KFC UPDATE: Witness Says Pinkerton Made Gun Gesture
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 – A former FBI agent is currently on the stand as State District Judge Clay Gossett listens to testimony the defense has asked to be suppressed.
By KENNETH DEAN
Staff Writer
NEW BOSTON – A former FBI agent is currently on the stand as State District Judge Clay Gossett listens to testimony the defense has asked to be suppressed.
George Kieny testified that he and Texas Ranger Randy Prince talked to Romeo Pinkerton in the Hodges Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Rusk, Texas back in 2002.
Kieny said it did not appear that Pinkerton was suffering from any type of mental incapacities and that he understood the reason that Kieny and the ranger were visiting him at the prison.
Pinkerton and his cousin, Darnell Hartsfield, are charged in the deaths of five people kidnapped from a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Kilgore on Sept. 23, 1983.
Kieny testified he wrote out Pinkerton’s statement because Pinkerton said his handwriting was not legible, but added that statement was signed and initialed by Pinkerton.
Part of the statement indicated that Pinkerton’s Miranda Rights were read to him, and he continued to speak to Kieny and Prince in regards to the KFC case.
Lead prosecutor Lisa Tanner asked if at any time during the interview did Pinkerton ask to terminate the interview.
Kieny said in the hour they were talking, Pinkerton never asked or indicated he wanted the interview to stop.
Defense attorney Jeff Haas asked Kieny when he first learned of the hit on CODIS notifying them that Pinkerton’s DNA matched the blood found on a napkin in the KFC restaurant in 1983.
Kieny said it was sometime late 2001 or early 2002.
Haas asked if Kieny was aware that Pinkerton was in the mentally retarded offender program at the Hodge unit in Rusk. The Hodge Unit is one of the state’s prisons for those suffering mental problems.
Haas then asked why there was no recording of the interview, since Kieny knew Pinkerton was considered mentally retarded.
Posted Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007 at 10:00 a.m. CDT:
Kieny said he made an inquiry if there was any reason that Pinkerton couldn’t be interviewed, and found nothing stating he was incapable of understanding why he was being interviewed.
Gossett overruled the defense's objections and will allow Kieny’s testimony, because Pinkerton was subsequently removed from the unit because he was deemed not qualified and not suffering from mental retardation.
Haas argued the reason his client was removed from the program was because he was indicted for capital murder and held on those charges.
Tanner asked if Pinkerton’s removal from the mental health program comes up in trial whether she could pursue it, but Haas objected, saying he planned to use that in another area of the trial if needed.
Posted Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007 at 10:48 a.m. CDT:
The jury was brought back into the courtroom, and Kieny began testifying about the flier bearing Pinkerton, Hartsfield and Elton Winston, who were wanted in 1983 for questioning in the KFC murders.
Tanner then asked Kieny if over the years he had submitted for DNA testing various samples from multiple sources. He replied yes.
Kieny testified he attempted to locate a white van, owned by a Robert Franklin, which was a 1974 Ford Econoline van. He said he learned the van was once owned by a man named Ernest Winston who had a cleaning service.
Haas objected, stating Kieny’s testimony on the van was hearsay and not of personal knowledge. Tanner voiced her defense of the line of questioning by saying she did not intend on submitting it as evidence under Kieny. Gossett overruled the objection.
Posted Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007 at 10:57 a.m. CDT:
February 13, 2002 is when Kieny and Ranger Prince went to collect a blood sample and obtain a statement from Pinkerton.
In the statement, Pinkerton said he had not participated in any robberies or burglaries with Hartsfield.
Tanner had Kieny read part of Pinkerton’s statement in court: “I was accused and questioned about the murders of the people in Kilgore, Texas and I was cleared when the police backtracked where I was at the time of the KFC murders. I told the police I was in prison at the time of the murders.” ... “I have never been to the KFC restaurant in Kilgore and couldn’t even tell you where it was at.”
Kieny testified that he told Pinkerton about the DNA match between the inmate’s blood and that found in the restaurant after the statement, and Pinkerton refused to give an explanation. He stuck to the story that he had never been there and that it wasn’t his blood.
Pinkerton then told Kieny he was still in prison due to complications from Hurricane Alisha, but records indicated that Pinkerton had actually been released before the murders.
Posted Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007 at 11:56 a.m. CDT:
Records admitted into evidence show that Pinkerton was transferred from TDCJ’s Darrington Unit in Brazoria County to another unit until his release per the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole. The date he was released back in Smith County was two days before the murders.
Haas began his cross examination of Kieny, asking if he had become frustrated with the case over the years.
Kieny said he would be less than human if he wasn’t frustrated, but stated he believed he had been misquoted by members of the media, including the Tyler Paper reporter in the audience Thursday morning.
In an interview several years ago, Kieny voiced his frustrations to the paper, stating witnesses and law enforcement officers associated with the case were getting old and that time was of the essence.
Haas continued his cross-examination by asking if Kieny has ever seen any pictures of the box or the napkin in the KFC.
Kieny stated he had not seen a box.
Haas asked if Kieny told Attorney General investigators that former Texas Ranger Glenn Elliott had told him that he had picked up the white box. Kieny said he had not, but Haas produced a report by AG Investigator Forrest Mitchell stated that Kieny learned from Elliot that he had recovered the box from the restaurant and had kept the box in his trunk 11 days before he submitted them as evidence. Elliott testified last week that he had never told Kieny that he did not collect the napkin and box.
Haas asked if it was true there was a chain of custody problem that he was trying to clear up.
"Mr. Kieny, we have already established there are no photos or nothing in writing of that box or napkin in the KFC?"
Kieny replied, "Yes we have."
Posted Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007 at 1:01 p.m. CDT:
Haas then asked Kieny if he saw any similarities in the signatures of his and Romeo Pinkerton on the statement that Kieny testified Pinkerton made willingly.
Haas said the court would know what was said in the meeting if there was a tape recording of the conversation.
“I guess you’ll just have to take my word for it,” Kieny fired back.
The defense and prosecution agreed to pause the cross-examination of Kieny for a witness with a scheduling problem.
Althea Choice said she had been in trouble with law enforcement from 1970s to mid 1990s, but had overcome her demons and is now an ordained minister.
She testified that she knew both Pinkerton and Hartsfield, and they would be seen together in the night clubs in Tyler. She said she knew Hartsfield carried a gun, but that all the Hartsfield family carried guns.
Posted Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007 at 2:52 p.m. CDT:
After lunch, Haas continued his cross examination of Kieny by discussing the van previously owned by Robert Franklin and photos of the van submitted as evidence in the case by the state.
Haas began questioning Kieny about a gun tested by DPS that was thought to have some connection to Jimmy Earl Mankins Jr.
Kieny submitted a report stating the gun was so badly damaged that it wouldn’t produce the same markings on bullets fired from the gun. He said he had never seen a DPS report stating the gun was eliminated as a suspect weapon.
Kieny also testified that during the several interviews he had with Mankins, he witnessed Mankins rubbing his thumbnail with his middle fingernail, which caused a notch. The nail found on Joey Johnson’s body had a notch in it.
Tanner asked Kieny on the redirect how long he had worked on the case. He said the better part of 24 years, and yes, he had been frustrated at times.
Kieny testified that he had never seen any evidence collected by former Kilgore Police Capt. Marvin Avance.
Tanner asked Kieny if Elliott told him he did not collect the box or napkin, and Kieny said that was true.
She also went back over the two signatures on Pinkerton’s statement.
“Did you sign his signature for him?”
He replied, “Absolutely not.”
Tanner then produced several documents signed by Pinkerton years before and asked Kieny if they appeared the same as on the signed statement he obtained from Pinkerton in 2002. Kieny stated they appeared to be the same signature.
Tanner asked Kieny if Pinkerton appeared to have any metal retardation. Kieny said he did not, and he added he felt Pinkerton was more than able to understand the topic of the case. Kieny was excused after spending most of the day on the stand.
The state then called Robert Franklin, a friend of Elton Winston. Franklin said he moved to Tyler in the early 1970s on a Texas College basketball scholarship, and Winston moved with him. He worked for Western Foundry, then began his own cleaning service and owned a white 1970s model Ford van with no windows purchased for his business.
Franklin testified that he loaned his van to Winston on several occasions even on the weekends, and through his friend met Hartsfield. He testified that he sold the van for about $50 to man who was supposed to be making repairs.
Franklin said he did not know Pinkerton, and didn’t believe he ever met him. Franklin testified his van did not have windows, and the one that the state had admitted into evidence was not his van.
Posted Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007 at 3:41 p.m. CDT:
The state called Mike McCarty to the stand next.
McCarty, a former Tyler Police officer, stated he stopped a white van in the north Tyler area in March 1984 for speeding at about 2:30 a.m.
He testified the driver was identified as Elton Winston, and the van he stopped was a white 1974 Ford van. Winston was arrested for driving with a suspended driver's license. McCarty could not remember any other details about the van. He did testify that he had known of Hartsfield and Pinkerton through his time with the police department.
Samuel Johnson said he was traveling on Texas Highway 135 in Kilgore the week after the murders when a white service-type van almost hit him head-on after running a stop sign.
He said there were some “hand gestures” from the driver of the van. A short time later he was contacted by law enforcement, who asked him to look at a photo lineup, and he picked out a subject.
When he was shown the flier with Pinkerton, Hartsfield and Winston, he said the person in the number one position on the flier was the same person driving the van.
“I made a comment that these were the same people, they just had different facial hair,” he stated in reference to the mug shot and the wanted poster position number one photo.
Posted Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007 at 5:28 p.m. CDT:
(Note: TylerPaper.com is withholding the name of the following witness at the request of prosecutors, who fear the witness could face harm because of his testimony.)
The witness testified he was in the Smith County Jail for eight months before being transferred to another facility after pleading guilty on a drug charge.
The witness said he met Pinkerton in the jail, and his impression was that Pinkerton was quiet and laid back.
It was when a cellmate pointed out Pinkerton’s picture in the Tyler Morning Telegraph that the witness told the cellmate that it was Pinkerton’s business and should not be discussed.
The two became chess buddies, playing every day. The witness said during one game Pinkerton asked if the witness if he knew about some murders. The witness said he told Pinkerton he didn’t know anything, then asked Pinkerton if he was involved. The witness then said Pinkerton made a handgun trigger gesture.
“We were playing chess, and he brings this murder thing up from the article and what I knew about it, and I didn’t know about it and basically didn’t want to know about it,” he said. “You can tell when someone is making something up and when they aren’t and that look in Romeo's eyes, I will never forget it.”
The witness said he thought about it the rest of the day, and it bothered him.
“At first I didn’t want to know, but then I was like, what is up,” he said.
The witness made it clear Thursday to assistant prosecutor Laura Popps that he did not want to testify.
“I told you before I don’t want to be here.”
Kieny said it did not appear that Pinkerton was suffering from any type of mental incapacities and that he understood the reason that Kieny and the ranger were visiting him at the prison.
Pinkerton and his cousin, Darnell Hartsfield, are charged in the deaths of five people kidnapped from a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Kilgore on Sept. 23, 1983.
Kieny testified he wrote out Pinkerton’s statement because Pinkerton said his handwriting was not legible, but added that statement was signed and initialed by Pinkerton.
Part of the statement indicated that Pinkerton’s Miranda Rights were read to him, and he continued to speak to Kieny and Prince in regards to the KFC case.
Lead prosecutor Lisa Tanner asked if at any time during the interview did Pinkerton ask to terminate the interview.
Kieny said in the hour they were talking, Pinkerton never asked or indicated he wanted the interview to stop.
Defense attorney Jeff Haas asked Kieny when he first learned of the hit on CODIS notifying them that Pinkerton’s DNA matched the blood found on a napkin in the KFC restaurant in 1983.
Kieny said it was sometime late 2001 or early 2002.
Haas asked if Kieny was aware that Pinkerton was in the mentally retarded offender program at the Hodge unit in Rusk. The Hodge Unit is one of the state’s prisons for those suffering mental problems.
Haas then asked why there was no recording of the interview, since Kieny knew Pinkerton was considered mentally retarded.
Posted Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007 at 10:00 a.m. CDT:
Kieny said he made an inquiry if there was any reason that Pinkerton couldn’t be interviewed, and found nothing stating he was incapable of understanding why he was being interviewed.
Gossett overruled the defense's objections and will allow Kieny’s testimony, because Pinkerton was subsequently removed from the unit because he was deemed not qualified and not suffering from mental retardation.
Haas argued the reason his client was removed from the program was because he was indicted for capital murder and held on those charges.
Tanner asked if Pinkerton’s removal from the mental health program comes up in trial whether she could pursue it, but Haas objected, saying he planned to use that in another area of the trial if needed.
Posted Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007 at 10:48 a.m. CDT:
The jury was brought back into the courtroom, and Kieny began testifying about the flier bearing Pinkerton, Hartsfield and Elton Winston, who were wanted in 1983 for questioning in the KFC murders.
Tanner then asked Kieny if over the years he had submitted for DNA testing various samples from multiple sources. He replied yes.
Kieny testified he attempted to locate a white van, owned by a Robert Franklin, which was a 1974 Ford Econoline van. He said he learned the van was once owned by a man named Ernest Winston who had a cleaning service.
Haas objected, stating Kieny’s testimony on the van was hearsay and not of personal knowledge. Tanner voiced her defense of the line of questioning by saying she did not intend on submitting it as evidence under Kieny. Gossett overruled the objection.
Posted Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007 at 10:57 a.m. CDT:
February 13, 2002 is when Kieny and Ranger Prince went to collect a blood sample and obtain a statement from Pinkerton.
In the statement, Pinkerton said he had not participated in any robberies or burglaries with Hartsfield.
Tanner had Kieny read part of Pinkerton’s statement in court: “I was accused and questioned about the murders of the people in Kilgore, Texas and I was cleared when the police backtracked where I was at the time of the KFC murders. I told the police I was in prison at the time of the murders.” ... “I have never been to the KFC restaurant in Kilgore and couldn’t even tell you where it was at.”
Kieny testified that he told Pinkerton about the DNA match between the inmate’s blood and that found in the restaurant after the statement, and Pinkerton refused to give an explanation. He stuck to the story that he had never been there and that it wasn’t his blood.
Pinkerton then told Kieny he was still in prison due to complications from Hurricane Alisha, but records indicated that Pinkerton had actually been released before the murders.
Posted Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007 at 11:56 a.m. CDT:
Records admitted into evidence show that Pinkerton was transferred from TDCJ’s Darrington Unit in Brazoria County to another unit until his release per the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole. The date he was released back in Smith County was two days before the murders.
Haas began his cross examination of Kieny, asking if he had become frustrated with the case over the years.
Kieny said he would be less than human if he wasn’t frustrated, but stated he believed he had been misquoted by members of the media, including the Tyler Paper reporter in the audience Thursday morning.
In an interview several years ago, Kieny voiced his frustrations to the paper, stating witnesses and law enforcement officers associated with the case were getting old and that time was of the essence.
Haas continued his cross-examination by asking if Kieny has ever seen any pictures of the box or the napkin in the KFC.
Kieny stated he had not seen a box.
Haas asked if Kieny told Attorney General investigators that former Texas Ranger Glenn Elliott had told him that he had picked up the white box. Kieny said he had not, but Haas produced a report by AG Investigator Forrest Mitchell stated that Kieny learned from Elliot that he had recovered the box from the restaurant and had kept the box in his trunk 11 days before he submitted them as evidence. Elliott testified last week that he had never told Kieny that he did not collect the napkin and box.
Haas asked if it was true there was a chain of custody problem that he was trying to clear up.
"Mr. Kieny, we have already established there are no photos or nothing in writing of that box or napkin in the KFC?"
Kieny replied, "Yes we have."
Posted Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007 at 1:01 p.m. CDT:
Haas then asked Kieny if he saw any similarities in the signatures of his and Romeo Pinkerton on the statement that Kieny testified Pinkerton made willingly.
Haas said the court would know what was said in the meeting if there was a tape recording of the conversation.
“I guess you’ll just have to take my word for it,” Kieny fired back.
The defense and prosecution agreed to pause the cross-examination of Kieny for a witness with a scheduling problem.
Althea Choice said she had been in trouble with law enforcement from 1970s to mid 1990s, but had overcome her demons and is now an ordained minister.
She testified that she knew both Pinkerton and Hartsfield, and they would be seen together in the night clubs in Tyler. She said she knew Hartsfield carried a gun, but that all the Hartsfield family carried guns.
Posted Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007 at 2:52 p.m. CDT:
After lunch, Haas continued his cross examination of Kieny by discussing the van previously owned by Robert Franklin and photos of the van submitted as evidence in the case by the state.
Haas began questioning Kieny about a gun tested by DPS that was thought to have some connection to Jimmy Earl Mankins Jr.
Kieny submitted a report stating the gun was so badly damaged that it wouldn’t produce the same markings on bullets fired from the gun. He said he had never seen a DPS report stating the gun was eliminated as a suspect weapon.
Kieny also testified that during the several interviews he had with Mankins, he witnessed Mankins rubbing his thumbnail with his middle fingernail, which caused a notch. The nail found on Joey Johnson’s body had a notch in it.
Tanner asked Kieny on the redirect how long he had worked on the case. He said the better part of 24 years, and yes, he had been frustrated at times.
Kieny testified that he had never seen any evidence collected by former Kilgore Police Capt. Marvin Avance.
Tanner asked Kieny if Elliott told him he did not collect the box or napkin, and Kieny said that was true.
She also went back over the two signatures on Pinkerton’s statement.
“Did you sign his signature for him?”
He replied, “Absolutely not.”
Tanner then produced several documents signed by Pinkerton years before and asked Kieny if they appeared the same as on the signed statement he obtained from Pinkerton in 2002. Kieny stated they appeared to be the same signature.
Tanner asked Kieny if Pinkerton appeared to have any metal retardation. Kieny said he did not, and he added he felt Pinkerton was more than able to understand the topic of the case. Kieny was excused after spending most of the day on the stand.
The state then called Robert Franklin, a friend of Elton Winston. Franklin said he moved to Tyler in the early 1970s on a Texas College basketball scholarship, and Winston moved with him. He worked for Western Foundry, then began his own cleaning service and owned a white 1970s model Ford van with no windows purchased for his business.
Franklin testified that he loaned his van to Winston on several occasions even on the weekends, and through his friend met Hartsfield. He testified that he sold the van for about $50 to man who was supposed to be making repairs.
Franklin said he did not know Pinkerton, and didn’t believe he ever met him. Franklin testified his van did not have windows, and the one that the state had admitted into evidence was not his van.
Posted Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007 at 3:41 p.m. CDT:
The state called Mike McCarty to the stand next.
McCarty, a former Tyler Police officer, stated he stopped a white van in the north Tyler area in March 1984 for speeding at about 2:30 a.m.
He testified the driver was identified as Elton Winston, and the van he stopped was a white 1974 Ford van. Winston was arrested for driving with a suspended driver's license. McCarty could not remember any other details about the van. He did testify that he had known of Hartsfield and Pinkerton through his time with the police department.
Samuel Johnson said he was traveling on Texas Highway 135 in Kilgore the week after the murders when a white service-type van almost hit him head-on after running a stop sign.
He said there were some “hand gestures” from the driver of the van. A short time later he was contacted by law enforcement, who asked him to look at a photo lineup, and he picked out a subject.
When he was shown the flier with Pinkerton, Hartsfield and Winston, he said the person in the number one position on the flier was the same person driving the van.
“I made a comment that these were the same people, they just had different facial hair,” he stated in reference to the mug shot and the wanted poster position number one photo.
Posted Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007 at 5:28 p.m. CDT:
(Note: TylerPaper.com is withholding the name of the following witness at the request of prosecutors, who fear the witness could face harm because of his testimony.)
The witness testified he was in the Smith County Jail for eight months before being transferred to another facility after pleading guilty on a drug charge.
The witness said he met Pinkerton in the jail, and his impression was that Pinkerton was quiet and laid back.
It was when a cellmate pointed out Pinkerton’s picture in the Tyler Morning Telegraph that the witness told the cellmate that it was Pinkerton’s business and should not be discussed.
The two became chess buddies, playing every day. The witness said during one game Pinkerton asked if the witness if he knew about some murders. The witness said he told Pinkerton he didn’t know anything, then asked Pinkerton if he was involved. The witness then said Pinkerton made a handgun trigger gesture.
“We were playing chess, and he brings this murder thing up from the article and what I knew about it, and I didn’t know about it and basically didn’t want to know about it,” he said. “You can tell when someone is making something up and when they aren’t and that look in Romeo's eyes, I will never forget it.”
The witness said he thought about it the rest of the day, and it bothered him.
“At first I didn’t want to know, but then I was like, what is up,” he said.
The witness made it clear Thursday to assistant prosecutor Laura Popps that he did not want to testify.
“I told you before I don’t want to be here.”
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