This post is from Joel Ebert, who is covering the Don Blankenship trial with Ken Ward Jr. The following post was written (longhand) by Ken.

Testimony began this afternoon in the criminal trial of former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship.

Prosecutors opened their case with testimony from Tracy Stumbo, a retired longtime Kentucky state mine safety investigator hired by the government as an expert witness.

Stumbo first gave jurors a tutorial on coal, explaining what it is used for and some basics on how it is mined.

Being questioned by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Ruby, Stumbo demonstrated with a small model how a continuous mining machine works.

Stumbo and Ruby also showed jurors a short video clip of a working continuous mining machine.

With another sketch, Stumbo explained to jurors the criss-cross, grid pattern of a room-and-pillar mining section.

The following are notes from Joel: 

Stumbo also showed jurors a display, which was put on a large TV screen inside the courtroom, of how longwall mining is performed. Ruby also handed the retired investigator a bright yellow piece of machinery used in the longwall mining process to further show how it is done.

There were significantly less audience members listening to Stumbo’s testimony than there were hours earlier during the opening statements of the trial.  Alex Macia, an attorney at Spilman, Thomas and Battle, who is helping represent Blankenship, was among the audience members for both the morning opening statements and Trumbo’s testimony.