BRYAN, Texas — A robber who had been convicted of perjury in the long-unsolved killings of five people abducted from a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant 25 years ago was convicted of murder Tuesday.
Darnell Hartsfield, 47, of Tyler was found guilty on all five counts in one of the longest unresolved mass murder cases in Texas. He received five automatic life sentences, which State District Judge Clay Gossett ordered be served consecutively. Prosecutors chose not to seek the death penalty.
The victims — four workers and a friend — were abducted from the restaurant in Kilgore on Sept. 23, 1983, 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.
DNA evidence linked Hartsfield to the restaurant.
Hartsfield has been serving a life sentence on a perjury conviction for telling a grand jury he wasn’t at the restaurant on the night of the abductions. He also has six earlier felony convictions.
N.Y.: Bloomberg wants 3rd term
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has decided to try to reverse the term-limits law he had long supported so he can seek a third term next year and help the city emerge from financial turmoil, a person close to the mayor said Tuesday. Bloomberg made the decision over the weekend and will announce it Thursday, according to the person. The billionaire will cite the nation’s precarious economic situation as the reason that New York needs a tested financial manager to stay and guide the city, the source said.
D.C.: Stevens’ friend testifies
A longtime friend of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, Bill Allen, testified Tuesday that he gave the Republican senator thousands of dollars in gifts. Stevens, 84, is on trial for failing to disclose about $250,000 in gifts and favors on Senate financial documents. At the heart of the case is a massive home renovation project in which Allen helped transform the senator’s small A-frame cabin into a two-story home with a garage, sauna, wine cellar and wraparound porches. The senator says he never asked Allen for any free work. In fact, he says he made it clear he wanted his friend to send him every bill for the job. If freebies were tacked on, he says, Allen did so without telling him.
Florida: Tropical storm weakening
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Tropical Storm Laura has begun to weaken as it moves into the energy-sapping cold waters of the north Atlantic. Laura’s maximum sustained winds have dropped to about 50 mph. The 12th named storm of the season was centered about 330 miles southeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland, late Tuesday.
Georgia: Gas lines shorter in Atlanta
Gas station lines eased somewhat Tuesday in Atlanta, the largest city hit by a hurricane-induced gas shortage in the southeast, as Georgia’s governor waited for a White House answer to his request to release more crude oil. The gas shortage has created long lines at stations and frustrated drivers around the Southeast, hitting particularly hard in the Atlanta area, Nashville, Tenn., and western North Carolina. The average price for regular gas Tuesday was $3.93 per gallon in Georgia, 30 cents higher than the national average, according to the AAA. Motorists were paying an average of $3.89 a gallon Tuesday in North Carolina and $3.79 in South Carolina.
Cayman Islands: USS Kittiwake to be sunk to create reef for divers
The Cayman Islands announced plans Tuesday to scuttle the decommissioned USS Kittiwake, a 2,290-ton submarine rescue ship, to create an underwater attraction for scuba divers and snorkelers. Ownership of the Kittiwake will be transferred from the U.S. Maritime Administration to the Cayman Islands government as early as next month, project manager Nancy Easterbrook said.
Hong Kong: Cabury candy said to be safe
Hong Kong authorities said Tuesday the amount of melamine found in two samples of chocolate made at British candy maker Cadbury’s Beijing factory was legally acceptable for human consumption, a day after the company recalled 11 items sold in parts of Asia and the Pacific. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said that no level of melamine, which is used to make plastics and fertilizers, deliberately added to a food product is legal in the United States. The recall does not affect candy sold in the U.S., authorities said Monday.
Russia: Gorbachev forming party
A Russian billionaire said Tuesday he is teaming up with former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to form a new political party that will challenge the country’s recent steps away from democracy. Alexander Lebedev, a former lawmaker who has built a fortune in business and investment, said he and Gorbachev would work together in a political movement tentatively named the Independent Democratic Party.
From Herald news services
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