DNA Motions Already Denied in KFC Case

HENDERSON — Rusk County District Attorney Micheal Jimerson said Thursday that recent motions for new DNA testing submitted by two men convicted in the Kilgore KFC murders were not properly filed with the court, and a judge already denied identical motions submitted earlier by the pair. Cousins Darnell Hartsfield and Romeo Pinkerton are serving five life sentences in the 1983 abduction and murders of five people from a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Kilgore. According to KETK and the Longview News-Journal, State District Judge Clay Gossett turned down a request for new DNA testing made by Hartsfield and Pinkerton in January. In his denial dated Jan. 18, the judge ruled the DNA already has been tested and compared to the men’s DNA profiles using modern testing methods.

Mary Tyler, 37, Opie Ann Hughes, 39, Joey Johnson, 20, David Maxwell, 20, and Monte Landers were fatally shot in rural Rusk County after being abducted from the Kilgore restaurant. Hughes also was raped by attackers. The case went unsolved for decades until DNA testing performed in 2001 pointed to the two cousins.

Pinkerton pleaded guilty in the third week of his 2007 trial, but Hartsfield has maintained his innocence. Both men filed motions requesting DNA testing by an independent lab several times, and Gossett has continually struck down the motion, citing testing done by several labs including one hired by the men’s attorneys. “As such, this court finds that there are no reasonable grounds for said motion and consequently no need for appointment of counsel. Therefore, the motion, is in all things, denied,” Gossett wrote in his order. Prosecutors have argued the killings were to cover up the robbery of about $2,000 from the restaurant.