{"id":172678,"date":"2026-02-20T09:28:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T09:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/172678\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T09:28:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T09:28:24","slug":"texas-court-officially-exonerates-men-once-accused-of-yogurt-shop-murders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/172678\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas court officially exonerates men once accused of Yogurt Shop Murders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">AUSTIN, Tx. (KFVS) &#8211; A Travis County, Texas judge officially cleared four young men of the infamous Yogurt Shop Murders that took place in 1991.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Presiding Judge Dayna Blazey told Michael Scott, Robert Springsteen, Forest Welborn, and the family of the late Maurice Pierce that they are innocent. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Judge Blazey then dismissed the charges against each of the men with prejudice, meaning the cases are permanently closed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The exonerations were achieved through the work of the Austin Police Department \u2014 the same agency that initially made the wrongful accusations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">At Monday\u2019s emotional hearing in Travis County court, statements were read on behalf of Springsteen and Welborn. Several members of Maurice Pierce\u2019s family spoke, including his daughter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Michael Scott read his own statement, \u201cFor decades, I have carried the burden of wrongful conviction and the weight of a crime I did not commit. No court ruling can return the life I lost. But I can acknowledge&#8230;I am not guilty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The legal victory represents a significant milestone for the men and their families, who had long awaited the clearing of their names.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Austin Detective Dan Jackson testified at the hearing, explaining how DNA evidence and a spent .380 shell casing found at the Yogurt Shop crime scene led investigators to Robert Brashers.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"After police took DNA from Robert Brashers' relatives and exhumed his body, they were able to...\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/DZSZY5TUIRD7ZJJMMPHSZNS3PQ.png\" width=\"980\" height=\"617\" \/>After police took DNA from Robert Brashers&#8217; relatives and exhumed his body, they were able to verify he was the &#8220;Yogurt Shop Murders&#8221; killer.(WMC)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Back in 2018, authorities in southeast Missouri identified Brashers as the killer responsible for the 1998 shooting deaths of Portageville mother and daughter, Sherri and Megan Scherer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Brashers\u2019 connection to the Yogurt Shop case brought him back into the spotlight and sparked the start of a project at Heartland News.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">In her podcast, \u201cChasing a Ghost,\u201d Kathy Sweeney plans to track the murders and crimes attributed to Robert Brashers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Look for that podcast series to be released in March.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 KFVS. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Tx. (KFVS) &#8211; A Travis County, Texas judge officially cleared four young men of the infamous Yogurt&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,22596,69769,1522,2441,52952,69774,69770,14551,69768,69775,43818,69771,15571,69772,27,62871,69773,2209],"class_list":{"0":"post-172678","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news","11":"tag-clear","12":"tag-cleared","13":"tag-county","14":"tag-court","15":"tag-forest","16":"tag-maurice","17":"tag-michael","18":"tag-murders","19":"tag-officially","20":"tag-pierce","21":"tag-robert","22":"tag-scott","23":"tag-shop","24":"tag-springsteen","25":"tag-texas","26":"tag-travis","27":"tag-welborn","28":"tag-yogurt"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}