East Texas

For 22 years, the families of five people murdered at a Kilgore eatery waited for justice to be dealt to those responsible for the execution-style deaths of their loved ones - a wait that may have come closer to an end with the indictments of two Tyler cousins.

Darnell Hartsfield, 44, and Romeo Pinkerton, 47, remain in the custody of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice on prior sentences, but now could face the possibility of death by lethal injection for the 1983 murders of the five victims abducted from the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced the capital murder indictments against the pair during a news conference held in front of the Rusk County Courthouse in Henderson last month.

Surrounded by the victims' families and friends, Abbott said, "Justice has eluded the families of these victims for too long, and these indictments put us a giant step closer to that day."

THE MURDERS

On Sept. 23, 1983, several unknown suspects made their way into the KFC restaurant in Kilgore and abducted five people.

The suspects then took the five victims to a rural oil field on Walter King Road, where they were shot in the head and left for dead. An oil field worker discovered the bodies the next day.

Mary Tyler, 37; Opie Ann Hughes, 39; Joey Johnson, 20; David Maxwell, 20; and Monte Landers, 19, were found shot to death. All five were shot at least twice.

Autopsy reports indicated Mrs. Hughes was shot in the back as she tried to flee and Johnson was shot in the abdomen.

The Kilgore Police Department, the Rusk County Sheriff's Office, the FBI, the Tyler Police Department crime unit, Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and Texas Rangers all joined in the investigation, scouring the murder scene and the restaurant for clues, but the case soon grew cold.

DNA LEADS TO SUSPECTS

In 2001, DNA evidence collected on a bloodstained box from the KFC crime scene was fed into the Combined DNA Index System. The database indexes DNA from violent criminals and crime scenes in all states except Mississippi, and allows investigators to enter data and search for possible matches.

Shortly after investigators in the case received news there was a match in the system, the case began to inch forward.

Lisa Tanner, Texas Attorney General's Office assistant prosecutor, and her team of investigators began working with the Rusk County Sheriff's Department and the district attorney's office in rekindling the case.

"The team worked to reconstruct the crime scene, reconnect the evidence and gather DNA from the two men indicted today in an effort to build a solid case with the grand jury," Abbott said during the November press conference.

Ms. Tanner and Rusk County prosecutors began presenting the case to special called grand juries as witnesses and investigators filed one by one into the closed chambers.

The investigation focused on Hartsfield and several other men incarcerated in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, including Pinkerton.

THE CASE'S FUTURE

Officials with the Attorney General's Office would not elaborate on when they believed a trial could begin in the case.

Documents obtained by the Rusk County District Clerk's Office do detail a gag order signed into effect by State District Judge Clay Gossett. The order prevents law enforcement officials and all witnesses from talking about the case with people who are not working on it.

Also filed with the Clerk's Office was the oath of office for Ms. Tanner to represent the state in the murder trials.

Rusk County District Attorney Michael Jimerson used the oath to swear in Ms. Tanner as an assistant DA for Rusk County.

Officials explained this was a standard filing to allow the Attorney General's Office to take the lead prosecution role in high profile cases.

Earlier this month Gossett appointed Tyler attorney Don Killingsworth to represent Hartsfield and Tyler attorney Jeff Haas to represent Pinkerton during the two men's arraignments.

Officials will not say whether the trials could be moved because of extensive media attention.

Kenneth Dean covers police, fire, public safety organizations. He can be reached at 903.596.6353. e-mail: news@tylerpaper.com"> news@tylerpaper.com