Page 7 - Andreap Yates News Today

Hallway, and i said, whats going on? he looked at me and said, its a homicide. so i looked to my right and down and there was yates. she was sitting on the couch. just sitting there. she never looked at me. i walked into the room, and i was expecting to find a man on the floor. a body. and i was looking around, looking around. saying, what? i see this little, tiny head. and it was looking right at me. and a little head was about maybe 10 or 15 feet from there at the edge of the bed. i said, what...

Then she draws the bath. >> whats the problem? >> um. >> 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, its 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 ...

But everybody was affected. and anyone that says they werent, theyre not telling the truth. >> the stories spread like 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 woman could wipe out five of her kids, wipe out a family and become 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 div...

The murders, yates was deemed competent to stand trial. the prosecution planned to argue that andreas motive was to get back at her husband for perceived wrongs like living in a bus, home schooling, and the inconveniences of a simpler lifestyle. the defense knew better than to bring rusty into the equation. >> had i gone after rusty, as people wanted me to do, then the jury could be told by the prosecutor in summation or at the end, she, in effect, by killing the kids, she was getting back at ru...

Among the many points of argument was the questionable testimony given by park dietz, lead psychiatrist for the prosecution. >> theres never been an episode that has aired on "law & order" involving the topic that park dietz testified about. we confronted park dietz about that, and he said he was mistaken. he must have been in vera. >> the appeals process would take months of meticulous preparation for multiple arguments, but in the end everything hinged on the dietz testimony. >> we had 19 poin...

>> are you having a disturbance? are you ill or what? >> yes, im ill. >> you need an ambulance? >> no. i need a police officer. >> the woman on the phone is andrea yates. she is living the american dream, a house in the suburbs, an rv in the backyard. >> whats the problem? >> um. i just need them to come. >> they all seemed so happy, five healthy children, a loving mother and a successful dad who worked for nasa. >> is your husband there? >> no. >> whats the problem? >> i need them to come. >> i...

Victory, was only the start. the defense team pressed for an outright dismissal of all charges arguing that a second trial would constitute double jeopardy. finally, in january 2005, some 3 1/2 years after the original conviction, the texas state supreme court issued an opinion. double jeopardy did not apply but andrea yates would be granted a new trial. >> tonight, she drowned her five children, was sentenced to spend the rest of her life in prison, but recently a texas appeals court overturned...

Psychotic episodes, they tend to 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 preg...

Kids wherever she was, and i says, what does that solve? that doesnt do anything for me and certainly doesnt do anything for that woman, so i didnt do that. i wish they had a third trial. >> i find her quite sympathetic and not only do i think that shes not criminally responsible, but the fact that she has to live with what shes done and live childless and so forth and thats the tragedy and its not right. >> in the eyes of the state, andrea yates is now simply a patient. she is no longer conside...

>> a devout christian dedicated to having as many children as god would allow, andrea yates had methodically drowned her own kids, one by one in the family tub. >> we didnt know what to do. we just looked at each other, and there was this moment in time where all of the training, you know, all the scenes that you have made, everything that you have been taught and learned and instinct went right out the window. >> police were there in my yard. i wanted to go inside. they wouldnt let me inside. t...