$35M Payout for 1991 Austin Case

Austin officials have agreed to pay $35 million to three men and the family of a fourth man who were wrongly accused in the 1991 yogurt shop murders, moving to close one of the city’s longest-running criminal cases. City Manager T.C. Broadnax said on May 12 that Austin had reached a settlement with Robert Springsteen, Mike Scott, Forrest Welborn and the family of Maurice Pierce. (kut.org) The agreement came less than three months after a Travis County judge formally declared the four men innocent. The case had centered for decades on the killings of Amy Ayers, Eliza Thomas, and sisters Jennifer and Sarah Harbison at an I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt shop in north Austin. (austintexas.gov) ### Who is getting the money, and why? Robert Springsteen, Mike Scott and Forrest Welborn are included in the settlement, along with the family of Maurice Pierce, who died in 2010. KUT reported that the city agreed to pay the group a total of $35 million in restitution after they were wrongly accused in the murders. Broadnax said the city hoped the agreement would bring “a sense of closure to everyone affected by this horrific event.” Maurice Pierce died before the men were exonerated. KUT reported that Pierce had spent years jailed on a charge tied to the case before he was released in 2003, and later was fatally shot by an Austin police officer in 2010. (kut.org) ### How did the four men end up accused in the first place? The 1991 murders remained unsolved for years before investigators focused on four young men in 1999. KUT reported that Springsteen and Scott were charged and convicted of murder, while Welborn’s charges were dropped in 2000 and Pierce’s charge was later dismissed. Springsteen was sentenced to death, and Scott received life in prison, according to reporting cited in city archival material and KUT’s account of the exonerations. (kut.org) Assistant District Attorney Trudy Strassburger said at the February exoneration hearing that Travis County’s wrongful prosecutions had left the defendants “screaming into the wind” for decades. (kut.org) KUT reported that both Springsteen and Scott had long maintained their confessions were coerced by police. ### What changed the case after so many years? Austin police announced on Sept. 26, 2025, that new DNA testing had identified Robert Eugene Brashers as the suspect in the killings. The department said Brashers died by suicide in 1999 and that the investigation remained open. KUT later reported that police tied Brashers to the murders through forensic, DNA and ballistic evidence. (kut.org) Feb. 19, 2026, became the next major turning point. On that date, Travis County Judge Dayna Blazey formally declared Pierce, Springsteen, Scott and Welborn innocent, clearing their records after District Attorney José Garza moved to revisit the case. (kut.org) ### What have city officials and lawyers said about the settlement? T.C. Broadnax said the agreement closed “the final chapter of a devastating story in Austin’s history.” His statement, reported by KUT, said the city was “pleased to have reached an agreement” with the men and Pierce’s family. (austintexas.gov) Attorney Tony Diaz, who has represented Scott since 1999, told KUT the settlement came faster than he expected. Diaz said the deal also included a commitment by Austin to change some police practices, including banning unsupervised interrogations of underage suspects — a provision he said the Innocence Project of Texas had pushed. (kut.org) ### What happens next at City Hall? Austin City Council is scheduled to meet on May 21, according to the city’s council calendar and agenda page. The public agenda page says council may act on listed items and that some matters can be approved in a single consent vote unless a council member pulls them for separate discussion. (kut.org) A May 5 council work session already included a closed-door item on “legal issues related to the Yogurt Shop criminal cases,” according to city records. The next formal step is council action on the settlement terms, which would clear the way for the payment Broadnax announced on May 12. (austintexas.gov) (austintexas.gov) (kut.org)