WV - A federal judge sentenced a former Massey Energy Co. security chief to three years in prison for obstructing a criminal probe into the 2010 explosion that killed 29 miners in the worst U.S. coal-mining disaster in four decades.
A jury in October convicted Hughie Elbert Stover of lying to federal investigators about a company policy of providing advance notice of federal inspections and of obstructing a federal criminal investigation into the blast by ordering the destruction of more than 50,000 documents. Mr. Stover, 60 year old, was the top security official at Massey's Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, W.Va., at the time of the explosion. (more)
