las Vegas Strip.

Each man faces two counts of possessing bomb-making components and could get up to six years in prison and a $5,000 fine for each count if convicted.

According to a police report, investigators believe Bilzerian and Guymon fired a rifle from a distance to detonate more than 90 pounds of a powdered explosive mix packed into a beverage cooler, scattering truck parts some 300 yards.

A location tag on an online boast about shooting a 20 mm rifle put Bilzerian at the scene, and a federal Bureau of Land Management ranger reported stopping Guymon shortly after the blast in Bilzerian's truck on South Las Vegas Boulevard, which isn't far away.

The ranger reported that Guymon denied any knowledge of the explosion, police said.

Las Vegas police and federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives reported finding packages of exploding targets addressed to Bilzerian at the scene, and police reported speaking with a man from whom Guymon and another man bought the truck days earlier.

The former truck owner told police the buyers said they were going to blow up the vehicle for a movie.

There were several people on hiking trails in the area at the time of the explosion, police said, and one reportedly told investigators that debris from the blast went flying over their heads.

Bilzerian frequently posts Instagram photos of a playboy lifestyle including private jets, scantily clad women, piles of cash and target shooting in the desert.

One video showed him throwing a naked porn actress from a roof into a pool while she was naked during a photo shoot for an adult magazine. She broke her foot and threatened to sue, drawing a sarcastic letter from Bilzerian's lawyer, Thomas Goldstein, mocking her threat.

Goldstein suggested she gather up all her belongings and prepare to give them to Bilzerian if she sued, because he would likely win.

''Then he will probably blow it up with a mortar in the desert,'' Goldstein wrote.