BRYAN — No physical evidence connecting Darnell Hartsfield to where five people were found dead was collected from the Rusk County murder scene, an investigator said during Hartsfield's murder trial.

Hartsfield, 47, faces five life sentences if convicted of killing five people who were kidnapped from what was a Kilgore Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1983.

William Brown, a criminal investigator for the Rusk County District Attorney's Office, said he was notified on the morning after the kidnapping that five bodies had been on an oilfield road off of CR 232. He immediately went to the scene, and he and several law enforcement officers from multiple jurisdictions searched and processed the crime scene.

Using metal detectors, Brown and law enforcement officials dug projectiles out of the ground beneath the victims' bodies. Brown said he could not say how many bullets were fired, but he knew they collected more than five projectiles. He said he believed the victims were shot on the oilfield road.

During cross examination by defense attorney Thad Davidson, Brown said he was not aware of anyone fingerprinting the gate to the dirt road or making plasters of tire tracks or footprints. He said he did not know of any blood, fingerprints, DNA or any evidence linking Hartsfield, or any other suspect, to the murder scene.

The DNA that was collected from the gruesome murder scene came from a semen stain found on the pants of Opie Hughes. In 1983, DNA evidence was not collected from crime scenes. It was many years later when the DNA was extracted from the pants. The DNA is identified as belonging to a black man, officials said, but not the two accused.

In other testimony Wednesday:

— Wayne Reyonlds, a former Kilgore police officer, said he was the first law enforcement officer to arrive at the Kentucky Fried Chicken. After meeting Mary Tyler's husband and daughter, he checked the locked front door, which still had the keys in the inside lock, before walking through the open back door. He performed a quick survey to see if anyone was in the restaurant. He saw the restaurant was in disarray and had several bloodstains, but he did not see the blood-stained register tape box or blood-stained napkin that prosecutors say link Hartsfield and Romeo Pinkerton to the crime. He said he probably did not see a lot of potential evidence while there.

— Star Spagano, a former Kilgore resident, said she and her boyfriend visited the restaurant just before it closed the night of the killings. She said she overheard Tyler's daughter tell her mother over the phone there was about $2,000 at the restaurant because nobody made the daily deposit. She testified two black men arrived at the restaurant shortly after they came in, and she thought they also heard about the money. When investigators interviewed her after the crime, she identified the men from a stack of photos, but she was only certain about one of the photos. She said she was not interviewed again by officials until 22 years later. Spagano also testified she saw a white van parked in the back of the restaurant's parking lot. The prosecution contends this was the white van that was used to transport the victims to the rural oilfield.

— LeAnn Killingsworth, former manager of the restaurant, said she was called to the restaurant the night of the killings to help orient investigators. She said she knew it was a robbery as soon as she walked inside. Examining cash register tape collected from the restaurant, she said Tyler had begun to clear the two cash registers, but never finished.

— Linda Hardee of Kilgore and Bobby Robinson, a former Kilgore resident, testified they saw a white van parked behind the restaurant. Hardee was searching for a drunken driver she had seen almost wreck on her way home from work, and Robinson went to the restaurant to get food for his family. As Robinson drove around the building, he saw the van parked near an open back door with its sliding side door open. Neither Hardee nor Robinson saw anyone.

— Marsha Williams, who lived close to the oilfield where the victims were found, said she saw a van park briefly in her driveway on the night of the killings. She said she heard five gunshots several minutes after the van left the driveway.

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At a glance

Sept. 23, 1983: Five people were abducted from a Kilgore Kentucky Fried Chicken and taken to an oil lease road about 15 miles from the restaurant in northern Rusk County. Their bodies were found the next day, shot execution style.

Killed: David Maxwell, 20; Mary Tyler, 37; Opie Ann Hughes, 39; Joey Johnson, 20; and Monte Landers, 19. Landers was the only one who was not employed at the restaurant.

October 2007: Romeo Pinkerton pleaded guilty to five counts of murder, avoiding a possible death sentence. He was sentenced to five concurrent life sentences. Darnell Hartsfield, his cousin, is on trial in Bryan this month, accused of participating in the slayings with Pinkerton.

Recently developed: DNA evidence identified the blood on a box of cash register tapes from the restaurant as belonging to Hartsfield, according to evidence from Pinkerton's trial. Blood on a napkin at the restaurant was identified as Pinkerton's.