Copyright © 1999, The Austin American-Statesman

Dave Harmon, New hurdles in yogurt case: Fire and water may have damaged key evidence in killings //.22-caliber bullets often prove tough to trace in ballistics tests: Victims' parents hope for speedy, fair trials., 10-08-1999.

Austin police say they have four suspects and two confessions. Police also have what they think is the primary weapon used to kill four teen-age girls at a North Austin yogurt shop in 1991, but they cannot use ballistics tests to link the gun to the crime scene, the Austin American-Statesman has learned. According to two people familiar with the investigation, Austin police confiscated a .22-caliber revolver from Maurice Earl Pierce after arresting him for carrying the weapon in Northcross Mall just eight days after the yogurt shop killings. Pierce, then 16, told officers that he had lent the weapon to a friend and that it had been used in the slayings. But there was not enough evidence at the crime scene to make testing the gun useful, according to the two people close to the investigation. ``I know there's not enough for a ballistics test,'' one official close to the investigation said. ``The .22-caliber revolver is a preferred gun for hit men because it seldom leaves anything for ballistics." The lack of ballistics evidence is just one hurdle that police and prosecutors face as they try to assemble a solid case in one of Austin's most shocking crimes. They also have to contend with the effects of fire and water, two elements that can obliterate crime scene evidence. But experts said that confessions police say they obtained from two of the suspects could be enough to win convictions -- although more evidence would be needed against the other two. Officials have not revealed what physical evidence, if any, they have gathered that could link the four suspects arrested Wednesday to the crime. ``As Chief Stan Knee stated Wednesday, due to the sensitivity of the case, the department will not be discussing the case until at least after the grand jury hands up indictments,'' said Kevin Buchman, spokesman for the Austin Police Department. For now, police have divulged only that two of the slaying suspects, Robert ``Rob'' Burns Springsteen Jr., 24, of Charleston, W.Va., and Michael James Scott, 25, of Buda, said they were involved in the crime and implicated Pierce, 24, of Lewisville, and Forrest Brook Welborn, 23, of Lockhart. Springsteen is in West Virginia awaiting an extradition hearing. The other three are being held in the Travis County Jail, isolated from each other and other prisoners. Police believe that the four men, who at the time of the crime ranged in age from 15 to 17, planned to rob the I Can't Believe It's Yogurt shop on West Anderson Lane and that at least one of them went in and unlocked the back door before the shop closed at 11 p.m. on Dec. 6, 1991. Three suspects entered the store while a fourth waited as a lookout, police said in a sworn statement. Firefighters who later were called to extinguish a blaze at the shop discovered four badly burned bodies in the back of the store. Two 17-year-old employees, Jennifer Harbison and Eliza Thomas, as well as Harbison's sister Sarah, 15, and her friend Amy Ayers, 13, had each been shot in the head with a .22-caliber gun. Ayers, who had come to the store with Sarah Harbison to help the older girls close up, also was shot by a second gun. The second gun, which left a single shell casing at the scene, has not been recovered. Police said Springsteen told them he was carrying a handgun of the same caliber as the casing.Fire, water and evidence Without being able to connect the .22-caliber revolver seized from Pierce to the crime scene, a second official close to the investigation said, ``All you have is a gun to wave at the jury." Travis County Medical Examiner Robert Bayardo said he doesn't know the condition of the bullets that killed the girls -- he was on vacation that day and did not perform the autopsies -- but he said .22-caliber bullets frequently become flattened or otherwise damaged after entering a body, which can destroy the characteristic grooves left by the gun' s barrel. Dr. Tommy Brown, the pathologist who performed the autopsies, declined to comment on the condition of the bullets. Firearms experts said many factors, including the intense heat of a fire, could make it impossible to match a slug to a gun. ``In my experience, shots to the head with a .22 bullet are going to distort it a lot,'' said R.N. Marrs, a senior firearm examiner at the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. The fire was only the first threat to evidence in the yogurt shop. ``Then when the fire people came, they got out the hoses and washed everything away,'' Bayardo said. ``By the time they found the bodies, they were in several inches of water." When firefighters respond, one of their first goals is to douse the fire, not save evidence, fire officials said. And in doing so, they can move bodies and disrupt evidence such as fingerprints, bits of hair, pieces of clothing and blood, State Fire Marshal G. Mike David said. ``Your evidence may even run out the front door with the hose stream, '' said Richard Gaston, the Travis County fire marshal. ``It's just a risk we have to take." Still, experts said clues will survive even the worst fire, where temperatures reach 1,500 degrees or more. ``Does a fire completely obliterate everything? No,'' said Gerry Naylis, the vice president of the International Association of Arson Investigators. ``There is always something there. It just may take a lot of hard work and a lot of time to dig it out.'' The Austin Fire Department on Thursday declined to discuss the specifics of the yogurt shop fire. Officials responding to the scene in 1991 said that although three of the girls were burned beyond recognition, the fire was relatively minor and was quickly extinguished. Confessions can convict But a confession can make up for a shortage of physical evidence. An affidavit filed by detective Paul Johnson said Scott's statement to police last month revealed details about the crime -- such as what was used to tie up the girls and the placement of the bodies -- that only the killers should have known. Springsteen, the affidavit said, ``admitted that he had been involved in the murders." Confessions are enough to convict if prosecutors can prove that the crime occurred, Austin attorney Gerry Morris said Thursday. Pierce and Welborn have not confessed, their attorneys said. Court documents filed so far in the case indicate they are tied to the slayings only by the statements of Scott and Springsteen. In court, prosecutors must provide other, corroborating evidence that Pierce and Welborn committed the crime, Morris said. ``That rule is a good one,'' Morris said. ``It's proof of everyone' s recognition that those who confess often implicate others, hoping to lessen the severity of the offense or bargain with police -- particularly when the death penalty is involved." Prosecutors could pursue the death penalty against Springsteen and Scott, but not against Pierce and Welborn, who were juveniles at the time of the crime.Corroborating evidence Corroborating evidence can be physical or circumstantial, said Russ Hunt Sr., a Waco lawyer who defended David Wayne Spence, convicted -- in part by an accomplice's testimony -- of the Lake Waco murders in 1982. ``It could be a hair, a fingerprint,'' Hunt said. ``It doesn't have to be some big deal." Defense lawyers will soon have a chance to see what evidence exists, and the sheer volume of material gathered in the eight years since the slayings is going to mean months of work for both sides, said Austin lawyer Robert Icenhauer- Ramirez, appointed to represent Welborn. Defense attorneys will ask to look at every lead in the case -- which added up to more than 5, 000 tips -- to find out whether there are other likely suspects. Dozens of people have confessed to the crime, including two Mexican men who later recanted and said they were tortured by Mexican authorities. High on the list of defense attorneys' questions is why Welborn and Pierce were questioned and released by police shortly after the murders. When police arrested Pierce in the mall, he told them he had loaned the pistol to Welborn, then offered details of the crime he said Welborn had told him. After questioning Welborn, police decided he was not involved in the murders and that Pierce ``had just made up the whole story,'' according to the police statement. ``They questioned Forrest and decided he didn't do it,'' Icenhauer-Ramirez said. ``Why do they now think he did?" Before prosecutors can answer that question, prosecutors will ask a judge to certify Welborn and Pierce as adults. In a hearing that will probably happen within two months, they must present a shortened version of the case against the pair, assistant district attorney Stephanie Emmons said. Springsteen's extradition hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, and prosecutors didn't know Thursday whether he will fight a transfer to Texas.

American-Statesman staff writers Laylan Copelin, Christian Davenport, Leah Quin and Keith Paul contributed to this report.

Copyright © 1999, The Austin American-Statesman

Dave Harmon, New hurdles in yogurt case: Fire and water may have damaged key evidence in killings //.22-caliber bullets often prove tough to trace in

ballistics tests: Victims' parents hope for speedy, fair trials., 10-08-1999.