Overview
- District Attorney José Garza filed a notice of exculpatory evidence and a motion to appoint counsel as the first step toward formally clearing Michael Scott, Robert Springsteen, Maurice Pierce, and Forrest Welborn.
- The court filing states there is no evidence the four men were involved and that they had no connection to Robert Brashers.
- Austin police named Brashers the primary suspect in September based on a male-only DNA profile isolated in 2020 and other links, and authorities now consider the case closed.
- Scott and Springsteen were convicted years ago based largely on confessions they said were coerced; those convictions were later overturned and the prosecutions were dismissed.
- The DA’s office says the action could enable expunctions and, if innocence is formally declared, potential state compensation for Scott and Springsteen; Pierce died in 2010 and a grand jury declined to indict Welborn.