Photo by Joel Ebert

Maybe it seems longer, given more than four days of jury selection — with the public and press shut out of most of it — but the criminal trial of former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship is just getting started. Really.

One thing that will be interesting to do is to keep looking back at both the indictment of Blankenship and at the opening statements from both sides (we’ve posted a transcript here), and see what evidence has come in the supports what prosecutors and defense lawyers want jurors to believe.

We got a hint of some of the major testimony that prosecutors hope to offer when, in the midst of jury selection, the bombshell memo about the mine safety concerns of Massey insider Bill Ross were made public in a court filing by U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin (who was, in fairness, just responding to an effort by defense lawyers to keep any mention of Ross out of the government’s opening statement). Not noticed by as many people, though, was the follow-up memo from Ross that prosecutors got into evidence late Friday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg McVey spent a lot of time on Friday with Blankenship’s former secretary, Sandra Davis, on the stand. Prosecutors were using Ms. Davis to get into evidence memos like the ones about Ross’ concerns, but also a long list of other documents and recordings of Blankenship’s phone calls.  (Thanks to a legal effort by the Gazette-Mail and West Virginia Public Broadcasting, all of the exhibits are being publicly posted by the prosecutors and defense lawyers.  The Gazette-Mail’s Joel Ebert is making them all easy to sort through on our Blankenship Trial landing page here).

The Blankenship phone calls are fascinating evidence, giving prosecutors a rare chance to offer their evidence through Blankenship’s own voice. But don’t forget about all the memos and other documents that got into evidence on Friday. We’ll probably be hearing more about them as the trial progresses.

Jurors come back at 9 a.m. tomorrow.