10:06am: Talkline with Hoppy Kercheval

Sister of UBB victim: ‘no way’ jury will acquit Don Blankenship

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — With jury deliberations set to continue Wednesday in the Don Blankenship criminal trial, a Charleston resident and sister of one of the Upper Big Branch victims is convinced Blankenship won’t be acquitted.

“I think they’re just going to come back with a guilty verdict; if not it’ll be a hung jury,” insisted Sherry Keeney Depoy, a sister of UBB victim Boone Payne. “There’s just no way the jury is going to come back with a non-guilty verdict with all the evidence and everything that’s been submitted. There’s just no way.”

Depoy said she would have a few words for Don Blankenship if she could talk to him.

“I’ve never visited anyone in jail. But I’d love to sit across the glass from him,” Depoy said. “And just ask him a few questions through the glass.”

Depoy was unhappy with the way Blankenship’s defense had acted throughout the trial, which in her mind was condescending and arrogant.

“They’re hotshots they think out of Washington, D.C. They think they beat us. They think they’re smarter than us just like Blankenship did,” she said. “They’re doing just like Blankenship did. They’re micromanaging this case to the very tee. Dumb old coal miners. Coal miners are a lot smarter than those guys are when it comes to (mining). It’s sad all around but we’ve got to have justice.”

In Depoy’s mind, the case comes down to one word: “accountability.”

“That’s all we want is accountability,” she said. “I’d like to see a thirty year sentence. But whatever we get we’ll be thankful for. Because we’ve got 29 men underground that could put him under.”

Blankenship, 65, is charged with conspiring to break federal mine safety laws at the Upper Big Branch mine in the months leading up to the April 5, 2010 explosion that killed 29 men.

If convicted on all counts, the former Massey Energy CEO could face up to 30 years in federal prison.





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