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BRYAN, Texas (AP) -- A convicted robber already serving a life prison term for perjury was convicted of capital murder today for the fatal shootings of five people abducted from a Kilgore, Texas, Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant 25 years ago.
Darnell Hartsfield, 47, of Tyler was found guilty on all five counts. He received an automatic life sentence.
Hartsfield stood between his attorneys and had no visible reaction to the verdicts.
The jury deliberated less than two hours this afternoon after prosecutors took nearly two weeks to present their case against Hartsfield, whose cousin, Romeo Pinkerton, agreed to plead guilty to five murder charges midway through his trial a year ago.
Hartsfield's defense began and ended Monday.
The killings, among the oldest unresolved mass murder cases in Texas, occurred the night of Sept. 23, 1983, when the five victims were taken from the KFC store in Kilgore during an apparent robbery. They were driven about 15 miles to a remote oilfield road and fatally shot. Their bodies were found the next morning.
The trial was moved to Bryan because of extensive publicity about the case in the Kilgore area.
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