AUSTIN, Texas — The Austin American-Statesman reports Sunday that seven former jurors in the trials of two co-defendants convicted in the grisly Austin yogurt shop murders would not vote for the same verdict Sunday after learning of recent DNA findings.
John Swoboda, who now lives Tacoma, Wash., said he would have reasonable doubt.
The 39-year-old was a juror in Robert Springsteen IV's 2001 capital murder trial. Springsteen was accused in the killings of one of four teenage girls slain at an I Can't Believe It's Yogurt in 1991.
With Springsteen and previously convicted co-defendant Michael Scott facing retrials, Swoboda said his verdict in the case probably would be different given recently discovered DNA evidence.
Defense lawyers have outlined in court filings that the DNA from three unidentified males, not Springsteen, Scott or two previous co-defendants, has been discovered in vaginal swabs taken from three of the victims.
Prosecutors said they continue to stand by their case, despite the DNA results.
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