KFC UPDATE: Case Recessed Until Tuesday
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 – Another former cellmate of a man on trial for mass murder is testifying for the state in the 1983 KFC murder case this morning.
By KENNETH DEAN
Staff Writer
NEW BOSTON – Another former cellmate of a man on trial for mass murder is testifying for the state in the 1983 KFC murder case this morning.
Ronald Null said he has been incarcerated in federal prison for facilitating a cell phone in the commission of a felony, and is being held in Seagoville Unit. But he testified it was while he was in the Smith County Jail recently when he met Romeo Pinkerton.
Null said while spending time in a holding cell, he read over Pinkerton’s case file and read the part about a bloody napkin. Pinkerton asked Null if he thought that DNA could still be found on the napkin.
“Trying to keep it light, I told him, 'Look you’re not O.J., so if that’s your blood, then it will still be there,'” he said. “I told him if he could put himself hundreds of miles away from there, that’s what he should do.”
Pinkerton and his cousin Darnell Hartsfield are accused of abducting and killing five people in September 1983.
Null testified that Pinkerton told him that he was not stuck in the Houston area at the time of the murders, but in was in Tyler. Null said Pinkerton told him that he had told authorities he was in Houston because of bad weather, but confided in Null that he was actually in Tyler.
Null testified that Pinkerton had multiple newspaper clippings of the case in his possession.
He also testified that when police went to Pinkerton's mother's home, he was hiding inside and didn't answer the door.
Laura Popps, Texas Attorney General assistant prosecutor in the case, asked what Pinkerton's demeanor was when he said he was hiding.
"He thought it was funny."
Null said he came forward with the information because he recently had a son killed, though the man stayed with his son after running over him.
"Although he stayed with him, if he hadn't, I would have wanted some closure," he said.
Posted Friday, Oct. 26, 2007 at 10:06 a.m. CDT:
Defense attorney David Griffith, on the cross-examination, asked if it was true that Pinkerton never told him that he did anything with the KFC case, but that he felt that he was being brought into the case, because he and his cousin Hartsfield ran around together.
Null said that was correct.
Griffith asked, “Didn’t he tell you that the robbery was his cousin’s style and not his, and that he didn’t like confrontation, right?
Null answered, “That’s what he said.”
Griffith asked, “Not at any time did he tell you anything about being there (at the restaurant) did he?”
Null replied, “That’s right.”
Null told Popps that he didn’t receive any deal for his testimony.
“I’m getting out in May anyway. I have done my time.”
After a brief recess for the two teams to listen to Null’s taped testimony, Null testified under direct questioning that he had participated in other robberies with his cousin.
Posted Friday, Oct. 26, 2007 at 10:31 a.m. CDT:
Missy Wolfe, Texas Attorney General investigator on the KFC case for the past five years, testified that she became involved in the case in May 2003.
“I had never seen any of the clothing, and wanted to see if we could submit any of the clothing for testing,” she said.
Wolfe testified that she became concerned when she did not find Opie Hughes’ underwear, and the knowledge of Hughes being found away from the other victims bothered her.
“I spent a lot of time looking without jumping to conclusions,” she said in regards to the underwear.
Wolfe said she took the brown uniform pants to the Tyler Police Department, where they used a laser to view the pants and found a large stain in the crotch area of the pants.
Wolfe said she took the pants to the DPS Forensic Lab in Garland the next day, where a test proved the stain was semen, but that DNA has not matched any known person.
Wolfe said she has looked at 161 people (“I think it’s at 161") and excluded all of them.
The DNA profile from the semen stain is in the state and national CODIS (Combined DNA Indexing Systems), but there have been no hits.
She said most of the people did not know that she had collected samples from testing from them.
She testified that she took discarded envelopes, cups, gum and other items to be tested at the DPS lab.
One individual said no when asked for a sample by mailing her a letter which he sealed by licking it himself.
Posted Friday, Oct. 26, 2007 at 10:50 a.m. CDT:
Wolfe said that a witness who testified yesterday (the Tyler Paper is withholding his name at the request of prosecutors due to concerns about his and his family's welfare) told her some of the people involved in the murders “were in the ground.” Wolfe explained this information was told to the witness by Pinkerton, meaning that some who were present at the murders have since died.
Wolfe said she went back and looked at photos of the crime scene, and one struck her as odd. That was a photo showing all kinds of debris all over the floor of the restaurant.
Haas asked Wolfe if it was true that over the past 24 years, that there were newspaper articles that have contained information about the crime scene and the crime in general, along with names of people once considered suspects.
Wolfe agreed.
Haas asked if some of that information had been wrong. She again agreed.
Haas then asked Wolfe if she was present in 2003 when George Kieny said that former Texas Ranger Glenn Elliott had told him that he had the box and napkin in his vehicle’s trunk and forgot about them.
Wolfe said she was present, but did not know about that information, though Haas showed her a report her former partner made at the time.
Posted Friday, Oct. 26, 2007 at 11:25 a.m. CDT:
Matt Thomas, a DNA expert in Florida, testified that DNA was sent to his lab from the DPS forensic lab in Garland.
Thomas testified his lab does not identify people in particular, but a group of people. His conclusion on the sample in the KFC case would have him to believe the semen was left from someone of African-American ancestry.
During cross-examination by Griffith, Thomas testified his lab tested another sample two weeks ago that did not match the first sample, despite both being labeled the same number as a sample submitted in 2004.
Lisa Tanner, the state’s lead prosecutor in the case, asked if the samples were 20-plus years old and had suffered degradation. Thomas said that statement was correct.
Griffith asked if the sample was too degraded.
“It met our guidelines,” Thomas said.
After the cross-examination, Judge Clay Gossett recessed the case until next Tuesday at 8:30 a.m.
Null said while spending time in a holding cell, he read over Pinkerton’s case file and read the part about a bloody napkin. Pinkerton asked Null if he thought that DNA could still be found on the napkin.
“Trying to keep it light, I told him, 'Look you’re not O.J., so if that’s your blood, then it will still be there,'” he said. “I told him if he could put himself hundreds of miles away from there, that’s what he should do.”
Pinkerton and his cousin Darnell Hartsfield are accused of abducting and killing five people in September 1983.
Null testified that Pinkerton told him that he was not stuck in the Houston area at the time of the murders, but in was in Tyler. Null said Pinkerton told him that he had told authorities he was in Houston because of bad weather, but confided in Null that he was actually in Tyler.
Null testified that Pinkerton had multiple newspaper clippings of the case in his possession.
He also testified that when police went to Pinkerton's mother's home, he was hiding inside and didn't answer the door.
Laura Popps, Texas Attorney General assistant prosecutor in the case, asked what Pinkerton's demeanor was when he said he was hiding.
"He thought it was funny."
Null said he came forward with the information because he recently had a son killed, though the man stayed with his son after running over him.
"Although he stayed with him, if he hadn't, I would have wanted some closure," he said.
Posted Friday, Oct. 26, 2007 at 10:06 a.m. CDT:
Defense attorney David Griffith, on the cross-examination, asked if it was true that Pinkerton never told him that he did anything with the KFC case, but that he felt that he was being brought into the case, because he and his cousin Hartsfield ran around together.
Null said that was correct.
Griffith asked, “Didn’t he tell you that the robbery was his cousin’s style and not his, and that he didn’t like confrontation, right?
Null answered, “That’s what he said.”
Griffith asked, “Not at any time did he tell you anything about being there (at the restaurant) did he?”
Null replied, “That’s right.”
Null told Popps that he didn’t receive any deal for his testimony.
“I’m getting out in May anyway. I have done my time.”
After a brief recess for the two teams to listen to Null’s taped testimony, Null testified under direct questioning that he had participated in other robberies with his cousin.
Posted Friday, Oct. 26, 2007 at 10:31 a.m. CDT:
Missy Wolfe, Texas Attorney General investigator on the KFC case for the past five years, testified that she became involved in the case in May 2003.
“I had never seen any of the clothing, and wanted to see if we could submit any of the clothing for testing,” she said.
Wolfe testified that she became concerned when she did not find Opie Hughes’ underwear, and the knowledge of Hughes being found away from the other victims bothered her.
“I spent a lot of time looking without jumping to conclusions,” she said in regards to the underwear.
Wolfe said she took the brown uniform pants to the Tyler Police Department, where they used a laser to view the pants and found a large stain in the crotch area of the pants.
Wolfe said she took the pants to the DPS Forensic Lab in Garland the next day, where a test proved the stain was semen, but that DNA has not matched any known person.
Wolfe said she has looked at 161 people (“I think it’s at 161") and excluded all of them.
The DNA profile from the semen stain is in the state and national CODIS (Combined DNA Indexing Systems), but there have been no hits.
She said most of the people did not know that she had collected samples from testing from them.
She testified that she took discarded envelopes, cups, gum and other items to be tested at the DPS lab.
One individual said no when asked for a sample by mailing her a letter which he sealed by licking it himself.
Posted Friday, Oct. 26, 2007 at 10:50 a.m. CDT:
Wolfe said that a witness who testified yesterday (the Tyler Paper is withholding his name at the request of prosecutors due to concerns about his and his family's welfare) told her some of the people involved in the murders “were in the ground.” Wolfe explained this information was told to the witness by Pinkerton, meaning that some who were present at the murders have since died.
Wolfe said she went back and looked at photos of the crime scene, and one struck her as odd. That was a photo showing all kinds of debris all over the floor of the restaurant.
Haas asked Wolfe if it was true that over the past 24 years, that there were newspaper articles that have contained information about the crime scene and the crime in general, along with names of people once considered suspects.
Wolfe agreed.
Haas asked if some of that information had been wrong. She again agreed.
Haas then asked Wolfe if she was present in 2003 when George Kieny said that former Texas Ranger Glenn Elliott had told him that he had the box and napkin in his vehicle’s trunk and forgot about them.
Wolfe said she was present, but did not know about that information, though Haas showed her a report her former partner made at the time.
Posted Friday, Oct. 26, 2007 at 11:25 a.m. CDT:
Matt Thomas, a DNA expert in Florida, testified that DNA was sent to his lab from the DPS forensic lab in Garland.
Thomas testified his lab does not identify people in particular, but a group of people. His conclusion on the sample in the KFC case would have him to believe the semen was left from someone of African-American ancestry.
During cross-examination by Griffith, Thomas testified his lab tested another sample two weeks ago that did not match the first sample, despite both being labeled the same number as a sample submitted in 2004.
Lisa Tanner, the state’s lead prosecutor in the case, asked if the samples were 20-plus years old and had suffered degradation. Thomas said that statement was correct.
Griffith asked if the sample was too degraded.
“It met our guidelines,” Thomas said.
After the cross-examination, Judge Clay Gossett recessed the case until next Tuesday at 8:30 a.m.
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