East Texas

By KENNETH DEAN
Staff Writer

HENDERSON -- Time grows near for the second trial in the Kentucky Fried Chicken murders of 1983.

Clay Gossett, fourth district state judge, has set the date for Darnell Hartsfield. He is charged with the murders of five people abducted from the Kilgore KFC on Sept. 23, 1983.

Gossett said in a prepared statement, that trial is scheduled to begin on Sept. 15 with jury selection beginning the week before in the 85th district court in Brazos County.

Gossett moved the trial to the Bryan - College Station area 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's cousin, Romeo Pinkerton, 49, of Tyler, pleaded guilty in October to his role in the slayings. In his plea, made in the midst of 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 also 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.

Pinkerton, a convicted burglar, had been to prison at least five times and had been out of prison just two days when the crime occurred.

DNA technology, not available until recently, showed Pinkerton's blood was on a napkin at the scene. Blood from Hartsfield, who was arrested for aggravated robbery three days after the slayings, was found on a box of cash register tapes.

Hartsfield is being tried by Texas Attorney General prosecutor Lisa Tanner and he is being 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.