FROM THE ARCHIVES: Jurors say choosing death for Robert Burns Springsteen IV wasn't easy

Editor's note: This story originally published June 2, 2001.   

For the last time on Friday afternoon, Robert Burns Springsteen IV strode into a full, hushed courtroom and took his seat between the defense lawyers fighting to save his life. A juror wept when the foreman handed over the verdict. Springsteen's wife closed her eyes.

But Springsteen, 26, looked up with no expression, hands clasped at his waist and still as a post, as the judge read the jury's decision.

"I hereby assess your punishment at death," state District Judge Mike Lynch said.

The death sentence, delivered after jurors deliberated for 11 hours over two days, closed the first trial in one of Austin's most notorious crimes: the slaying of four teen-age girls at a North Austin  yogurt shop in December 1991.

On Wednesday, jurors convicted Springsteen of capital murder in the death of 13-year-old Amy Ayers, who was discovered bound, gagged and shot in the head amid the debris of the burned-out store just before midnight on Dec. 6, 1991. Eliza Thomas, 17, and sisters Jennifer and Sarah Harbison, 17 and 15, also were killed.

Police made no arrest in the killings for almost eight years, until Springsteen and three other men were charged in 1999.

The sentence brought a subdued reaction from the girls' families. At a brief press conference, Pam Ayers, Amy's mother, said she wanted to respect the judge's gag order, which is still in place because Springsteen still faces charges in the other girls' deaths and two co-defendants still await trial.

But Ayers offered thanks to prosecutors, police and the community "for their prayers and support for the last 9 1/2 years."

"It is a somber occasion," District Attorney Ronnie Earle said later. "We are doing our job, and we all together seek justice and truth."

Springsteen's family criticized the verdict, though they said they were not surprised.

"I still think it was a railroad job," Springsteen's mother, Michelle Thompson, said. "I'm appalled."

In court, Springsteen told jurors that police pressured him into making a false confession. Even after his conviction, he insisted on his innocence and showed no remorse. Prosecutors had no physical evidence linking Springsteen to the crime and anchored their case on his confession.

"He's a proud man. He told the truth. He told the jury his story," one of his defense lawyers, Berkley Bettis, said outside the courthouse. Bettis said he told his client that the death sentence was "not the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning."

"Right," Springsteen replied, according to Bettis.

Under Texas law, Springsteen is granted an automatic appeal.

Maurice Pierce, 25, is also awaiting trial on capital murder charges.

Charges against Forrest Welborn, the fourth man arrested, were dropped after two grand juries did not indict him.

Springsteen's lawyers said his appeal will target, among other issues, Lynch's decision to allow jurors to hear excerpts of co-defendant Michael Scott's confession. The lawyers said that violated Springsteen's constitutional rights because they could not cross-examine Scott, who could not be forced to testify because he is awaiting trial on capital murder charges.

Juror Gunther Goetz said the jury considered Springsteen's confession, and how it matched co-defendant Michael Scott's confession, the key evidence in the trial.

"That really struck a chord. Do people make up facts that weren't known?" Goetz said Friday evening. "I think all of us were wishing it would have been an easier decision for us. And if there had been a lot of physical evidence, it would have been easier."

In deciding between a life sentence and the death penalty, the jury had to determine if Springsteen, who has had small scrapes with the law since 1991 but no previous felony convictions, represented a future danger to the community. They also had to decide if there were any factors that warranted sparing his life.

Most of the details jurors knew about Springsteen came from prosecutors. Defense lawyers decided to call no witnesses during the trial's punishment phase, a move that surprised Goetz.

"We just didn't have a very clear picture of the person," Goetz said.

While Ayers' family filled the front row of one side of the courtroom during the trial, the row reserved for Springsteen's relatives was nearly empty. Springsteen's relatives say they could not attend the trial because they were subpoenaed by prosecutors.

On most days, his lone supporter was his grandmother, Maryjane Roudebush, who was not in court Friday and said she did not want to testify because she knew she would cry.

"I was not going to cry in front of the girls' parents," said Roudebush, who expected to drive her grandson home to West Virginia. "I said, 'I can't do this child any good.'"

Goetz said the deliberations wore heavily on jurors, and several had a hard time sleeping.

"It was extremely difficult for all of us, emotionally and physically," he said.

As she left the courthouse, one juror told reporters, "Leave me alone. I've just been through hell."

The jury foreman, Phil Rodriguez, said he did not want to discuss the case but added, "I think our whole community will appreciate this being over."