By Kathy Finn
NEW ORLEANS, Dec 18 (Reuters) - An engineer charged inconnection with the 2010 BP oil well blowout in the Gulf ofMexico was found guilty of one count of obstructing justice by afederal jury on Wednesday, officials said.
Kurt Mix, 52, now a former BP Plc employee, had facedtwo counts of obstruction for deleting hundreds of messages heexchanged with his supervisor and a contractor in the weeksafter the spill.
He was part of a team that scrambled to plug the Macondowell and figure out how much oil was leaking in what became theworst offshore environmental disaster in U.S. history.
The Macondo well explosion on April 20, 2010, killed 11workers on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and triggered an87-day oil spill in which millions of gallons of crude flowedinto the Gulf of Mexico.
During the two-week trial, government lawyers painted Mix asa loyal member of the drilling team who tried to shield BP fromblame by deleting text and voice messages that may have provenBP lied about how much oil was escaping into the gulf.
Defense attorneys, who do not deny Mix deleted messages,insisted he had no ill intent and that the deletions werelargely accidental.
Mix, of Katy, Texas, did not take the stand in his owndefense. He faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to$250,000.
"Today a jury in New Orleans found that Kurt Mixpurposefully obstructed the efforts of law enforcement duringthe investigation of the largest environmental disaster in U.S.history," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Ramanof the Justice Department's Criminal Division.
The defense said it would appeal the decision.
"Mix was rightly acquitted of one of the two counts he faced- and we will continue to fight until we receive the fullvindication that Kurt deserves," his defense team said after theverdict. "Rest assured we will use every avenue to appeal thiscase until Kurt is fully exonerated."
Prosecutor Leo Tsao had told the jurors that Mix had beenwarned repeatedly not to delete any information from his companyiPhone and had notified him that he might be subpoenaed before agrand jury investigating BP's response to the spill.
By ignoring those warnings, Mix displayed "corrupt intent"Tsao said.
"He deleted the messages even though he had been told ...that if he did so, he could be criminally prosecuted," theprosecutor told the jury.
Mix's lawyer, Michael McGovern, countered that his clientwas an innocent man who "told the truth to U.S. governmentscientists all throughout the response effort."
McGovern said it was unreasonable to believe that Mix "adrilling engineer with no law enforcement training whatsoeverwas specifically thinking about the possibility of a grand jurywhen he deleted messages from his iPhone."
Mix is one of four current or former BP employees chargedwith crimes connected with the well incident. His is the firstcase to be tried.
BP also faces ongoing civil litigation.