On Oct. 6, 1999, Robert Springsteen IV was arrested in Charleston, W.V., for a crime that happened in Austin almost nine years earlier.
An Austin grand jury then indicted and charged Springsteen for the murder of Amy Ayers. She was one of four girls found bound, gagged and shot to death on Dec. 6, 1991, at a North Austin yogurt shop.
Mayor Kirk Watson said the city lost its innocence the day of the murders.
Springsteen, a high school drop out, and admitted drug user, showed little threat to society prior to being charged with capital murder. He had no arrests relating to violence before or after the yogurt shop murders.
He is now married, has two stepchildren, and has been in the Travis County jail since being extradited to Austin from West Virginia.
Now a jury of 12 will decide if Springsteen is responsible for the death of Ayers.
The murder investigation has called upon more resources, in the way of law enforcement, than perhaps any crime in Austin's history. It has questioned the tactics and tested the character of the Austin Police Department.
Now, after returning a verdict of guilty for capital murder, it's up to the jury to decide if Robert Springsteen will live the remainder of his life behind bars or will be sentenced to death.
