Wichita ? The former head of the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center was found guilty Tuesday of stealing and selling museum and NASA items, including data recording tape from the Apollo 15 mission and an Air Force One control panel.

After less than a day of deliberations, a federal jury found Max Ary, the former president and chief executive officer of the Hutchinson space museum he had co-founded, guilty of 12 counts – two counts of theft of government property, two counts of wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud, three counts of interstate transport of stolen goods and two counts money laundering. He was found not guilty of one count of interstate transport of stolen goods and one count of money laundering.

Ary showed little emotion as the verdict was read, although he shook his head once.

Ary faces up to five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine on each of the wire fraud and mail fraud counts. He faces up to 10 years and a $250,000 fine on each count of theft and each count of transportation of stolen property. U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten set sentencing for Jan. 19.

Later Tuesday, the jury ordered Ary to turn over $124,140 linked to the crimes to the government. Prosecutors had sought $156,744.

U.S. Atty. Eric Melgren acknowledged Ary did good things for the Cosmosphere but said he should still be held accountable for his crimes.

“The evidence showed that Max Ary knowingly sold space artifacts that belonged to the Cosmosphere or NASA and deposited the money in his personal accounts,” Melgren said. “On all these counts, the jury determined that he did it voluntarily and intentionally, not because of a mistake or some other innocent reason.”

Ary’s attorney, Lee Thompson, declined to comment Tuesday afternoon.

During the trial, jurors were shown space artifacts and heard testimony from three former astronauts – Eugene Cernan, Charles Duke Jr. and Tom Stafford.

Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, testified that items he provided to the Cosmosphere went there because he was comfortable with Ary and had faith in him, and Stafford described Ary as “completely honest.”

Duke testified for the prosecution, saying miniature Kansas flags he had taken into space were given to the Cosmosphere, not to Ary. After Ary came under investigation, Duke wrote a letter saying it was his understanding that Ary could have one of the flags.

Prosecutors claimed Ary stole items that belonged to NASA and the Cosmosphere and profited by selling them.

Ary, 55, acknowledged that he sold items that belonged to NASA and the Cosmosphere but said it was a mistake – that the artifacts had accidentally been intermingled with items in his own space artifact collection.

In testimony Friday, Ary also said many items that prosecutors identified as stolen were part of the collection he brought with him when he came to Hutchinson in 1976 and helped found the Cosmosphere, items he said he obtained as gifts or through trades.

In closing arguments Monday, prosecutor Deb Barnett called Ary’s testimony “meaningless.”

“He is deceitful, he is manipulative and he is fraudulent,” Barnett said, pointing to differences between Ary’s testimony and the testimony of others as evidence of his lies.

Ary left the Cosmosphere in May 2002, when he moved to Oklahoma City to become executive director of the Kirkpatrick Science and Air Space Museum at Omniplex. He was placed on leave from that job after being indicted in April and was replaced after his contract expired in August.