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Austin pays $10 million to family of Maurice Pierce, one of four men exonerated in 1991 yogurt shop murders
CBS News reported that Kimberli Pierce and Marisa Pierce confirmed a multimillion-dollar settlement with Austin tied to Maurice Pierce's wrongful accusation in the 1991 yogurt shop murders. Pierce's $10 million share goes to his widow and daughter following his 2010 death. The family seeks police reforms alongside the payout.
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Kimberli Pierce and Marisa Pierce confirmed they signed a multimillion-dollar settlement with the city of Austin, CBS News reported. The agreement stems from the wrongful accusation of Maurice Pierce in the 1991 yogurt shop murders. His $10 million share of the city's $35 million offer will go to the two women.
Maurice Pierce was one of four men, along with Michael Scott, Robert Springsteen and Forrest Welborn, accused in the Dec. 6, 1991, killings of Eliza Thomas, Amy Ayers, and sisters Jennifer and Sarah Harbison. The victims were tied up, shot and left inside the Austin yogurt shop as it burned.
The four men were exonerated in February 2026 after investigators linked Robert Eugene Brashers to the crimes. 22 caliber handgun. Police told him the gun was the murder weapon, Kimberli Pierce said.
He mentioned his friend Forrest Welborn, was wired for a conversation with him, and investigators determined the others knew nothing about the killings. No charges were filed at the time. In 1999 the four men were arrested after Scott and Springsteen confessed.
The confessions were later recanted as coerced. Springsteen and Scott were convicted but the convictions were overturned on constitutional grounds. A DNA test excluded all four men. Maurice Pierce spent three years in jail before his 2003 release without a conviction.
Marisa Pierce was on the phone with her father during a 2010 traffic stop in which he fled on foot and was shot by an Austin officer who said Pierce had stabbed him with a knife. His last words to her were, "I'm sorry, I don't think you're gonna see me again, and I love you," she told CBS News.
