AUSTIN — More than three decades of wrongful accusations came to an end Thursday morning inside a packed Travis County courtroom, when state District Judge Dayna Blazey looked at four men - and the family of one who did not live to see this day - and delivered three words that changed everything.
"You are innocent."
Judge Blazey formally exonerated Robert Springsteen, Michael Scott, Forrest Welborn, and the family of the late Maurice Pierce, clearing their records and closing the cases with a finding of actual innocence - permanently dismissing all charges with prejudice, meaning no future prosecution is possible. Blazey told the men and their families: "No ruling can restore the time taken from you, but the court can and does state without qualification or hesitation that you are cleared and that your innocence is affirmed."
What happened in 1991
For Texans too young to remember, the Yogurt Shop Murders are among the most brutal crimes in Austin history. On the night of December 6, 1991, Amy Ayers, 13; Eliza Thomas, 17; and sisters Jennifer and Sarah Harbison, ages 17 and 15, were bound, gagged, and shot in the head at the "I Can't Believe It's Yogurt" store where two of them worked. The shop was then set on fire. The crime drew national attention and haunted Austin for decades.
Springsteen, Scott, Welborn and Pierce - all teenagers at the time - were wrongfully accused in 1999 based on contested confessions. Springsteen was sentenced to death and spent 10 years in prison. Scott was sentenced to life. Welborn and Pierce were never convicted but lived for years under the dark cloud of suspicion. Prosecutors wanted to retry Springsteen and Scott, but a judge ordered the charges dismissed in 2009 when new DNA testing unavailable at the time of the original trials revealed another male suspect. Maurice Pierce died in 2010. The case went cold again.
The real killer identified
The case effectively went cold until 2025, when an HBO documentary series brought renewed public attention and investigators announced in September that new evidence pointed to Robert Eugene Brashers as the actual killer. The link to the Austin case came when a DNA sample taken from under one victim's fingernail matched Brashers, who had also been arrested at a border checkpoint near El Paso two days after the murders - with a pistol in his stolen car matching the caliber used to kill one of the girls. Investigators also connected Brashers to the strangulation death of a South Carolina woman in 1990, the 1997 rape of a 14-year-old girl in Tennessee, and the shooting of a mother and daughter in Missouri in 1998. Brashers died in 1999 when he shot himself during a standoff with police at a Missouri motel.
Thursday's hearing
Travis County First Assistant District Attorney Trudy Strassburger opened Thursday's hearing by telling the court: "Every day in this courthouse, we ask people to take responsibility. Today, it is our turn to accept responsibility." Travis County DA José Garza then personally apologized to each man and their families — and to the victims' families as well.
Michael Scott and Forrest Welborn were present in the courtroom. Springsteen did not attend. Maurice Pierce's daughter, Marisa Pierce, addressed her father through tears: "Daddy, you have your name back. The world knows what you were trying to say all along."
Scott told the court: "For decades, I have carried the burden of wrongful conviction and the weight of a crime I did not commit." Springsteen's attorney Amber Farrelly reminded the court: "Let us not forget that Robert Springsteen could be dead right now, executed at the hands of the state of Texas."
The four victims' families have never stopped grieving. The Ayers family issued a statement saying they never wanted anyone wrongfully convicted for their daughter's murder, and that they believed investigators when they were told the original suspects were guilty.
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