Page 23 - Andreap Yates News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Based on information we got from the doctor as we'd successfully treated it in '99. if it happened again, we knew how to treat it. thinking ahead, we were thinking, if it happens at awe, it will be a relative ly short spell, she'll be down at worst for a while. >> for the yates, adding to their family outweighed the risks. to ensure a healthy pregnancy, andrea yates went off all her medication. >> if you're on medication and you come on and off of it, a lot we think that it does something to your brain, and then if you get sick, you often get sicker, and then it becomes harder to treat the sec...

Now remarred with a young son. we remains in contact with andrea. >> i can say that coming to a decision to divorce andrea was really difficult decision. and it took me probably more time than it should have but i finally came to the understanding that there's 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 -- she's a daughter basically. >> george parnham and i and the mental health association of houston and some other people started the yates children's memorial...

>> 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, slow, guys killing time, helping each other out. >> eight minutes after dialing 911 andrea yates calls her husband rusty yates and tells him it's time to come home. it's not yet 10:00 a.m. >> i couldn't imagine what had actually happened, but i was worried because andrea called me with a firm tone and said i needed to come ho...

Mrs. yates knew it was wrong, not just against the law, but against society and against god. >> that's 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 she watched, i watched with her. and so, you know, i heard about that testimony. and i'm like, i don't think that happened, you k...

That verdict was going to be. >> 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 it's hard for people to see this, but i view her as a victim. i don't view her as a criminal. >> in the punishment phase of the trial, the jury sided with the defense and rejected the death penalty. andrea yates was sentenced to life in prison. >> ...