East Texas

By KENNETH DEAN
Staff Writer

Jury selection is underway in the second Kentucky Fried Chicken murder case. Prospective jurors began filing into the Brazos County Courthouse this morning signaling the trial of Darnell Hartsfield, who is charged with the abduction and slaying of five people from a Kilgore eatery on Sept. 23, 1983.

Clay Gossett, fourth district state judge, moved the trial from Rusk County to the 85th district court in Brazos County due to the publicity surrounding the case.

Killed in the murders were David Maxwell, 20; Mary Tyler, 37; Opie Ann Hughes, 39; Joey Johnson, 20; and Monte Landers, 19. All but Landers worked at the restaurant. The restaurant was about 25 miles east of Tyler and 115 miles east of Dallas. Landers was a friend of Maxwell and Johnson, and was visiting them as the restaurant was closing for the night.

Hartsfield has been convicted of aggravated perjury in the case when grand jury members heard his testimony that he had never visited the restaurant. However, state prosecutors say his blood was found at the crime scene.

Hartsfield's cousin, Romeo Pinkerton, 49, of Tyler, pleaded guilty in October 2007 to his role in the slayings. In his plea, made during his capital murder trial that could have resulted in a death sentence, he accepted five life prison terms.

During opening statements of Pinkerton’s trial, prosecutors, for the first time, disclosed a third person was involved in the slayings and that DNA tests confirmed that person raped one of the female victims. The rape had never been disclosed publicly.

In December, KFC Corp. reinstated a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of that third person. The restaurant company issued a similar reward after the slayings, but it never was claimed.

Hartsfield is being tried by Texas Attorney General prosecutor Lisa Tanner. He is represented by Tyler attorneys Don Killingsworth and Thad Davidson.

A gag order issued by Gossett remains in effect and parties are not allowed to discuss the case outside of the courtroom.

The jury is scheduled to begin hearing evidence next Monday.

The Tyler Paper plans to have a reporter in the courtroom during testimony, and he will send updated reports as the trial unfolds.

These file photos provided by the Texas Attorney General's office show Darnell Hartsfield, left, and Romeo Pinkerton, who were indicted Thursday, Nov. 17, 2005, on capital murder charges in the 1983 murders of five people abducted from a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Kilgore. Next week, Hartsfield, 47, goes on trial for his part in the notorious slayings. Hartsfield's cousin and co-defendant, Pinkerton, took a plea deal last year midway through his capital murder trial, accepting five life prison terms.
((AP Photo/Texas Attorney General's Office))