Posted on
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
KFC UPDATE: 'Stoic' Pinkerton Hears Testimonies
(Editor's Note: TylerPaper.com has three reporters and a photographer covering the story this afternoon, and all will file reports as information becomes available. TylerPaper.com will post updates all afternoon and evening as events warrant. More recent updates are posted at the bottom of the page.)
By KENNETH DEAN
Staff Writer
HENDERSON -- In what is expected to be an announcement of a plea bargain, the judge in the Kentucky Fried Chicken murders case has set a hearing for this afternoon.
Sources close to the investigation are telling TylerPaper.com that a plea agreement is in the works, but will not become official until the paperwork has been approved by all parties and signed.
The announcement could mean that Romeo Pinkerton, one of two suspects in the abductions and killings of five people from the Kilgore KFC restaurant in 1983 could plead guilty to a lesser crime than capital murder in the case.
By KENNETH DEAN
Staff Writer
HENDERSON -- In what is expected to be an announcement of a plea bargain, the judge in the Kentucky Fried Chicken murders case has set a hearing for this afternoon.
Sources close to the investigation are telling TylerPaper.com that a plea agreement is in the works, but will not become official until the paperwork has been approved by all parties and signed.
The announcement could mean that Romeo Pinkerton, one of two suspects in the abductions and killings of five people from the Kilgore KFC restaurant in 1983 could plead guilty to a lesser crime than capital murder in the case.
If State District Judge Clay Gossett accepts the agreement, Pinkerton will not face the death penalty.
The hearing is tentatively set for sometimes between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. at the Rusk County Courthouse.
TylerPaper.com has reporters on the scene and will bring details as soon as they become available and will continue to update the story throughout the afternoon.
Families of the victims are among those who gathering at the courthouse at this hour.
The announcement would bring an abrupt end to one of most infamous mass murder cases in Texas history.
Gossett on Friday abruptly adjourned the trial which is taking place in New Boston on a change of venue order. At that time, prosecutors brought family members of the victims behind closed doors.
Because of gag orders in place, no one could discuss what was said.
Testimony was at that time set to resume on Tuesday in New Boston.
The blood-splattered box, a bloody napkin, the news that one victim was sexually assaulted and testimony from law enforcement, forensic scientists and convicted felons have been the focus of the state’s capital murder case against Romeo Pinkerton.
Pinkerton and his cousin, Darnell Hartsfield, are charged with the abductions and slayings of Mary Tyler, 37; Opie Ann Hughes, 39; Joey Johnson, 20; David Maxwell, 20; and Monte Landers, 19. The victims had all been abducted from the KFC restaurant in Kilgore on Sept. 23, 1983. Their bodies were found the next day. Each had been shot at least twice — “execution-style.”
For the past two weeks the state, led by Texas Attorney General Prosecutor Lisa Tanner, has attempted to clear up a chain-of-custody issue revolving around two key pieces of evidence, and told jurors that Hughes was not found lying away from the other four victims because she tried to run away, but because she was sexually assaulted.
Tanner and her team, including assistant Attorney General Prosecutor Laura Popps and Rusk County District Attorney Michael Jimerson, have called numerous witnesses, including criminals, forensic scientists and those who were at the original crime scene in 1983.
Pinkerton’s defense team, including lead attorney on the case Jeff Haas and second chair David Griffith, have torn at the state’s case by grilling witnesses and poking holes in the state’s claim that their defendant was even at the scene.
The state contends a box and napkin with blood on them place both Pinkerton and his cousin at the scene and that Pinkerton has talked to former cellmates indicating he was part of the crime.
One former cellmate said when he asked Pinkerton if he was involved in the KFC murders, the reply was a hand gesture of a finger pulling a trigger.
Haas and Griffith have attacked the state’s most damning evidence against their client — the bloody napkin with DNA matching Pinkerton.
The two attorneys have argued that out of all the police to walk into the KFC restaurant, only retired Texas Ranger Glenn Elliott has testified he saw the box in the restaurant. No other law enforcement has placed the box inside; including detectives first on the scene or technicians with the Tyler Police Department who were called to process the crime scene.
Tanner and her team countered the claims by producing evidence showing that the box and the napkin were in possession of the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Forensic Lab in Garland in Oct 1983.
However, no one has been able to state how the two items escaped detection at the restaurant or who submitted them to DPS as evidence.
Tanner has admitted there are problems with the chain of evidence, but pointed out that DNA on two items in custody in 1983, matched two cousins who were suspects on the original list.
Prosecutors have also made clear that when the items were tested in 2001 for DNA, which was not available in 1983, the matches were not found after they put in the two cousins’ names, but came from a national data base that holds the DNA makeup of certain people, including convicted felonies. The prosecution contends they had no idea who the DNA would match.
“If you go all the way back to the first week when police developed suspects, there were Hartsfield and Pinkerton, the two cousins from Tyler,” Tanner said. “You can imagine the head slaps that must’ve taken place when people realized these were suspects from the beginning.”
Tanner added there was a flyer circulated by Texas Rangers looking for Pinkerton, Hartsfield and another man named Elton Winston for questioning in the KFC case days after the murders.
The prosecution has also had experts testify that former suspect James Earl Mankins Jr. could not be tied to either crime scene.
The 15 jurors (eight women and seven men) have listened intently to the testimony with their eyes following the exchange of conversation between the attorneys and the witnesses.
During opening statements, Haas and Griffith told the jury they wanted them to look at the evidence and the lack of evidence.
“What I am asking the jury to do is follow the evidence. This case is not only built on the evidence you hear, but also on the evidence you don’t hear,” Griffith said.
After waiting for justice for 24 years, the victims’ families have made their way into the courtroom each day and braved what testimony they might hear, but as one said, “We deserve to know after all of this time.”
Posted Monday, Oct. 29, 2007 at 4:44 p.m. CDT:
Members of the KFC murder victims' families are still awaiting word on a possible plea bargain in the case, as of 4:30 p.m. CDT.
Sources have told TylerPaper.com that Romeo Pinkerton, will plead guilty to charges less than capital murder and thus be spared the death penalty in the case involving the deaths of people abducted and killed in 1983.
TylerPaper.com reporters on the scene are being told the judge and attorneys involved in the case have been meeting in judge’s chambers.
Reporters are being told that the first part of the hearing will be closed and then it will be opened to the public.
Besides family members of the victims, those who have gathered at the courthouse include family members and attorney representing Darnell Hartsfeld. Hartsfeld, Pinkerton’s cousin, is also charged with the deaths. His trial has not yet been set.
Posted Monday, Oct. 29, 2007 at 4:57 p.m. CDT:
Members of the victims' families were entering the courtroom at 4:55 p.m. CDT. Nobody else was being allowed in at that time.
Posted Monday, Oct. 29, 2007 at 6:00 p.m. CDT:
Romeo Pinkerton has pleaded guilty to five counts of murder, and will serve a life sentence for each count. According to a Tyler Paper reporter on the scene, the victims' family members approved the plea bargain which allows Pinkerton to avoid a possible death sentence.
Posted Monday, Oct. 29, 2007 at 6:34 p.m. CDT:
Some in Kilgore who heard the news today that Romeo Pinkerton had pleaded guilty to the five slayings in the 1983 KFC case said they were glad that the case was over and that someone will be punished.
“I think he (Pinkerton) got what he needed,” said Jasmine Anderson-Hayes, a sophomore at Kilgore College. “Killing him would not solve anything. I am just glad he will have a long time to think about what he did.”
Mike McClinton, an officer on the Kilgore College Police Department, said, “I figured he would not get the death penalty, it has been too long. It is a shame.”
Cindy Morris, an employee at the Shoe Dept., a store in Kilgore said, “It took them long enough (to find someone guilty). They should have done this a very long time ago.”
Posted Monday, Oct. 29, 2007 at 6:56 p.m. CDT:
After the court proceedings finished, relieved family members of the victims gathered on the Rusk County Courthouse lawn. Some expressed elation that the long ordeal was at last over.
Clay Gossett, the judge presiding over the trial, said there would be an additional news conference Tuesday in New Boston, where the trial had been taking place.
On Tuesday, the judge is expected to dismiss the jury panel that had been hearing the case.
Posted Monday, Oct. 29, 2007 at 7:01 p.m. CDT:
Following is the text of a news release issued by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's office:
NEW BOSTON – One of two defendants charged with the 1983 Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant murders today pleaded guilty to five counts of first-degree murder. Under the terms of the plea agreement, Romeo Pinkerton, 49, of Tyler will serve five life terms in prison for his admitted role in the murders of David Maxwell, 20; Joseph Johnson, 20; Montgomery Landers, 19; Mary Tyler, 37; and Opie Hughes, 38.
The investigation and prosecution of this long-unsolved case was led by the Office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, in conjunction with Rusk County District Attorney Micheal Jimerson.
Pinkerton’s plea ends his capital murder trial, which began with a lengthy jury selection process last August.
“Romeo Pinkerton’s admission of guilt ends decades of uncertainty for the families of five innocent victims,” said Attorney General Abbott. “For too long, justice eluded these families. With another trial pending, we will stay focused and be prepared to prosecute the remaining defendant in this case.”
Attorney General Abbott added, “Our successful investigation and prosecution would not have been possible without collaborative efforts by the Rusk County Sheriff’s Department, Rusk County District Attorney Jimerson, former Rusk County District Attorney Kyle Freeman and the Texas Department of Public Safety Laboratory System. I want to thank Assistant Attorney General Lisa Tanner for her tireless work in this case. Her leadership and dedication to the victims’ families helped make this possible. This guilty plea will not bring back the lives lost in 1983, but today marks a critical milestone on the path to justice.”
A second defendant, Pinkerton’s cousin Darnell Hartsfield, 46, also from Tyler, is awaiting trial in early 2008 on the same capital murder charges. Hartsfield pleaded not guilty.
The more than 20-year-old case began when the five victims were found on rural property the night of Sept. 23, 1983. The Office of the Attorney General has been involved in the case since 1993, when then-Rusk County District Attorney Kyle Freeman requested investigative and prosecutorial assistance.
At the defendants’ request, prosecutors agreed to move Pinkerton’s trial from Rusk County to New Boston in Bowie County, about 20 miles west of Texarkana.
Prior to his trial, Pinkerton was incarcerated at the Rusk County Jail. In August 2005, he was arrested by the Attorney General’s Fugitive Unit on an outstanding warrant for an unrelated parole violation.
Posted Monday, Oct. 29, 2007 at 7:23 p.m. CDT:
Romeo Pinkerton is back behind bars in a Rusk County Jail tonight after pleading guilty to killing the five victims in the 1983 Kilgore KFC slayings.
He is awaiting transportation to a Texas prison where he will spend the rest of his life for the abductions and slayings.
Wearing an orange Rusk County inmate jumpsuit and bound by chains, Pinkerton sat stoically in the courtroom as family members testified of how they suffered following the deaths of their loved ones.
After the hearing, Pinkerton was escorted by a group of law officers outside the court and to the jail.
Judge Clay Gossett, who is presiding over the trial, told family members about the plea bargain, before it was announced in open court. Family members agreed to the plea bargain, Gossett said.
The hearing is tentatively set for sometimes between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. at the Rusk County Courthouse.
TylerPaper.com has reporters on the scene and will bring details as soon as they become available and will continue to update the story throughout the afternoon.
Families of the victims are among those who gathering at the courthouse at this hour.
The announcement would bring an abrupt end to one of most infamous mass murder cases in Texas history.
Gossett on Friday abruptly adjourned the trial which is taking place in New Boston on a change of venue order. At that time, prosecutors brought family members of the victims behind closed doors.
Because of gag orders in place, no one could discuss what was said.
Testimony was at that time set to resume on Tuesday in New Boston.
The blood-splattered box, a bloody napkin, the news that one victim was sexually assaulted and testimony from law enforcement, forensic scientists and convicted felons have been the focus of the state’s capital murder case against Romeo Pinkerton.
Pinkerton and his cousin, Darnell Hartsfield, are charged with the abductions and slayings of Mary Tyler, 37; Opie Ann Hughes, 39; Joey Johnson, 20; David Maxwell, 20; and Monte Landers, 19. The victims had all been abducted from the KFC restaurant in Kilgore on Sept. 23, 1983. Their bodies were found the next day. Each had been shot at least twice — “execution-style.”
For the past two weeks the state, led by Texas Attorney General Prosecutor Lisa Tanner, has attempted to clear up a chain-of-custody issue revolving around two key pieces of evidence, and told jurors that Hughes was not found lying away from the other four victims because she tried to run away, but because she was sexually assaulted.
Tanner and her team, including assistant Attorney General Prosecutor Laura Popps and Rusk County District Attorney Michael Jimerson, have called numerous witnesses, including criminals, forensic scientists and those who were at the original crime scene in 1983.
Pinkerton’s defense team, including lead attorney on the case Jeff Haas and second chair David Griffith, have torn at the state’s case by grilling witnesses and poking holes in the state’s claim that their defendant was even at the scene.
The state contends a box and napkin with blood on them place both Pinkerton and his cousin at the scene and that Pinkerton has talked to former cellmates indicating he was part of the crime.
One former cellmate said when he asked Pinkerton if he was involved in the KFC murders, the reply was a hand gesture of a finger pulling a trigger.
Haas and Griffith have attacked the state’s most damning evidence against their client — the bloody napkin with DNA matching Pinkerton.
The two attorneys have argued that out of all the police to walk into the KFC restaurant, only retired Texas Ranger Glenn Elliott has testified he saw the box in the restaurant. No other law enforcement has placed the box inside; including detectives first on the scene or technicians with the Tyler Police Department who were called to process the crime scene.
Tanner and her team countered the claims by producing evidence showing that the box and the napkin were in possession of the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Forensic Lab in Garland in Oct 1983.
However, no one has been able to state how the two items escaped detection at the restaurant or who submitted them to DPS as evidence.
Tanner has admitted there are problems with the chain of evidence, but pointed out that DNA on two items in custody in 1983, matched two cousins who were suspects on the original list.
Prosecutors have also made clear that when the items were tested in 2001 for DNA, which was not available in 1983, the matches were not found after they put in the two cousins’ names, but came from a national data base that holds the DNA makeup of certain people, including convicted felonies. The prosecution contends they had no idea who the DNA would match.
“If you go all the way back to the first week when police developed suspects, there were Hartsfield and Pinkerton, the two cousins from Tyler,” Tanner said. “You can imagine the head slaps that must’ve taken place when people realized these were suspects from the beginning.”
Tanner added there was a flyer circulated by Texas Rangers looking for Pinkerton, Hartsfield and another man named Elton Winston for questioning in the KFC case days after the murders.
The prosecution has also had experts testify that former suspect James Earl Mankins Jr. could not be tied to either crime scene.
The 15 jurors (eight women and seven men) have listened intently to the testimony with their eyes following the exchange of conversation between the attorneys and the witnesses.
During opening statements, Haas and Griffith told the jury they wanted them to look at the evidence and the lack of evidence.
“What I am asking the jury to do is follow the evidence. This case is not only built on the evidence you hear, but also on the evidence you don’t hear,” Griffith said.
After waiting for justice for 24 years, the victims’ families have made their way into the courtroom each day and braved what testimony they might hear, but as one said, “We deserve to know after all of this time.”
Posted Monday, Oct. 29, 2007 at 4:44 p.m. CDT:
Members of the KFC murder victims' families are still awaiting word on a possible plea bargain in the case, as of 4:30 p.m. CDT.
Sources have told TylerPaper.com that Romeo Pinkerton, will plead guilty to charges less than capital murder and thus be spared the death penalty in the case involving the deaths of people abducted and killed in 1983.
TylerPaper.com reporters on the scene are being told the judge and attorneys involved in the case have been meeting in judge’s chambers.
Reporters are being told that the first part of the hearing will be closed and then it will be opened to the public.
Besides family members of the victims, those who have gathered at the courthouse include family members and attorney representing Darnell Hartsfeld. Hartsfeld, Pinkerton’s cousin, is also charged with the deaths. His trial has not yet been set.
Posted Monday, Oct. 29, 2007 at 4:57 p.m. CDT:
Members of the victims' families were entering the courtroom at 4:55 p.m. CDT. Nobody else was being allowed in at that time.
Posted Monday, Oct. 29, 2007 at 6:00 p.m. CDT:
Romeo Pinkerton has pleaded guilty to five counts of murder, and will serve a life sentence for each count. According to a Tyler Paper reporter on the scene, the victims' family members approved the plea bargain which allows Pinkerton to avoid a possible death sentence.
Posted Monday, Oct. 29, 2007 at 6:34 p.m. CDT:
Some in Kilgore who heard the news today that Romeo Pinkerton had pleaded guilty to the five slayings in the 1983 KFC case said they were glad that the case was over and that someone will be punished.
“I think he (Pinkerton) got what he needed,” said Jasmine Anderson-Hayes, a sophomore at Kilgore College. “Killing him would not solve anything. I am just glad he will have a long time to think about what he did.”
Mike McClinton, an officer on the Kilgore College Police Department, said, “I figured he would not get the death penalty, it has been too long. It is a shame.”
Cindy Morris, an employee at the Shoe Dept., a store in Kilgore said, “It took them long enough (to find someone guilty). They should have done this a very long time ago.”
Posted Monday, Oct. 29, 2007 at 6:56 p.m. CDT:
After the court proceedings finished, relieved family members of the victims gathered on the Rusk County Courthouse lawn. Some expressed elation that the long ordeal was at last over.
Clay Gossett, the judge presiding over the trial, said there would be an additional news conference Tuesday in New Boston, where the trial had been taking place.
On Tuesday, the judge is expected to dismiss the jury panel that had been hearing the case.
Posted Monday, Oct. 29, 2007 at 7:01 p.m. CDT:
Following is the text of a news release issued by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's office:
NEW BOSTON – One of two defendants charged with the 1983 Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant murders today pleaded guilty to five counts of first-degree murder. Under the terms of the plea agreement, Romeo Pinkerton, 49, of Tyler will serve five life terms in prison for his admitted role in the murders of David Maxwell, 20; Joseph Johnson, 20; Montgomery Landers, 19; Mary Tyler, 37; and Opie Hughes, 38.
The investigation and prosecution of this long-unsolved case was led by the Office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, in conjunction with Rusk County District Attorney Micheal Jimerson.
Pinkerton’s plea ends his capital murder trial, which began with a lengthy jury selection process last August.
“Romeo Pinkerton’s admission of guilt ends decades of uncertainty for the families of five innocent victims,” said Attorney General Abbott. “For too long, justice eluded these families. With another trial pending, we will stay focused and be prepared to prosecute the remaining defendant in this case.”
Attorney General Abbott added, “Our successful investigation and prosecution would not have been possible without collaborative efforts by the Rusk County Sheriff’s Department, Rusk County District Attorney Jimerson, former Rusk County District Attorney Kyle Freeman and the Texas Department of Public Safety Laboratory System. I want to thank Assistant Attorney General Lisa Tanner for her tireless work in this case. Her leadership and dedication to the victims’ families helped make this possible. This guilty plea will not bring back the lives lost in 1983, but today marks a critical milestone on the path to justice.”
A second defendant, Pinkerton’s cousin Darnell Hartsfield, 46, also from Tyler, is awaiting trial in early 2008 on the same capital murder charges. Hartsfield pleaded not guilty.
The more than 20-year-old case began when the five victims were found on rural property the night of Sept. 23, 1983. The Office of the Attorney General has been involved in the case since 1993, when then-Rusk County District Attorney Kyle Freeman requested investigative and prosecutorial assistance.
At the defendants’ request, prosecutors agreed to move Pinkerton’s trial from Rusk County to New Boston in Bowie County, about 20 miles west of Texarkana.
Prior to his trial, Pinkerton was incarcerated at the Rusk County Jail. In August 2005, he was arrested by the Attorney General’s Fugitive Unit on an outstanding warrant for an unrelated parole violation.
Posted Monday, Oct. 29, 2007 at 7:23 p.m. CDT:
Romeo Pinkerton is back behind bars in a Rusk County Jail tonight after pleading guilty to killing the five victims in the 1983 Kilgore KFC slayings.
He is awaiting transportation to a Texas prison where he will spend the rest of his life for the abductions and slayings.
Wearing an orange Rusk County inmate jumpsuit and bound by chains, Pinkerton sat stoically in the courtroom as family members testified of how they suffered following the deaths of their loved ones.
After the hearing, Pinkerton was escorted by a group of law officers outside the court and to the jail.
Judge Clay Gossett, who is presiding over the trial, told family members about the plea bargain, before it was announced in open court. Family members agreed to the plea bargain, Gossett said.
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