Maurice Pierce: A Free Man

Photo By John Anderson

Saying that prosecutors lack enough evidence to "convict him right now," District Attorney Ronnie Earle announced at a surprising press conference Jan. 28 that his office has dropped all charges against Maurice Pierce, the last defendant awaiting trial in the 1991 yogurt-shop murders. And with that, after more than three years behind bars, Pierce was perfunctorily released from the Travis Co. jail in Del Valle late Tuesday afternoon, where he was greeted by a host of family members and a throng of reporters.

Pierce, Robert Springsteen IV, and Michael Scott were indicted in 1999 for the infamous slaying of four teenage girls at a North Austin I Can't Believe It's Yogurt! shop. In 2001, Springsteen was convicted and sentenced to death for the crime; last fall, Scott was sentenced to life in prison. A Travis Co. grand jury failed to indict a fourth suspect, Forrest Welborn.

The DA's cases against the three have rested almost entirely on the strength of two separate "confessions" obtained from Springsteen and Scott by Austin police in 1999. Not one piece of physical evidence recovered at the crime scene linked any of the three men to the crime. Still, after hours of interrogation -- during which police seemingly ignored repeated requests for attorneys -- Springsteen and Scott each admitted taking part in the quadruple murder, fingering Pierce as their accomplice and as the crime's mastermind. Unfortunately for prosecutors, Pierce has never acknowledged taking part in the crime -- save for a short statement given in late 1991, under questionable circumstances, to former APD Detective Hector Polanco. (That statement is what brought the three to the investigators' attention to begin with.)

In his announcement, Earle admitted that the lack of a confession weakened the state's case against Pierce. He told reporters that while Springsteen and Scott both implicated Pierce, "neither is currently available to testify. ... Each of them has a [Fifth] Amendment right not to testify. Both have made statements that cannot be used without violating the constitutional right of Maurice Pierce to confront witnesses against him. The state is therefore unable to proceed at this time." Pierce's lawyers were obviously elated -- attorney Guillermo Gonzalez told reporters he's pleased that his client has "finally been vindicated" -- but others were puzzled. District Judge Mike Lynch, the trial judge at both Springsteen and Scott's trials, allowed portions of each of those defendants' confessions to be entered into evidence at the other's trial, over the vociferous objection of defense attorneys and without any ability for cross-examination by the defense. First Assistant DA Rosemary Lehmberg told us that the situation with Pierce is not exactly the same, because in the two previous trials Springsteen and Scott's own confessions were merely "corroborated" by the other's statements. Sources close to the case call Lehmberg's reasoning "sophistry."

Earle said that the yogurt-shop murders will continue to be investigated by APD's homicide division -- and, he said, the state will continue to try and shore up its evidence against Pierce. Of course, theoretically, that's what they've been trying to do all along.