(September 6, 2008)—Jury selection begins Monday in Bryan for the capital murder trial of the second defendant in one of the state’s most notorious mass murder cases.
Darnell Hartsfield, 47, faces trial on five counts of capital murder in connection with the 1983 slayings of five people at a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Kilgore.
The trial was moved to Brazos County because of heavy pretrial publicity.
Hartsfield's cousin and co-defendant, Romeo Pinkerton, agreed to a plea deal midway through his capital murder trial near Texarkana, avoiding a possible death sentence by accepting five life prison terms.
Hartsfield evidently is not engaged in any similar negotiations.
David Maxwell, Mary Tyler, Opie Ann Hughes, Joey Johnson and Monte Landers were killed in the 1983 restaurant holdup.
All of the victims except for Landers worked at the restaurant about 25 miles east of Tyler.
Landers was a friend of Maxwell and Johnson and was visiting them as the restaurant was closing for the night.
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