Jury now deliberates on KFC murders

BRYAN (AP) — The murder trial of a second man accused of taking part in the quarter-century old slayings of five people abducted from an East Texas Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant is headed toward jury deliberations.

Prosecutors and attorneys for accused killer Darnell Hartsfield planned to call a handful of rebuttal witnesses, then deliver closing arguments Monday in the infamous case that has perplexed investigators since the night of Sept. 23, 1983. That's when the five victims were taken from the KFC store in Kilgore during an apparent robbery, were driven about 15 miles to a remote oilfield road and fatally shot. Their bodies were found the next morning.

Hartsfield, 47, of Tyler, faces life in prison if convicted. Prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty in the case, which had been one of the longest unresolved mass murder cases in Texas.

Hartsfield's trial was moved more than 100 miles to Bryan because of publicity in the Kilgore area. The trial comes nearly a year after his cousin, Romeo Pinkerton, also of Tyler, pleaded guilty to five murder charges midway through his own trial. Pinkerton accepted life in prison. The death penalty was on the table at that trial.

On Monday, defense lawyers started and ended their case, calling only four witnesses and reading the grand jury testimony of a now-deceased Texas Ranger who was one of the investigators of the slayings. Through that testimony, they attempted to show how two Texas Rangers described different places where a box with blood spots was found.

The box is key because the blood on it was identified through DNA testing as Hartsfield's and led to his indictment, although he has denied being in the restaurant. Blood on a napkin was tied to Pinkerton.

Unlike the quick defense, prosecutors took nearly two weeks to build their circumstantial case against Hartsfield, who already has been serving a life prison term for aggravated perjury in a KFC-related case because of six earlier felony convictions.

The murder victims 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 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.

One witness Monday testified he was nearly in a traffic wreck with a white man driving a van and speeding out of the KFC at about the time of the abductions. He also said inside the van were at least three people in KFC uniforms.

"My bumper almost hit his door," James Rowe said. "His window was down. He looked at me, I looked at him, for about two seconds."

Rowe described a "white male, long straight hair, long shaggy beard." Hartsfield is black.

On cross examination, prosecutors attempted to raise doubts about Rowe's story, questioning why he waited over a year to go to police and why his testimony differed somewhat from the account he gave a grand jury in 2003.

"A lot of things I could do better if I could do it over again," Rowe said from the witness stand. "I have regrets."

He said when he finally did go to the police he couldn't get much interest, and there's no evidence of a police report.

One of Hartsfield's lawyers, Thad Davidson, suggested it's another piece of evidence that's been lost in the case.

The investigation for years has been stymied by leads that went bad and haunted by what investigators at both trials have described as a chaotic crime scene. Defense lawyers at both trials pounced on what they said was poor evidence collection, poor protection of the crime scene and challenged the chain of custody involving evidence that was collected.

One man, James Earl Mankins Jr., the son of a former state legislator, was indicted on five counts of capital murder in 1995 after a fingernail recovered from clothing of a KFC victim was said to match Mankins. The charges were dropped later that year after the fingernail evidence was determined to not be his. Defense lawyers, however, continued to raise his name during their questioning of some witnesses.

In a videotaped re-enactment played for jurors Monday to bolster a defense theory, Hartsfield's lawyer Donald Killingsworth, using his own blood, had a legal aide use a makeup brush similar to a fingerprint brush to suggest how blood could have been spattered on the box to frame their client, as Hartsfield has contended.

Lead prosecutor Lisa Tanner pointed out Hartsfield told a grand jury in 2003 he wasn't aware any law enforcement agency had samples of his blood before October 1983, disputing suggestions someone was trying to frame him. Initials on the box indicated technicians examined the blood early that month, just weeks after the crime.

A witness at the trial of a black man accused in the abduction and murders of five people from an East Texas Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant 25 years ago testified Monday that he saw a white man speeding away the night of the abductions.

James Rowe, testifying as defense attorneys began their case in the trial of Darnell Hartsfield, said the van was carrying at least three people wearing KFC uniforms. Rowe said he clearly saw the driver because the van and his station wagon nearly collided as it sped out of the restaurant lot in Kilgore.

"My bumper almost hit his door," Rowe said. "His window was down. He looked at me, I looked at him, for about two seconds."

Rowe described a "white male, long straight hair, long shaggy beard." Hartsfield, 47, who is black, faces life in prison if convicted of the five capital murder counts. Prosecutors chose not to seek the death penalty.

On cross examination, prosecutors attempted to raise doubts about Rowe's story, questioning why he waited over a year to go to police and why his testimony differed from the account he gave a grand jury in 2003.

State District Judge Clay Gossett, who moved the trial from Henderson to Bryan because of publicity about the long-unresolved case, said he expected the defense would wrap up its case Monday after a single day of testimony. Gossett told jurors to tentatively plan on hearing closing arguments from lawyers Wednesday before beginning their deliberations.

In testimony that began Sept. 9, prosecutors have built a circumstantial case against Hartsfield to try to tie him to the KFC from where the five victims were taken the night of Sept. 23, 1983. They were found shot to death the following morning about 15 miles away along a rural oilfield road near Henderson, about 15 miles south of Kilgore.

Hartsfield is on trial almost a year after his cousin, Romeo Pinkerton, took a plea bargain midway through his own trial, agreeing to five life prison terms.

On Monday, Rowe testified the van driver was wearing something that "looked like a skull cap."

Asked by defense lawyer Thad Davidson if it could have been a mask, Rowe replied: "Could have been." Rowe said the driver took off, raised his arm in front of his face, then headed south on U.S. Highway 259.

Rowe, who lived near the KFC in Kilgore, said he was returning home with his family after dinner a relative's home when the near-collision occurred. He said he learned the next day of the slayings.

"I felt real sick to my stomach," he said. "I wished I would have hit them. I could have stopped this. ... It could have rolled the van over."

But Rowe said he didn't go to police for at least a year, taking his parents' advice to let police handle the case without him.

"I was kind of a stupid 30- year-old back then," he said under cross examination. "A lot of things I could do better if I could do it over again. I have regrets."

He said when he did go to the police he couldn't get much interest, and there's no evidence of a police report taken.

Davidson suggested it's another piece of evidence that's been lost in the case.

Under cross examination, prosecutor Lisa Tanner's questions showed how Rowe's testimony differed slightly from grand jury testimony he gave in 2003. Then, he said there were four or five people in the van with KFC uniforms.

Rowe's recollection of the time of events also was fuzzy, and he acknowledged what Tanner called "an interesting habit to relive things, ... to go back and relive the moment."

He agreed, saying after the near-wreck he went back to the restaurant later. He told a grand jury he thought there was "something fishy ... thought something was out of place." But he said he never went to police for a year.

"I was scared," he said.

DNA tests on blood from a box found at the restaurant identified Hartsfield as being there, according to testimony. Defense lawyers have questioned the reliability of evidence taken from the crime scene and have challenged whether the evidence was kept secure over all the years.

Hartsfield a grand jury in 2003 that he wasn't at the restaurant the night of the abductions. He wasn't indicted for the murders then but was accused of aggravated perjury, was convicted and sentenced to a life prison term because of six earlier felony convictions.

The murder indictments naming Hartsfield and Pinkerton were announced in 2005.

Prosecutors have said DNA evidence shows a third person was involved in the slayings, but that person never has been identified. A reinstated reward remains unclaimed.