The city of Austin has reached a tentative $35 million settlement to resolve claims from four men who were wrongly accused of the 1991 murders at an I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt shop. The agreement covers Robert Springsteen, Michael Scott, Forrest Welborn, and the family of the late Maurice Pierce, all of whom spent years caught in a legal nightmare for a crime they did not commit. The settlement is one of the largest wrongful conviction payouts in Texas history. The settlement follows a February ruling where a judge officially declared the men innocent, after modern DNA science was used to identify the true perpetrator. The crime involved the deaths of four victims: 13-year-old Amy Ayers, 17-year-old Eliza Thomas, and sisters Jennifer, 17, and Sarah Harbison, 15. They were bound, gagged, and shot before the building was set on fire. According to CNN, investigators followed thousands of leads before arresting the four men in late 1999, when they were teenagers. Springsteen and Scott were convicted largely on the basis of confessions they maintained were coerced by police. Their convictions were eventually overturned in the mid-2000s, and charges against all the men were finally dismissed in 2009 after DNA testing pointed to a different suspect. The real killer died in 1999, but it took decades of DNA work to confirm his identity The case had haunted Austin for decades, with no clear resolution until DNA technology advanced enough to point investigators in the right direction. But the actual killer has been identified as Robert Eugene Brashers, who died by suicide during a standoff with police in 1999. Authorities confirmed his involvement in 2025 after advanced DNA analysis linked him to the scene. DNA science has proven powerful in cracking cold cases, much like when advanced DNA analysis solved a 137-year-old cold case involving one of history’s most infamous criminals. A sample taken from under Amy Ayers’ fingernail matched DNA from a 1990 killing in South Carolina that was already tied to Brashers, and investigators have since connected him to multiple other violent crimes across the country throughout the 1990s. The city of Austin will pay $35 million to three men and the family of a fourth wrongly accused of the 1991 murder of four teenage girls at a yogurt shop, a case that initially sent one of the men to death row, under a tentative settlement reached Tuesday. https://t.co/HD7FKnkBgr pic.twitter.com/q9dxPZJcVz— ABC News (@ABC) May 13, 2026 The legal consequences for the four men were severe and long-lasting. Welborn was charged but never faced trial after grand juries refused to indict him. Pierce spent three years in jail before charges were dropped, and he later died in 2010 during a confrontation with police. His family is included in the settlement, though he never lived to see his name formally cleared. The $35 million settlement still requires formal approval from the city council to move forward. Austin City Manager T.C. Broadnax addressed the development in a statement, saying, “This settlement closes the final chapter of a devastating story in Austin’s history.” He added, “We are pleased to have reached an agreement with those who were wrongly accused and wrongly convicted in this case and hope that this settlement brings a sense of closure to everyone affected by this horrific event.” The city of Austin plans to pay $35 million to three men and the family of a fourth who were wrongly accused in Austin’s yogurt shop murders case, according to two city officials.If approved, the settlement would mark the largest payout in city history.https://t.co/6EIOtrAKRy pic.twitter.com/pnnlWIdzrY— Austin Statesman (@statesman) May 12, 2026 Beyond financial compensation, the men are pushing for systemic change. Modern forensic tools continue to reshape our understanding of historical figures and criminal cases, as seen in new DNA findings about Adolf Hitler’s biology that surfaced in recent research. Scott and his attorney, Tony Diaz, released a joint statement saying, “Discussions and negotiations are ongoing regarding police reforms that would help ensure that nothing like what occurred in this case ever happens again.” The details of the individual payments have not been made public, but the settlement marks a major milestone in a case that has spanned decades of investigative work and legal battles. For four men who lost years of their lives to a wrongful conviction, this resolution represents not just financial relief, but a long-overdue acknowledgment that the justice system failed them.