Here are some key dates in the KFC slayings case:

Sept. 21, 1983: Convicted burglar Romeo Pinkerton of Tyler is paroled.

Sept. 23, 1983: Five people — four employees and one friend of a worker — are reported missing at 11:30 p.m. from the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Kilgore. The restaurant was to have closed at 10 p.m. A Rusk County couple reports hearing gunshots about 11 p.m.

Sept. 24, 1983: An oilfield worker at 10:20 a.m. finds the bodies of the five missing people along an oil lease road near a well off Rusk County Road 231 just northwest of Henderson, about 15 miles south of Kilgore. All had been shot in the head.

Sept. 26, 1983: Pinkerton's cousin, Darnell Hartsfield, commits burglary in Smith County, according to prison records.

Sept. 27, 1983: Reward for information about the slayings reaches $50,000, half of the total offered by the restaurant chain. It is never claimed.

Feb. 13, 1984: Hartsfield is sentenced to nine years for burglary and 25 years for robbery.

May 8, 1984: Pinkerton is sent to prison for 25 years for January 1984 Smith County burglary while on parole.

Jan. 27, 1988: Pinkerton paroled.

June 8, 1989: Pinkerton parole revoked for April 1988 burglary while on parole. He gets 50 years.

March 1995: Rusk County grand jury begins hearing KFC testimony.

April 27, 1995: James Earl Mankins Jr., son of a former state legislator, indicted on five counts of capital murder after fingernail recovered from clothing of KFC victim said to match Mankins.

Aug. 11, 1995: Hartsfield taken to prison with 40-year sentence from Smith County for delivery of controlled substance and engaging in organized criminal activity.

Nov. 13, 1995: Charges against Mankins dropped after fingernail evidence determined to not be his.

Dec. 1, 1998: Pinkerton paroled.

December 2000: Rusk County Sheriff James Stroud hires a former FBI agent, George Kieny, to work on the KFC case. He finds evidence scattered at labs from Austin to Dallas.

Sept. 11, 2001: Kieny requests DNA test on blood-stained box that held cash register tape rolls at KFC restaurant. The splatter on the white box, about the size of a dress-shirt gift box, had never been tested. Hartsfield's blood is identified.

Sept. 2003: Rusk County grand jury begins hearing KFC testimony. Five months later, grand jurors released.

Nov. 10, 2004: Hartsfield indicted on aggravated perjury charges for lying about whether he was in KFC restaurant the night of the abductions in 1983.

Dec. 8, 2004: Pinkerton paroled.

July 30, 2005: Pinkerton arrested in Tyler for burglary of school.

Oct. 26, 2005: Jury convicts Hartsfield of aggravated perjury; sentenced to life because of six earlier felony convictions.

Nov. 17, 2005: Texas attorney general announces capital murder indictments against Hartsfield and Pinkerton for the KFC slayings.

Aug. 5, 2006: Pinkerton's capital murder trial moved from Henderson to New Boston on change of venue approved by State District Judge J. Clay Gossett.

Aug. 6, 2007: Jury selection begins in New Boston.

Oct. 15, 2007: Scheduled opening arguments and start of testimony.

Sept. 16, 2008: The trial began with Rusk County District Attorney Micheal Jimerson reading the five indictments against Hartsfield to a jury of six men and eight women, including alternates. Hartsfield, 47, stood as the indictments were read, and he forcefully responded not guilty to each charge..

Sept. 17, 2008: 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.

Sept. 18, 2008: Danny Pirtle, a former Kilgore police detective, testifies in court that the evidence log from the investigation is missing.

Sept. 19, 2008: Forensic pathologist testifies in court that Opie Hughes did not show injuries consistent with sexual assault.

Sept. 22, 2008: Former Texas Ranger Glenn Eliott testifies that he saw two key pieces of evidence at the KFC.

Sept. 23, 2008: On the 25th anniversary of the murders, jurors hear for the first time testimony from forensic scientists about evidence found at the restaurant.

Sept. 24, 2008: Ex-FBI agent George Kieny testifies that a piece of evidence collected after the initial investigation prompted crime lab employees to test DNA on previously collected evidence.

Sept. 25, 2008: Defense Attorney makes a motion to render a verdict of not guilty for Hartsfield. Assistant Attorney General Lisa Tanner countere, and Rusk County District Judge J. Clay Gossett denied the motion.