Copyright © 1999, The Austin American-Statesman

Leah Quin, Sergeant tells why police initially let suspects go//Detectives thought Pierce was making up story about yogurt shop slayings, he says., 12-09-1999.

The investigator who questioned a suspect in the yogurt shop slayings eight years ago testified Wednesday that detectives agreed in 1991 that Maurice Pierce and Forrest Welborn were not involved in the crime. Pierce, Welborn and two other men were charged Oct. 6 with capital murder in the quadruple slaying. Because Pierce and Welborn were juveniles in 1991, prosecutors are seeking to have them certified to stand trial as adults. Sgt. John Jones, who worked on the case for two and a half years before being reassigned, said he talked to Pierce after the then-16-year-old was arrested for carrying a gun in Northcross Mall. Pierce told police that his friend Welborn had borrowed the .22-caliber revolver to kill the four teen-age girls, who were found dead Dec. 6, 1991, in an I Can't Believe It's Yogurt store a few blocks from the mall. Pierce took a lie-detector test, allowed his home to be searched and wore a recording device during a conversation with Welborn. In court Wednesday, Jones read a report he wrote about that conversation: ``It was obvious to everyone that Pierce was trying to force the issue on Welborn, who appeared to have no idea what Pierce was talking about." Police decided that Pierce was making up the story, Jones said. Witnesses on Wednesday said the results of that 1991 lie-detector test are lost and that police couldn't conclusively match the revolver to shells found at the scene. At one time, police had 1,200 suspects, 48 of whom took lie-detector tests, Jones testified. Many confessed, but their statements were discarded when they didn' t know details kept secret about the crime scene. Welborn took a lie- detector test before his arrest this year. Bruce Stevenson, chief polygraph administrator, said Welborn indicated some deception when asked whether he knew for sure who killed the girls. On other questions, including whether he was in or around the shop during the killings, he indicated no deception, Stevenson said. Welborn passed a 1997 test in which he was asked whether he ever possessed Pierce's gun. Lie-detector test results are not allowed to be used as evidence in trials, but they can be presented in grand juries and adult certification hearings, which don't decide guilt or innocence. Testimony Wednesday also revealed that Amy Ayers, 13, was found in a different part of the store than the other three girls . The victims' parents cried as prosecutors played part of a videotaped statement by suspect Michael Scott, who said one of the girls tried to escape through the front door but was caught and struck by the fourth suspect, Robert Springsteen.

 

Copyright © 1999, The Austin American-Statesman

Leah Quin, Sergeant tells why police initially let suspects go//Detectives thought Pierce was making up story about yogurt shop slayings, he says., 12-09-1999.

You may contact Leah Quin at lquin@statesman.com or 445-3621.