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Charleston Daily Mail

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Change in story may not help suspect in Texas murders

Coercion claim unlikely to delay extradition process

Todd Frankel <tcfrankel@dailymail.com> Daily Mail staff

Thursday October 21, 1999; 01:55 PM

While Robert Burns Springsteen Jr. sits in a West Virginia jail cell, the case against the young man accused in the Austin, Texas, yogurt shop murders has taken a series of wild turns in recent days.

Gov. Cecil Underwood today will consider a formal request from Texas Gov. George W. Bush that Springsteen immediately be sent back to Texas to face capital murder charges.

The governor's request comes just days after statements to police implicating Springsteen in the 1991 murders of four teenage girls was recanted by a Charleston man who says he was coerced into talking by police.

While Springsteen's attorney seemed hopeful that the retraction will bolster his client's fight against extradition, authorities said that is not the only evidence against the 24-year-old Charleston resident.

The statements will not be a factor in Underwood's decision whether to sign a governor's warrant for extradition, said Underwood spokesman Rod Blackstone.

"We're not in the position of determining guilt or innocence in this process. That is well outside the purview of the governor's role," Blackstone said.

The spokesman was reluctant to set a time frame for Underwood's decision on whether the evidence presented by his Texas counterpart is enough to send the murder suspect to Texas. But it is likely that action will be taken before a scheduled final extradition hearing in Kanawha Circuit Court on Nov. 4.

Austin police allege that Springsteen, who was 17 in 1991, and three other defendants planned a robbery of an I Can't Believe It's Yogurt! shop. On Dec. 6 of that year, four girls at the shop were tied up and shot in the head before the store was set on fire. The crime outraged the community and baffled police.

In the eight years since the killings, Springsteen lived a quiet, relatively normal life in Charleston.

But on Oct. 6, Charleston police arrested him at his home on Falcon Drive near Sissonville Road. In Texas, Michael James Scott, 25; Forrest Wellborn, 23; and Maurice Pierce, 24, were also arrested and charged with murder.

Police claim a break came when Springsteen "bragged" to friends about his role in the alleged murders. One of those Springsteen allegedly talked with is Roy Rose, a 38-year-old Charleston resident.

Rose and his wife, Charlene, met Springsteen and his wife, Robin, through mutual friends. The couples used to visit each other two to three times a week, said Charlene Rose.

On Sept. 16, police contacted Roy Rose and asked him to meet with them. He didn't know what to expect, Charlene Rose recalled.

"We thought it'd be a short 10 to 15 minutes. But they kept him for three, four hours," she said. When her husband emerged from the interview room, he was "pale, shaking and sweating."

Charlene Rose and the couple's attorney claim that through intimidation and pressure, Roy Rose was forced to tell authorities that Springsteen told him about the yogurt shop murders in detail.

"He believes he's been taken advantage of unfairly," attorney John Hackney Jr. said.

Roy Rose tried recanting the statement the same night, but police wouldn't listen, Charlene Rose said. Now, Texas authorities have secured a subpoena for Roy Rose to be forced to testify before a Texas grand jury. He was scheduled to fly to Austin Monday night. But Roy Rose is currently in the hospital undergoing tests for a feared heart attack.

Charlene Rose said she and her husband don't have any information about the yogurt shop murders.

"We didn't know Rob eight years ago. We'd like to believe in our friend," she said. "But truthfully, we do not know. We don't know anything about the crime."

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