More than 30 years after one of Austin’s most horrific crimes, a Texas judge has formally declared four men innocent in the 1991 rape and murder of four teenage girls at a yogurt shop that was later set on fire, as reported [1] by the New York Post.
For decades, Robert Springsteen, Michael Scott, Forrest Welborn, and Maurice Pierce maintained they had nothing to do with the killings of Amy Ayers, 13; Eliza Thomas, 17; and sisters Jennifer and Sarah Harbison, ages 17 and 15.
Judge declares 4 men “actually innocent” in Austin yogurt shop murders.
In a packed courtroom, a Texas judge cleared the men once accused in the brutal 1991 killings, citing new forensic evidence tying the crime to a serial offender who died in 1999.https://t.co/6xNw4ubvkL [2]
— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 20, 2026 [3]
The girls 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 then set ablaze.
On Thursday, state District Judge Dayna Blazey formally told Scott and Welborn in a packed courtroom that “you are innocent.”
A Texas judge has declared four men who were wrongfully accused of the 1991 Austin yogurt shop murders innocent.https://t.co/2Dxg2vCULp [4]
— 13WHAM (@13WHAM) February 19, 2026 [5]
She described her order as “an obligation to the rule of law and the obligation to the dignity of the individual.”
Prosecutors apologized during the emotional hearing and acknowledged the men had been wrongly accused in a case that haunted Austin for decades.
“You were wrongfully accused, and you are innocent. I am so sorry.”
Travis County District Attorney José Garza apologized to the men wrongly accused in the 1991 Yogurt Shop Murders.FULL STORY: https://t.co/urvIaKFtRi [6] pic.twitter.com/dqiXMRqY48 [7]
— CBS Austin (@cbsaustin) February 19, 2026 [8]
Springsteen did not attend the hearing. His attorney, Amber Farrelly, reminded the court of how close the case came to ending differently.
“Let us not forget that Robert Springsteen could be dead right now, executed at the hands of the state of Texas,” Farrelly said.
Scott and Springsteen had been convicted largely on confessions they later insisted were coerced by police. Springsteen was sent to death row, and Scott received a life sentence.
STREAMING LIVE | After 27 years, a stain that has followed the lives of four men accused in Austin’s Yogurt Shop Murders is now set to be wiped away: https://t.co/IUniNt99cb [9] pic.twitter.com/CE8qfP98pp [10]
— KHOU 11 News Houston (@KHOU) February 19, 2026 [11]
Both convictions were overturned in the mid-2000s. Welborn was charged but never tried after two grand juries refused to indict him. Pierce spent three years in jail before charges against him were dismissed.
In 2009, a judge dismissed charges against Springsteen and Scott after new DNA testing—unavailable in 1991 and during the earlier trials—identified another male suspect.
Still, it was not until Thursday’s hearing that the court formally declared all four men innocent.
The hearing included statements from the men and their families describing years of incarceration, broken relationships, homelessness, and ongoing suspicion.
In a written statement read in court, Welborn said he lost friends, struggled to maintain employment, and at one point was homeless. Scott testified that his arrest and imprisonment shattered his family.
“I lost my family. I lost my youth. My daughter was 3 years old when I was arrested. We had just celebrated our first wedding anniversary. I lost the chance to build a family,” Scott said.
“Every day I have carried the weight of a crime I did not commit.”
Phil Scott, Michael Scott’s father, addressed his son directly. “My son’s name has finally been cleared after more than 25 years of being called the monster, the murderer, and everything else,” he said. “Son, be proud.”
Marisa Pierce spoke through tears about her father, Maurice Pierce, who died in 2010 following a confrontation with police after a traffic stop.
“Daddy, you have your name back. The world knows what you were trying to say all along.”
The case took a dramatic turn in 2025 after renewed public attention from an HBO documentary series.
In September of that year, investigators announced that new DNA analysis and a review of ballistics evidence identified Robert Eugene Brashers as the sole killer.
A Travis County judge declared four men innocent Thursday in the 1991 Yogurt Shop Murders, formally closing a case that haunted Austin for more than three decades. See these headlines and more at https://t.co/vmpAbTIZMW [12] pic.twitter.com/Vdr8QuZSCA [13]
— CBS Austin (@cbsaustin) February 20, 2026 [14]
Authorities had previously linked Brashers, through advanced DNA testing beginning in 2018, to the 1990 strangulation of a woman in South Carolina, the 1997 rape of a 14-year-old girl in Tennessee, and the 1998 shooting of a mother and daughter in Missouri.
A DNA sample taken from under Amy Ayers’ fingernail matched Brashers from the 1990 killing.
Investigators also determined Brashers had been arrested at a border checkpoint near El Paso two days after the Austin murders.
A pistol found in his stolen vehicle matched the caliber used in the yogurt shop killings.
Police noted similarities between the Austin crime and Brashers’ other offenses, including victims being tied with their own clothing, sexual assault, and some scenes set on fire.
Brashers died in 1999 after shooting himself during an hours-long standoff with police at a motel in Kennett, Missouri.
“Over 25 years ago, the state prosecuted four innocent men … (for) one of the worst crimes Austin has ever seen,” Travis County First Assistant District Attorney Trudy Strassburger said.
“We could not have been more wrong.”
The formal declarations of innocence may allow the men and their families to pursue financial compensation for the years lost behind bars and the decades spent under suspicion.