East Texas

By KENNETH DEAN
Staff Writer

HENDERSON - After a month of individual voir dire and 900 prospects, officials believe they will soon seat a jury in the KFC murder case.

State District Judge Clay Gossett said he expects the process to pick a jury of 12 men and women and three alternates in the state's case against Romeo Pinkerton to be complete next week.

Pinkerton, along with his cousin, Darnell Hartsfield, are accused of killing Mary Tyler, 37; Opie Ann Hughes, 39; Joey Johnson, 20; David Maxwell, 20; and Monte Landers, 19, who had all been shot at least twice - "execution-style."

Authorities contend the cousins abducted the victims from the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Kilgore on Sept. 23, 1983, and took them to an oil lease on Walker King Road in Rusk County and killed them.

For more than two decades, the friends and families of five victims and the law enforcement officers who worked the case have longed for closure in the 24-year-old case. Pinkerton's trial is now tentatively set for Oct. 15.

Pinkerton will be the first of the cousins to stand trial in a case that revolves around DNA evidence and the testimony of witnesses who claim they saw the two men in the eatery the night of the killings.

Gossett said he would hold a press conference after the jury had been selected to discuss the next steps in the case as it moves toward opening statements.

Pinkerton's case is being heard in New Boston at the Bowie County Courthouse after Gossett ordered a change of venue because of years of extensive media coverage in the unsolved murders.