AUSTIN (KXAN) — The original suspects in Austin’s infamous yogurt shop murders case and their families can look ahead to possible restitution and reform after a judge signed orders clearing their names.
New evidence presented by the Austin Police Department points to another man, Robert Brashers, as the lone suspect in the crime decades after Robert Springsteen, Michael Scott, Forrest Welborn and Maurice Pierce faced accusations and even convictions for the killing of four girls at a north Austin yogurt shop in 1991.
Following Thursday’s hearing, the executive director of Innocence Protect of Texas Mike Ware said it “remains to be seen” whether the men and their families will file civil lawsuits for wrongful arrests and convictions. He said there will be conversations about potential compensation for the men, as well as changes to the legal system.
“We intend to advocate for and push for reform so what happened here in Austin will not happen either here or anywhere else in the state,” Ware said, flanked by the men’s families, longtime defense attorneys, and members of the Austin Police Department and Travis County District Attorney’s office.
A man named Cory Session also stood with the group. His brother, Tim Cole, was wrongly accused, convicted and imprisoned for a rape in Lubbock in 1985. He died in prison in 1999. Nearly a decade later, DNA evidence implicated another man in the crime and proved Cole was innocent.
Cole, a U.S. Army veteran and former Texas Tech University student, became the first person in the country to be exonerated posthumously through DNA testing…