Page 4 - Andreap Yates News Today

Was wrong. >> so dr. dietz testified that mrs. yates knew it was wrong, not just against the law, but against society and against god. >> thats pretty powerful testimony. >> dietz took it one step further and also presented a likely inspiration for andrea yates actions. he testified that she had watched a "law & order" episode that week in which a woman to be free of her responsibilities drowned her children and got away with murder. >> the show we almost always watched was "law & order" and the...

>> we, the jury, find the defendant andrea p. yates guilty of capital murder as charged in the indictment. >> i was devastated. >> knowing how much andrea loved our children and how much they loved her and knowing that she would never have harmed them had she not been mentally ill, all right, i -- i view her, and i know its hard for people to see this, but i view her as a victim. i dont view her as a criminal. >> in the punishment phase of the trial, the jury sided with the defense and rejected ...

Wildfire. reporters and first responders swarm the area. frank stumpo was assigned to take andrea yates to jail. >> the news media were there en masse. they were there, 50, 60, 70 people. a mother could wipe out a family and becomes a star. and thats what she was. and i told her that. i said, now youre a celebrity. and i brought her into the homicide division, brought her upstairs, and that was it. >> a mother killing her own child is unthinkable. a mother killing all five of her children is com...

>> overwhelmingly, people were very harsh in their assessment. the community of psychiatric workers, doctors were horrified that we would prosecute someone who had a legitimate mental illness, but that was a minority. >> andrea yates actions were certainly incomprehensible. but did that mean she was insane? >> you can be mentally ill and the standard under the law is that if you know right from wrong, thats not a medical standard. thats a legal standard. >> theres no legal definition for whats r...

>> is someone burglarizing your house? i mean, what is it? >> the dispatcher assigned me that particular call for service being that it was in my zone of responsibility. another unit, david napp, he checked by with me, which is common practice, you know, day shift, slow, guys killing time, helping each other out. >> eight minutes after dialing 911 andrea yates calls her husband rusty yates and tells him its time to come home. its not yet 10:00 a.m. >> i couldnt imagine what had actually happened...

>> so dr. dietz testified that mrs. yates knew it was wrong, not just against the law, but against society and against god. >> thats pretty powerful testimony. >> dietz took it one step further and also presented a likely inspiration for andrea yates actions. he testified that she had watched a "law & order" episode that week in which a woman to be free of her responsibilities drowned her children and got away with murder. >> the show we almost always watched was "law & order" and the ones that ...

By owning another house. >> going into an rv was kind of more of an experiment for us. and so what we did was we rented our house that we had here and bought a 38-foot travel trailer and pulled it to florida and lived at a campground in florida during the course of that assignment. >> at the time, andrea was again pregnant. she miscarried just after the move. in 1997, the yates returned to houston where their third son is born. in 1998, they trade in the rv for a renovated 350-square-foot bus, a...

Get worse. >> after you drew the bath water, what was your intent? what were you about to do? >> drown my children. >> andrea yates never denied that she killed her children, but was she cold-blooded or desperately ill? by all accounts, she was a devoted mother, but her defense doctors say she became more desperate and secretive with each pregnancy. the crisis point came in 1999 after the birth of her fourth child. >> there were two suicide attempts in these pregnancies, and what she said to me ...

Afterlife as he had been a good big brother during their lifetime together. >> it promised to be the trial of the century in houston, texas. there was no question regarding the basic facts. on the morning of june 20th, 2001, 36-year-old andrea yates systematically drowned all five of her children. defense attorney george parnham knew that his clients only chance was to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. but as the details emerged, the public outrage grew. >> give us some room. >> get back. ...

Now remarried with a young son. he remains in contact with andrea. >> i can say that coming to a decision to divorce andrea was really a difficult decision, and it took me probably more time than it should have, but i finally came to the understanding that theres a difference between forgiveness and consequences. >> i talk to andrea probably four times a week. i long ago crossed the line from professionalism to personal involvement, and she -- shes a daughter, basically. and thats the way i trea...