A court in Austin, Texas, ended more than three decades of ordeal and cleared the names of four men wrongly accused of murder when they were teenagers on Thursday. District Judge Dayna Blazey cleared the names of Michael Scott, Forrest Welborn, Robert Springsteen and Maurice Pierce, saying, “You are innocent,” much to the relief of two of them who were present in the courtroom Thursday.
Judge Blazey called her order “a commitment to the rule of law and a commitment to the dignity of the individual.”
1991 Austin yogurt shop murders
Four men have been charged in the 1991 Austin yogurt shop murders where four teenage girls were shot in the ‘I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt!’ ascent by an unknown gunman on the night of December 6.
Two of the victims, Eliza Thomas and Jennifer Harbison, both 17, were employees of the store, while 15-year-old Sarah Harbison and 13-year-old Amy Ayers were waiting there to take Jennifer home when it closed. All of the victims were allegedly shot in the head “execution style” with .22 caliber lead bullets.
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Arrest and trial of suspects
Despite an extensive investigation involving hundreds of suspects, police have made no progress on the case for years. That changed in 1999, when investigators arrested Robert Springsteen, Michael Scott, Maurice Pierce and Forrest Welborn, who were all juveniles in 1991, for murder.
While Springsteen and Scott were tried and sentenced to death and life in prison, respectively, Welborn was charged but never tried, and Pierce spent three years in prison before the charges against him were dismissed.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the convictions of Springsteen and Scott in 2008.
Who was the real killer?
The case took a dramatic turn in September 2025, when Austin police announced that the perpetrator of the yogurt murders was, based on DNA evidence, Robert Eugene Brashers, a serial killer who died in 1999.
Read also | DNA links deceased man to 1991 killing of 4 girls at Texas yogurt shop
What the four men said
On Thursday, Scott and Welborn, along with family members, were present in court to hear their names cleared. While Springsteen did not attend, Pierce died in 2010 in a confrontation with police following a traffic stop.
“My son’s name has finally been cleared after over 25 years of being called a monster, a murderer and everything else,” said Phil Scott, Michael Scott’s father. “Son, be proud.
“Let’s not forget that Robert Springsteen could be dead right now, executed at the hands of the state of Texas,” Springsteen’s lawyer said.
In a statement, Welborn said he lost friends, struggled to hold down a job and was homeless at one point.
“I lost my family. I lost my youth. My daughter was 3 years old when I was arrested. We just celebrated our first wedding anniversary. I lost my chance to raise a family,” Scott said. “Every day I carried the weight of a crime I did not commit.”
The victim’s family is responding
After the four men were acquitted Thursday, Amy Ayers’ family released a statement thanking investigators and saying they never want anyone to be wrongfully convicted.
“The Ayers family never wanted anyone to be wrongfully convicted of their precious daughter’s murder. They believed investigators when they were told that the original suspects were guilty of this heinous crime,” their attorney said.