Wichita ? The former leader of the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center left an extensive paper trail when he sold space artifacts – documents prosecutors showed Thursday in an effort to convince jurors he illegally profited from their sale.

But the defense pointed to much of the same paperwork as evidence Max Ary never intended to scheme or to hide what he was doing but simply made some mistakes.

Ary, 55, faces 19 federal counts ranging from mail fraud to money laundering. He is accused of making profits on the space artifacts, some on loan to the Hutchinson space center from NASA and other museums.

Cosmosphere president Jeff Ollenburger returned to the witness stand Thursday for a second day, for lengthy testimony during which prosecutors introduced volumes of inventory sheets, e-mails and other documents.

Ollenburger testified he did not ask Ary about some missing items because twice before when he had asked about a missing Kansas flag flown on a mission and a data recording tape, Ary was not truthful with him.

“It appeared items were simply taken off the shelf and sold,” Ollenburger said.

Under cross examination Thursday, defense attorney Lee Thompson had Ollenburger tell jurors how Ary voluntarily gave up compensation and bonuses so Ollenburger could get a raise. Ollenburger also testified that Ary took a salary cut and deferred a $6,000 bonus in 2001, when the Cosmosphere was having financial difficulties. And he said Ary raised a “significant amount” of money – possibly as much as $250,000 – for the Cosmosphere by selling unwanted artifacts at auctions.

After leaving the Hutchinson museum he founded and worked at for 26 years, Ary took a job at the Kirkpatrick Science and Air Space Museum at Omniplex in Oklahoma City, where he was replaced Monday as executive director.