KFC UPDATE: Court Adjourned for Week
AP file photo
Romeo Pinkerton is charged in the 1983 murders of five people at a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Kilgore.
(Editor's Note: Updates are being provided during the day from the trial of Romeo Pinkerton, charged in the 1983 murders of five people at a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Kilgore. More recent updates will be posted at the bottom of this story throughout the day.)
By KENNETH DEAN
Staff Writer
NEW BOSTON – Jurors in the KFC murder case early Friday morning are listening to testimony from a firearms expert.
Glenn Johnson, a former Texas Department of Public Safety firearms forensic specialist, testified for the state under the questioning of Texas Attorney General prosecutor. Laura Popps.
By KENNETH DEAN
Staff Writer
NEW BOSTON – Jurors in the KFC murder case early Friday morning are listening to testimony from a firearms expert.
Glenn Johnson, a former Texas Department of Public Safety firearms forensic specialist, testified for the state under the questioning of Texas Attorney General prosecutor. Laura Popps.
Johnson first described how a firearm has grooves in the barrel to help keep a bullet from spiraling out of control when it leaves the muzzle.
The grooves, which give the bullet stability, can leave information on a fired bullet which can identify it.
He explained as a bullet passes through the grooves, the bullet picks up the characteristics of the grooves. Also, each gun manufacturer has a unique groove pattern which helps experts identify the bullet to a certain type of firearm.
Further testing on a bullet can sometimes lead police to the exact weapon the bullet was fired from.
“Bullets will take on the characteristics of the rifling in the barrel,” he said.
Posted Friday, Oct. 19, 2007 at 9:37 a.m. CDT:
He was at DPS in Tyler as the firearms examiner, and he received numerous pieces of evidence from the KFC case shortly after the murders.
Johnson said bullets from the case were submitted to him from those recovered from the bodies during autopsies, and from the dirt at the murder scene.
He testified he believed he personally examined about 50 different weapons in regards to the case.
“Of all the guns that were submitted to you over the years in this case, have you ever had a match?" Popps asked.
No, he replied.
He testified that there were 11 bullets, and definitely two and possibly three guns because there were six bullets Federal Firearms ammunition, four bullets that were round nosed from Winchester Western and another type of bullet. He said he could not rule out the possibility that one gun was used to fire seven bullets, but that would have meant that the revolver would have had to been reloaded.
Johnson said a .38 special and a .357 magnum were used in the murders, and that three victims were shot with both guns.
Posted Friday, Oct. 19, 2007 at 10:58 a.m. CDT:
Lead prosecutor Lisa Tanner questioned John Beene, DPS forensic scientist in Tyler, in regards to the KFC case, and asked if he was the custodian of records in the case with evidence submitted to his agency in Tyler.
Beene testified he received a large amount of evidence submissions over a period of time following the murders from multiple police officers from various agencies.
Marvin Avance, former Kilgore Police captain, submitted several pieces of evidence, including paper items.
But it was a submission by Texas Ranger Stuart Dowell on Oct. 4, 1983 that held two crucial pieces of evidence in the state’s case against Pinkerton and his cousin Darnell Hartsfield. The submission included a white box, one napkin and one small cup – each with what appeared to be blood on them. Dowell requested that blood typing be done on the box, and Beene said he performed initial testing, and it indicated the blood was human. He then forwarded the evidence to the Garland DPS lab for additional testing.
The box and napkin were retested in 2001, and the prosecution says that DNA evidence found on the box implicates Hartsfield and Pinkerton.
Posted Friday, Oct. 19, 2007 at 11:26 a.m. CDT:
Haas began cross-examining Beene about conflicting dates on evidence submission forms and asked why the box, the napkin and the cup when submitted did not have the location where they were found like every other piece of evidence.
Beene said he did not know.
“So there is no indication as to where these items were found?” Haas asked.
“No, not on anything I have seen,” Beene said.
On redirect examination, Tanner used other submission forms in the case to show that it was just standard operating procedure, because all of the information was from the same case.
Haas again questioned Beene.
Standing in front of the jury with large versions of the submission forms he asked, “Again there is no place where these items were found, is there?”
“No, there is not. Stuart Dowell brought them to the lab and requested, and that’s all I know,” Beene said.
Posted Friday, Oct. 19, 2007 at 12:02 p.m. CDT:
Garland DPS Forensic Lab Director Manuel Valdez Jr., testified he received evidence in the KFC case, and that in the Fall of 1983, there was no such thing as DNA testing.
Valdez said he did blood typing on the box and issued a report three weeks after the murders.
“The majority of blood found from the scene was Type O, and the protein markers were consistent with victim Mary Tyler,” he said.
Tanner asked if Valdez did any other additional testing with evidence in his October 1983 report.
“I performed testing on item number 1-10 which was a box, and 1-10 A, and that was a napkin, and concluded it was human blood,” he said.
Valdez stated that the blood typing ruled out all of the victims except for Landers. However, some time later, his testing also excluded Jimmy Earl Mankins Jr., as having been the contributor of the blood on the napkin and box.
Valdez said the box and napkin remained in his lab from the time they received the evidence in October 1983 until January 2002, when they were released to former FBI Agent George Kieny, who was working as a special investigator with the Rusk County Sheriff's Office in conjunction with the Attorney General's Office.
Court has now adjourned for the week.
The grooves, which give the bullet stability, can leave information on a fired bullet which can identify it.
He explained as a bullet passes through the grooves, the bullet picks up the characteristics of the grooves. Also, each gun manufacturer has a unique groove pattern which helps experts identify the bullet to a certain type of firearm.
Further testing on a bullet can sometimes lead police to the exact weapon the bullet was fired from.
“Bullets will take on the characteristics of the rifling in the barrel,” he said.
Posted Friday, Oct. 19, 2007 at 9:37 a.m. CDT:
He was at DPS in Tyler as the firearms examiner, and he received numerous pieces of evidence from the KFC case shortly after the murders.
Johnson said bullets from the case were submitted to him from those recovered from the bodies during autopsies, and from the dirt at the murder scene.
He testified he believed he personally examined about 50 different weapons in regards to the case.
“Of all the guns that were submitted to you over the years in this case, have you ever had a match?" Popps asked.
No, he replied.
He testified that there were 11 bullets, and definitely two and possibly three guns because there were six bullets Federal Firearms ammunition, four bullets that were round nosed from Winchester Western and another type of bullet. He said he could not rule out the possibility that one gun was used to fire seven bullets, but that would have meant that the revolver would have had to been reloaded.
Johnson said a .38 special and a .357 magnum were used in the murders, and that three victims were shot with both guns.
Posted Friday, Oct. 19, 2007 at 10:58 a.m. CDT:
Lead prosecutor Lisa Tanner questioned John Beene, DPS forensic scientist in Tyler, in regards to the KFC case, and asked if he was the custodian of records in the case with evidence submitted to his agency in Tyler.
Beene testified he received a large amount of evidence submissions over a period of time following the murders from multiple police officers from various agencies.
Marvin Avance, former Kilgore Police captain, submitted several pieces of evidence, including paper items.
But it was a submission by Texas Ranger Stuart Dowell on Oct. 4, 1983 that held two crucial pieces of evidence in the state’s case against Pinkerton and his cousin Darnell Hartsfield. The submission included a white box, one napkin and one small cup – each with what appeared to be blood on them. Dowell requested that blood typing be done on the box, and Beene said he performed initial testing, and it indicated the blood was human. He then forwarded the evidence to the Garland DPS lab for additional testing.
The box and napkin were retested in 2001, and the prosecution says that DNA evidence found on the box implicates Hartsfield and Pinkerton.
Posted Friday, Oct. 19, 2007 at 11:26 a.m. CDT:
Haas began cross-examining Beene about conflicting dates on evidence submission forms and asked why the box, the napkin and the cup when submitted did not have the location where they were found like every other piece of evidence.
Beene said he did not know.
“So there is no indication as to where these items were found?” Haas asked.
“No, not on anything I have seen,” Beene said.
On redirect examination, Tanner used other submission forms in the case to show that it was just standard operating procedure, because all of the information was from the same case.
Haas again questioned Beene.
Standing in front of the jury with large versions of the submission forms he asked, “Again there is no place where these items were found, is there?”
“No, there is not. Stuart Dowell brought them to the lab and requested, and that’s all I know,” Beene said.
Posted Friday, Oct. 19, 2007 at 12:02 p.m. CDT:
Garland DPS Forensic Lab Director Manuel Valdez Jr., testified he received evidence in the KFC case, and that in the Fall of 1983, there was no such thing as DNA testing.
Valdez said he did blood typing on the box and issued a report three weeks after the murders.
“The majority of blood found from the scene was Type O, and the protein markers were consistent with victim Mary Tyler,” he said.
Tanner asked if Valdez did any other additional testing with evidence in his October 1983 report.
“I performed testing on item number 1-10 which was a box, and 1-10 A, and that was a napkin, and concluded it was human blood,” he said.
Valdez stated that the blood typing ruled out all of the victims except for Landers. However, some time later, his testing also excluded Jimmy Earl Mankins Jr., as having been the contributor of the blood on the napkin and box.
Valdez said the box and napkin remained in his lab from the time they received the evidence in October 1983 until January 2002, when they were released to former FBI Agent George Kieny, who was working as a special investigator with the Rusk County Sheriff's Office in conjunction with the Attorney General's Office.
Court has now adjourned for the week.
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