AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas judge on Thursday will consider a formal declaration of innocence for the four men who were wrongfully accused of the 1991 Austin yogurt shop murders, including one man who was initially convicted and sent to death row in the killing of four teenagers in a crime that haunted the city for decades.
An exoneration ruling would close a dark chapter for the men and their families, and for a city that was shaken by the brutality of the crime and investigators’ inability to solve it for decades.
Cold case detectives announced last year they had connected the killings to a suspect who died in a standoff with police in Missouri in 1999.
That led to Thursday’s hearing before state District Judge Dayna Blazey, which two of the original four suspects, Michael Scott and Forrest Welborn, are expected to attend. Robert Springsteen, who was initially convicted and spent several years on death row, was not expected to attend. Maurice Pierce died in 2010.
“It has been over twenty-five years since the four men wrongfully accused have been waiting for the criminal justice system to clear their names,” Travis County District Attorney José Garza said when the hearing was scheduled.
A declaration of “actual innocence” would also be a key step for the men and their families to seek financial compensation for years they spent in jail or in prison.
The murders shocked Austin and confounded investigators for years
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 building was set on fire.
Investigators chased thousands of leads and several false confessions before the four men were arrested in late 1999.
Springsteen and Scott were convicted based largely on confessions they insisted were coerced by police. Both convictions were overturned in the mid-2000s.