Former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship was convicted Thursday on one of three counts connected to a deadly coal mine explosion and acquitted of two other charges.
 
Blankenship was convicted on a misdemeanor conspiracy count but acquitted of making false statements and securities fraud.

A 12-member jury returned the verdicts for the former coal industry executive in U.S. District Court in Charleston.

Blankenship was tried on charges of conspiring to break safety laws and defrauding mine regulators at West Virginia's Upper Big Branch Mine, and lying to financial regulators and investors about safety. The mine exploded in 2010, killing 29 men.

The conviction becomes the centerpiece of a wide-spanning investigation into Massey that began after the explosion. The probe produced four other convictions up the Massey corporate chain, leading to Blankenship. Relatives of the miners who died have long called for Blankenship to go to prison.

During the trial, which began Oct. 1, prosecutors contended that Blankenship was a bullish micromanager who knew about and meddled in the smallest details of Upper Big Branch.