Jan 09 2009
DNA Testing Leads to March Hearing for Yogurt Shop Defendants
The Austin American-Statesman reported yesterday that a March hearing has been set for two Austin, Texas yogurt shop murder defendants whose guilt was recently called into question by DNA testing results that could prove their innocence.
A judge on Wednesday scheduled a March 4 hearing that could determine whether the two men facing retrial in the 1991 yogurt shop murders of four teenage girls should be released from jail in light of recent DNA evidence that defense lawyers say exonerates the men.
Lawyers for Robert Springsteen this week claimed he is being illegally jailed given recently discovered evidence that male DNA found on vaginal swabs taken from three of the victims does not match Springsteen, Scott or two previous co-defendants. Lawyers for co-defendant Michael Scott said they would file a similar motion.
In setting the hearing off for almost two months, state District Judge Mike Lynch said the issue is “not really ripe” because the recent DNA test results are preliminary and have not been reviewed by the district attorney.
Alexandra Gauthier, one of Springsteen’s lawyers, and Jeannine Scott, wife of the defendant, said outside court that they hoped the hearing would take place sooner.
“If the DNA doesn’t match, then it wasn’t these guys,” Jeannine Scott said. “They need to let these guys go home and get on with their lives.”
Assistant District Attorney Gail Van Winkle said prosecutors stand by the charges.
“We have confessions from both defendants,” she said. “They were convicted by two previous juries. … What we’re saying is, we believe in those convictions, we believe in the case, and we will continue.”
Springsteen lawyer Joe James Sawyer said last week that recent scientific testing yielded previously undiscovered male DNA on vaginal swabs and other evidence taken from victims Sarah and Jennifer Harbison, 15 and 17, respectively. The DNA, which is of a type that cannot be entered into state and federal databases of known offenders, does not match Springsteen, Scott or now-dismissed co-defendants Maurice Pierce and Forrest Wellborn.
It is still unknown whose male DNA was discovered last year on vaginal swabs taken from victim Amy Ayers, 13. That DNA also did not match any of the current or former defendants.
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