By Lisa Spooner
Less than a week after his conviction on five counts of capital murder, Darnell Hartsfield speaks with CBS 19.
More than 25 years ago, 5 people were kidnapped from a Kilgore KFC restaurant. They were taken out to a Rusk County oil field and shot execution style.
Last year, Romeo Pinkerton pleaded guilty to all 5 counts of capital murder. And just last week, a jury in Brazos County found his cousin, Darnell Hartsfield guilty of the same crimes.
But despite the jury's guilty verdict, Hartsfield says he's innocent.
So, CBS 19 pressed Hartsfield to get his side of the story in his own words.
He says he's admitted to other crimes, but he will never confess to a crime he says he didn't commit. It's an interview you'll see only on CBS 19.
"One of the victim's mothers said, "I don't want no one to be set up to take this case just to bring closure to me and the rest of the families. Well, that's exactly what happened," said Darnell Hartsfield.
Hartsfield says he was set up for the KFC murders.
"Me and my cousin, Romeo Pinkerton, we were stooges for the state, you know, to solve this case. The people's family members, they wanted closure," he said.
Hartsfield says his name should have been cleared just months after the crimes.
Hartsfield said, "I went to DPS around December of 1983 and I passed a polygraph test. At that time I had no scars on me whatsoever, by body examination by Stuart Dowell. And they talked about the amount of blood that was left at the KFC, that whoever's blood that was, had to have been severely injured."
But despite passing the lie detector test, in 2005, Hartsfield and Pinkerton were each charged with 5 counts of capital murder.
Last year, Pinkerton pleaded guilty to the charges. In response to that, Hartsfield said, "He was scared to die. He knew they was going to kill him if he went to trial."
But Hartsfield chose a different route. "We'll offer you 5 life sentences. We'll take your death penalty off. I said, I'd rather go to my grave because I'm innocent, than to admit to something I didn't do."
Hartsfield had this to say about the jury that convicted him: "I don't hate the jury for their decision. They're just citizens, that was put in to do a job. They said as far as they're concerned, the DNA... it was conclusive. And I feel like, if that was going to be the case, then why have a trial in the first place?!"
Even though Hartsfield's blood was found on a box prosecutors say was in the restaurant, Hartsfield says he was never there.
"I don't particularly know how my blood got there. But I know that I wasn't there. My attorneys could find no paper trial. All they could come up with was a box that came in at a later date. There was no pictures of that box at the KFC," Hartsfield responded.
Concerning the rape of one of the victims, Hartsfield says no way.
"I got 8 sisters and I got a mother. And I would give my life before I would see that happen to another individual... to a female," he said.
As for other suspects...
"You think Mankins, Jr. did it?," I asked him. Hartsfield replied, "I'm not going to sit in this camera and tell you that he did that. But what I'm saying, though is that's a possibility. I'm saying that by his daddy being friends with the lead investigator, I feel like the impropriety of it, the lead investigator should have dismissed himself from the case because he was too close."
Hartsfield says he's not happy about his conviction. But he can accept it.
"And I will close on this note, God knows my innocence. And that's all that matters to me."
Hartsfield says he will continue to fight to clear his name, in the KFC murders... even if he has to take it all the way to the Supreme Court.
