The Texas Yogurt Shop Exonerations

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1:39The phrase most often associated with justice, the principle meant to anchor the system, is innocent until proven guilty. But for my father and three of his peers, that principle did not exist. That's Marissa Pierce speaking about her late father, Maurice Pierce. Pierce was one of four men originally suspected in the 1991 murders of four teenage girls, Eliza Thomas, Amy Ayers, and sisters Jennifer and Sarah Harbison. They were at a I Can't Believe It's yogurt shop in Austin, Texas.

2:20What did you see when you first walked into the yogurt shop? Just wholesale carnage. Sergeant Jones was looking at the badly burned bodies of four teenage girls who had been bound and gagged and shot in the head. The yogurt shop had been set on fire to cover the killer's tracks. The case has for years become known as the yogurt shop murders. Nearly 35 years later, all four men were declared innocent and exonerated after the Austin Police Department tied another man to the crimes. We now have evidence linking a specific individual to this case, Robert Eugene Brashers. And now the city of Austin has made an offer of$35 million to be split amongst the wrongfully accused men, including the family of Maurice Pierce, who died before this settlement was reached.

3:16It's blood money for us. He died for this money. So really, it was never about the money for us. It's about the reform and the changes that need to happen, not only in Austin, but apparently across the country. In the end, this is a story about eight victims, the four girls who were killed at the yogurt shop and the four boys who were wrongfully accused of killing them. What I think we need to remember is that over all these years, as terrible as it was for Sarah, Jennifer, Amy, and Eliza's families, the four boys and their families were hounded and treated as pariahs. I'm 48 Hours correspondent Erin Moriarty, and this is Case by Case.

4:03I've been reporting on this case since almost the beginning and nearly my entire career at CBS News. The signs of pain and outrage are everywhere around Austin. So the police have formed an elite unit.

4:22His only mission is to catch whoever killed those girls. The gunshot wounds show that actually two different kinds of guns have been used, a.380 and a.22. Back then, one of the early suspects was Maurice Pierce, who was 16 years old at the time. Here's a clip from one of our 48 Hours episodes on the case. You'll also hear from the first lead detective, John Jones. He was arrested eight days after the murders at a mall near the yogurt shop. Carried a.22 Hellerberg gun, the type used in the murders. The.22s were unmatchable. So you can't say it wasn't his gun? No. But there was no way to match it.

5:10To prove that it was his gun. He gave a statement. Jones says Maurice Pierce claimed that he was driving a getaway car and that three acquaintances, Forrest Wellborn, Michael Scott, and Robert Springsteen, were involved in the murders. But Pierce's story began to fall apart. It started to crater when we wired him up to go talk to Forrest. And we were listening in on the wire, and it was pretty obvious Forrest didn't know what Maurice was talking about. And when well-born Scott and Springsteen were brought in for questioning, they too denied any involvement. And with me today to discuss this case and the lasting impact on the wrongfully accused and their families is Maurice Pierce's widow, Kimberly Pierce, and their daughter, Marissa Pierce.

6:09I want to thank both of you for being here today. What is the first thing that comes to mind when you know you have to talk about this? suffering.

6:23Just how it got, it was so unreal. In 1991, it seems like such a long time ago. Let's start at the beginning. I mean, what did you think, Kimberly? I mean, I know that everybody in Austin had heard about this terrible, terrible murder of four young girls. and all of a sudden your boyfriend is pulled in and questioned about this case. Was that scary? I mean, it was scary at the time. It was very scary for him. I didn't see him until he got released. So I know when I saw him, he had bit all of his nails. His lips were all bleeding because he bit his lips and just very nervous reactions. I mean, I know initially his mom and dad didn't know where he was because they didn't notify his parents.

7:19So they basically, you know, woke up and he wasn't home. And so they're calling, you know, like any other parent, we're calling the hospitals. Kimberly, how did he describe the questioning? He was just ready to get out of there. I mean, that's really, he was just, he was ready to go. He's like, I'm just glad it's over. And he didn't have to tell me anything because I was with him that night. So I never questioned him as far as, you know, there wasn't a conversation like, did you do it? Because I was with him and I knew he didn't do it. How did Maurice end up pointing the finger at his best friend, Forrest?

7:58How did that come about? Why did they then wire Maurice and have him go in and talk to Forrest? Because Detective Polanco told Maurice that the gun that he had was the murder weapon that killed the four girls at the yogurt shop. Kimberly, what did you think when you heard that? They'd already went down a rabbit hole with me and my questioning that I already knew that they were lying. So I didn't believe anything that they said. They were telling me he was in a cult. him and Forrest were in a cult, like with animal sacrifices. Then they, when that didn't work, that's when they tried to say that he was at the yogurt shop visiting one of the girls, like trying to make me jealous.

8:48And I was like, they're lying. You know that they later on said Maurice confessed to being part of that. That wasn't true, was it? I mean, he never confessed. He just, when they said that was the murder weapon, he basically said, I didn't have it for this chunk of time. So I don't think he said Forrest did it, but he's like somebody that was with Forrest or Forrest, if he had, you know, gave the gun to somebody else at the mall or something. But he didn't have it at that time. So if I'm understanding you, this is very helpful. So it wasn't that Maurice pointed the finger at Forrest. He's saying, all right, if you're telling me the truth that this gun was involved in the murder, well, I didn't have it at this time.

9:38My friend Forrest did. So that's then why they put a wire on Maurice and had him go talk to Forrest. I found it really interesting, Marissa, that at the exoneration hearing, you talked about that. And you said that in that room, there was no evidence, only a detective and a narrative, a narrative that was so completely false. I'm using your words. It feels evil. What do you mean by that? Well, you know, there's the person that raised me, the person that I know, the person that loved me and taught me all of life lessons. And then there's this fabrication, this creation of a mastermind and a ringleader on the news and articles.

10:36And so that's the narrative that I was referencing. That detective doing the questioning of Maurice for hours was Hector Polanco. Lead detective John Jones took a statement after that. But he had doubts and told me when I started that it was clear that Forrest Wellborn knew nothing and there was nothing to connect Maurice Pierce. None of the four guys were charged. And so did you feel that it was over at that point? We did. So there's a period of time. That's when Marissa was born and Marissa's growing up. But then, almost eight years later in 1999, a new investigation and interrogations pushed two of the four men, Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott, to seemingly confess.

11:29Michael Scott's confession came first. He was questioned over four days. Come on, Michael, you're doing good. Tell us. Let's do this today. Let's do it. Same girl. I remember one girl screaming, terrified. Scott told investigators that he and the others only intended a simple robbery. He said they cased the yogurt shop earlier that day. And then after dark, he said, they came back armed with two guns. I hear the gun go off. I only pulled the trigger once. I hear another gun go off. Investigators claim that Springsteen later corroborated much of what Scott said. How are you doing? This is very loud, is that correct?

12:13But after intense questioning, he went further.

12:23Springsteen told them he shot one girl and raped her. Both men later recanted those confessions, saying that they were coerced. but Springsteen Scott, along with Maurice Pierce and Forrest Wellborn, were arrested. How did you find that out? When did you find out that Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott had suddenly confessed after all those years and implicated Maurice? I mean, basically, you're figuring it out when he got picked up on October 6th of 1999. And Marissa, do you remember? How old were you? What was that like? um I was seven and um it was intense it was devastating it was confusing it was a lot of things for a seven-year-old to have to um try to grasp I think my mom and dad tried really hard to shield me I was seven um it was it was a lot though how did you explain it to Marissa Kimberly.

13:33I mean, all of a sudden, her dad that she's known for seven years is suddenly in jail. I didn't tell her why he was in jail. I just told her he was in jail. I mean, at first, so that day, they came really early before work. I mean, it was a whole SWAT team.

13:56But I heard all the commotion, like the dogs were barking, and I went out. I was still in my my nightgown, and they pointed all their guns at me, right, because I'm coming out of the house. They have him hogtied on the ground. Did you even know what it was about yet? Did you know what was happening? Oh, I knew what it was about, yes, because they had talked to him not too long before he got arrested. But yeah, it was just, I sent her to school because I didn't, you know, you're in shock and you're like, I don't know exactly what I'm going to do. And then the principal called me because the news was there at her school.

14:40And so then I figured out, well, I can't send her to school. So yeah, then everything just started happening. I had to quit my job. We moved. I wanted to be, I don't know, somewhere where I felt like it would be less known. I didn't want her to be messed with at school. I didn't work that whole first year because I was trying to be there for Maurice. I don't think we ever thought it was going to last that long when there is no evidence and you know that you're innocent. I don't know. You just think that it's all a huge mistake, misunderstanding. Back then, I interviewed Forrest Walborn, and he clearly did not seem to know anything.

15:28Were you there that night? No. Were you there as a lookout? No. I missed it. You had nothing to do with this? Nothing at all. At the time, I did a very long interview with him and the DA at the time, Ronnie Earle, tried to get a hold of that interview because he wanted to know if there was anything incriminating in there. I mean, how difficult was that for the two of you when these cases got so much attention? I mean, it's guilt by association. I feel like the way that you get treated by the media and the families was you might as well have been the murderer yourself. Maurice never went on trial.

16:20He never went on trial. The only two who went on trial were Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen because they were the only ones who had, quote unquote, confessed. There was no other evidence. And yet Maurice spent more than three years in prison. Is that correct? Yes. Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen were both convicted. Scott was given life in prison, Robert Springsteen was put on death row. In 2003, then Maurice is finally released. And he's released, according to the DA, who's still DA at that point, Ronnie Earl. And he says there isn't enough evidence to, quote, convict him right now.

17:05So was it really over, even though he's released, was it? No, it wasn't over. They continue to harass him, harass me. There was definitely times when he felt like he was clearly being followed. By police officers? Right. What kind of toll did that take on Maurice? I mean, being in jail took the hardest toll on him. In order to survive in there and to be locked up for 23 hours a day, he had to somehow shut off his feelings. And so it's hard. You don't just, you know, come out and you're a free man and your feelings turn on again. He was just a much harder, different person when he came out. And I want to make it clear that they, although he was in jail for over three years, there was no physical evidence that tied him to the murder.

18:07Is that correct? And no statement that tied him to the murder. Correct. And yet, you believe he was targeted by police when he was released? Yes. Absolutely.

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20:13So now we go to 2006, 2007. I'm just going through the history here. And the convictions of Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen are overturned. It's on constitutional basis. This Sixth Amendment allows a defendant to be able to confront an accuser. But here you had these two, quote unquote, confessions that were used against these guys, but they were not allowed to question each other. So they are released. And at that time, there's a new DA. And she thinks, OK, I'm going to retry these guys, but I'm going to make sure I have more evidence. So I'm going to I'm going to retest that DNA, that partial male DNA profile that by them we know exists, but had never been able to be tied to anyone.

21:10And all of a sudden she tests it. In fact, it shows not only were those two guys excluded by that DNA, but so was Maurice and Forrest, all four guys. Did that make Maurice's life any better? No. I mean, that's why perception is reality. He was still perceived to be a murderer, a mastermind, guilty. And again, us by association. So, you know, I didn't get jobs because he was my husband. So it's, you know, been very difficult for all of us for a long, long time. Mm-hmm. Kimberly, how did you stay? I know, I mean, I know you love Maury's, but that had to be hard. How do you not stay? Yeah. Tell me more.

22:08We were together since we were 13 and 14. I think we grew up together. We made mistakes together. We had her young together. brother um you know i he was my best friend so it's hard that he's gone um it's hard to live with what they did to him well let's talk about that that i think is what i think i've been putting off going to in 2010 do you need something at all, Marissa? We can stop for a second. This tissue, please? Of course, of course. Thank you. It makes me a little teary right now. What happened in 2010?

23:03Marissa went through a stop sign. He did a rolling stop, a California stop, whatever you want to call it.

23:14He parked his car at his sister's house, got out, went into the house, and then they chased him. So he, you know, went through her house and went through the backyard and obviously started jumping fences and running, evading.

23:39and let me read to you what the police say. I want you to tell me what's accurate, what's not here. So this is how the Austin Police Department described what happened on that day in 2010, in December 2010. Maurice was stopped for traffic and fled on foot. APD officer Frank Wilson caught Pierce and the two struggled. Pierce removed Officer Wilson's knife from his belt and then stabbed him in the neck. Officer Wilson shot and killed Pierce. Officer Wilson survived his injuries. Marissa, is that how you would describe what happened?

24:24I mean, I guess. I don't know. if my dad wanted to harm this officer, Frank Wilson, he, my dad was a, you know, a capable man. He, if he wanted to, he could have, and he didn't want to. He was just trying to run, you know, his mind went into survival. That was it. He just wanted to get away. and naturally so. I wish people could understand that. I know that my father was not trying to harm that officer. Marissa was on the phone with him when he died. Oh my God. Tell me about it, Marissa. I was on the phone when it happened and that's how I knew that he just wanted to get away because he had told me, like, could hear it in his voice, the fear that was taking over.

25:27He said, they're after me. They're after me. And I heard him put his car in park. I heard him open the door. I heard him run.

25:49And then, and then he let me go. He hung up. And I believe, I believe that he hung up when he knew that this officer was on him. So that way, like I said, he's always he's always found a way to shield me and I think that was intentional and he let me go but it was only moments later that he called me back and uh

26:29at the at the time he whispered very quietly to me and in my head, I believed that he was hiding, you know, and I had just promised him, like, we're going to figure it out. It's okay. You're fine. You're safe. I love you. We're going to find you. But he was whispering because at that point he was taking his last breaths.

27:00and in those last moments he had just said I'm sorry

27:10I don't think you're going to see me again and I love you