Mugshots: Andrea Yates | Forensic Files

when the news about Andrea Yates broke it shocked the nation How could a mother have killed her five little children
Andrea Yates is the sickest woman I have ever seen we never had a doubt that she
knew right from wrong never I was told by people who saw in those days that Andrea was a fabulous mother we hero
woried Andrea what were the forces that led her to commit these horrible acts we
all go the hell yeah she didn't have any ability to judge the rightness or wrongness of what this preacher was
saying to her you are accountable for those children no other people does God single out than children and in her
world there was no other way out for her children other than to send them to God
sometimes you just have to look at it and call it what it is it's an evil act Andrea Yates next on Mugshots
corner [Music] [Music] on June 20th 2001 Houston Police received a 911 call from a normally
quiet section of town problem to to come I need to know why we're coming ma' is he there standing next to you
me are you having a service are you ill or what uh yes I'm Ill you need an ambulance no I need a police
officer an ambulance Andrea Yates then called her husband Rusty a project manager at Nessa she said come home and
he said is anything wrong and she said yes he said with the kids yes how many she said all of them when two police
officers arrived at the house Andrea confessed to her crimes the police showed up at her door said what's the
problem she said I killed my [Music] children Andrea Yates had drowned her five children her husband Rusty arrived
at the house shortly after the police Rusty falls to the ground slams his hands into the grass he then spent much
time going from window to door looking in trying to see Andrea and saying Andrea how could you do this how could
you do this I get a phone call from my sister turn on the news turn on the news and I just couldn't believe it I just
cannot imagine the Andrea that I knew being capable of doing what she did to her own kids that Andrea may try to hurt
the children I mean that never even entered my mind not not my mind not my mother's mind I don't believe any any of
the family's mind that that would ever happen the officers led her out the back door to avoid parad her past Rusty and
took her to police headquarters in downtown Houston where they questioned her after you drew the bath water what
was your intent what were you about to do have the children during the 17-minute confession
Andrea Yates detailed what she had done this morning um what time was it that you got out of bed this morning at
8:10 okay and who in your household was awake at that time um my husband and Mary and
Luke PA we knew she started with Paul who was the middle child then she proceeded with Luke killed him we knew
that she took John then from her statement and drowned him put him in the bed then she drowned Mary left Mary
floating in the tub when she summon Noah the seven-year-old in there for anyone to kill one child to see that this child
is is dead has died to have that emotional effect and then go to the next child it's it's just it's hard to even
imagine or put yourself in that person's position how could anyone do that occurs
to you the next day Rusty shocked Everyone by expressing sympathy for his wife I mean I'm supportive of her it's
hard you know like I said because you know I'm torn one one side of me you know blames her because she you know she
did it you know but the other side of me says well she didn't because that wasn't
her you know she she wasn't in a right frame of mind and and uh I guess her she had you know psychotic you know side
effects uh with her depression that uh that led her to do this Rusty revealed that Andrea had been battling a mental
illness leaving police and the public to ponder whether she was a cold-blooded killer or whether her actions were the
result of a severe mental disease the only question she asked the whole time was what are we going to plea what type
of plea whether guilty or not guilty and she indicated that she did not want to plea not guilty that she wanted to go
ahead and receive punishment because she was a bad mother she was the sickest person I've ever seen in my life um she
was not bathed she was dressed in this orange jail outfit her shirt was falling off of her she didn't have a bra her
hair was hanging in her face and she was shaking she had eyes that when she looked at you had no pupils it like
shark eyes she could answer questions about what happened but any sort of question about why or what's going on or
what you're doing it just sent her into an immediate um Never Never Land my first
thought was this woman has postpartum psychosis postpartum psychosis is a severe form of depression that affects
one out of every thousand women after giving birth usually the disorder takes the form of a delusion and the horrible
tragedy of postpartum psychosis is that the delusion is about the child in most cases I've seen women who are afraid to
bathe their children for fear that they'll drown them women who have had thoughts of suffocating their children
really horrible horrible things while Andrea's lawyers were preparing for an insanity defense the state was gathering
evidence to prove that Andrea was criminally responsible for her actions Texas light years does the person have a
severe mental disease or defect and if they do uh as a result of that severe mental defect were they able to tell
that their actions were wrong that their conduct was wrong at the time of the offense we knew within a week that the
evidence was telling us that she knew right from wrong at the time of the crime as people Gather in front of the
Yates house for a candlelight vigil 2 days after the murders public public opinion about Andrea Yates was growing
stronger this was such a polarizing event either people had sympathy for Andrea and cared for her or they hated
her with every drop of blood in their bodies there are people all over Houston including most of the to show hosts who
would oh she knew what she was doing oh she's just evil oh they're terrible people um they just totally
discounted the fact that Andrea was very very sick a week after the murders the legal posturing and the public outrage
quieted down for the children's funeral it was such a typical hot muggy miserable Houston summer afternoon with
probably a 20% chance of rain it was so hot and miserable every so often there would be a little drop of water from the
trees almost like the trees were [Music] weeping I went to the uh the service at
the church but not to the burial it was just a little too much for me to handle I just wanted to think about my sister
and the children on my own Andrea was undergoing a battery of psychiatric exams she was put on anti-depressant and
anticho medication as she became more stable she started to reveal disturbing reasons for the murders what were you
trying to accomplish then when you did take your children's lives maybe in their their innocent
years God would take them up God would take them up to be in heaven is that what you mean all right and if you had
not taken their lives what did you think would happen to them I they were have continued
stumbling and where did they end up they hope in Hell wanting to know what Andrea
meant by stumbling the psychiatrist then asked her about her children's Behavior
what sort of things did they do which showed you they weren't right well they they weren't um
he just did a lot of silly stuff and didn't obey didn't obey you when you told them to do things all right you
mentioned Their Manners before can you give me an example of Their Manners [Music]
this when russy's Mom would visit they would um not Trad her will call her names be
disrespectful mhm okay now you concluded that they were not righteous and you're religious
person and explain to me what you meant by not being righteous well they didn't do thing go they didn't do things God
likes while Andrea's lawyers entered a plea of Not Guilty by reason of insanity the DA's office announced that they
would be seeking the death penalty if this woman had gone into a neighbor's house and killed her five children and
thought it was the best thing to do for those children to save those children because she felt those children weren't
being raised in the right way do you think anyone would have have felt the way they do what is it that you can as a
mother take the lives of your own children and because it's so horrific people just don't want to think that
that could be an evil act 3 months after her arrest a jury deemed Andrea Yates competent to stand
trial why so nice we when we come back was there something in yates's background that
could have led her to this horrible [Music] act Andrea Yates grew up in Houston where she was the youngest of five
children of Andrew and Karen Kennedy she was my best friend from 8th grade through the end of college
[Music] a lot of people when you're teenagers you just think your oh your family just
is totally embarrassing and I never got that from Andrea I mean she really was pretty devoted to her parents she was
always wanting to help other people out um elderly people in the neighborhood just dried a lot of
satisfaction out of out of wanting to do things for other people instead of people doing things for her in high
school she was the captain of the swim team the historian of the National Honor Society and graduated valedictorian of
her senior class she wasn't satisfied with um mediocre stuff she wanted things to be excellent I don't know about
perfect but she valued Excellence after graduating from the University of Texas School of Nursing Andrea moved into an
apartment complex in the suburbs and began dating I don't think anybody ever would have pictured Andrea getting
married and having five kids cuz she never dated she just never never dated even once that I know of until we got
out of college Rusty Yates a computer systems designer for NASA lived in the same apartment complex he told his story
to author Susie Spencer the first time he saw Andrea she was floating in the swimming pool with her arms outstretched
almost like a cross and he was listening to His Radio sitting by the pool just watching her thinking I could never have
this woman she is too good Andrea ignored Rusty that day but a few months later it was she who made the first move
the couple dated for 3 years before moving in together and eventually marrying and Rusty told me that Andrea
did not like sex that she would dress in the closet he thought that once they got
married it would be okay and Andrea still was always uncomfortable with sex and revealing her body after their
wedding Andrea continued working as a nurse at a nearby hospital but before the couple celebr celebrated their first
wedding anniversary Noah was born and like many women Andrea was faced with a critical decision whether or not to go
back to work there are many women who will say over and over that Andrea wanted to go back to work that she
really wanted to go into nursing again and Rusty will say no she didn't we talked about that I gave her the option
of going back to work and she said no I'm a mom now that's all that matters that's all I want to do what's the truth
I don't know because Andrea was a people pleaser so I think she would agree with
whoever's talking at the moment I don't think Andrea regarded it as a problem that Rusty was the guy who would go to
work and and support them and she's the one who would take care of the house and
she wanted that she wanted the ward and June Cleaver kind of Lifestyle Andrea quit her job and appeared to adapt well
to her role as a full-time mother but defense psychiatrists m aain that at the time something terrible was
happening to her she had thoughts or visions of a knife and had thoughts about stabbing someone in blood she
thought she heard Satan speak to her after the birth of Noah Andrea decided to keep the incident a secret and
therefore the beginning signs of her illness went undiagnosed Andrea had to be perfect the
perfect student the perfect daughter the perfect nurse so she could not reveal to
anyone that she was having these Visions but that's another typical Andrea thing
that she plays her cards close to the vest if she doesn't feel like telling you something no hint no
hint is that right over the next four years Andrea had two more Sons John and Paul are you playing with those balloons
meanwhile Rusty and Andrea were following the teachings of a fire and brimstone Street pracher Rusty had met
in college God is going to destroy this Earth and all you wred Sinners Michael wari and his wife Rachel corresponded
with their followers mostly through letters and videos the former college football player and former cheerleader
were routinely in trouble with local authorities for their aggressive preaching style and ultimately left
their home state of Michigan to avoid [Music] prosecution oh crazy crazy no no no no
you crazy you the couple took their Ministry on the road and for three decades have traveled
across the US and 23 other countries with their six children preaching their own brand of Christianity on street
corners and at college campuses when I first discovered that they were a part of Michael War's system I knew exactly
that she went through what I went through like Rusty David La Isa was in college when he met Michael wari he
followed the preacher for 12 years we all go to hell yes to hell in Mike's teaching he constantly says that only a
few make it so the red light went off with me and I started BEC very suspicious at the notion that there's
many people who come to Salvation not just a few as he teaches wari preached an austere lifestyle and de la Isa
believes it is this instruction that encouraged Rusty and Andrea to move from their Bourbon House to a mobile home in
the nearby Campground our boys in the teachings of Michael wari to hold a job and to even
live in a home is to participate in the evil satanic conspiracy against God so you know for Rusty to get his family in
this mobile home and to kind of emulate this nomadic lifestyle comes directly from the teachings of Michael wari by
the time Rusty and Andrea had their third son it was Andrea who had developed the stronger relationship with
the Waris corresponding regularly with them then they see in a wari newsletter that the Waris have a bus for sale a
used Greyhound bus Rusty and Andrea bought the converted bus and downsized again moving with their three young
children from their mobile home to the 350 square foot bus the small bus that the children were being raised in
uh the amount of children back to back to back one after another my mother and I knew that it took its toll on my
sister meanwhile she was also helping to care for her father who was suffering from Alzheimer's the people at the RV
park will say we knew something was wrong we were saying Rusty help her Rusty will talk about that we had clear
lines of responsibility I was the bread winner Andrea was to take care of the kids
Andrea remained in contact with the Waris you don't need to listen to someone tell you hateful things he's
like a doctor he diagnoses your spiritual state by what you write him he encourages you to describe where you are
with God and then he responds back to you in a Written Letter diagnosing and picking out your flaws from the letters
I have that Rachel waren necki wrote to Andrea it was you are evil you are wicked you are a daughter of Eve who is
a wicked witch you know the window of opportunity for us to minister to you is closing you have to repent now Mike
believes that all women inherit a witchcraft nature from Eve and have the spirit of Jezebel so they should be the
servant of a man and man should have you know dominance over the woman Jesus does
single out one group children War's writings were particularly judgmental when it came to
raising children he believes today's mothers are too permissive modern mother worldle was very very lazy all her
children drove her crazy the Bible told her to spank and train them but Society said she must never constrain them the
fruit of rebellion she did now see on the day of judgment she will have no plea modern mother worldly cast in hell
now What Becomes of the children of such a jezebel this ties specifically with Andrea and what Ru I think gave her the
notion that her kids are going to go to hell What Becomes of the children of the
Jezebel she's The Jezebel shortly before her 35th Birthday Andrea had her fourth child Luke here we
are on our way home here our tredition Luke when Luke was 4 months old rusty got a
call similar to the one he would get the day of the murders Andrea calls Rusty at work and
says come home I need help so he runs from NASA out to the RV park with the 350t bus walks in and says what's the
matter Andrea is sitting there chewing her fingers not biting her fingernails chewing her fingers her legs are
trembling her her arms are shaking she says I need help Andrea Yates had suffered a nervous
breakdown next on mug shots Andrea and Rusty decide to get help but her descent [Music]
continues b c d e f g h i j k l m n o oops p p what no r t v w x y and z now I know my
abc want to come and play with me by the summer of 1999 Andrea Yates life was in
turmoil she was caring for her ailing father homeschooling her three older boys and nursing her new infant all the
while living in a 350 square ft bus and corresponding with the Waris but whoever
causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble it is better for him that a heavy
MST be hung around his neck and he be drowned in the depth of the sea I mean Jesus you're saying to kill
yourself yeah then two weeks before her 35th birthday Andrea suffered her nervous breakdown Rusty does not know
what to do so he packs up Andrea and the kids and takes them for a walk on the beach in Galveston in the trial they
said why did you do this Rusty when your wife is having a nervous pregnant he said I didn't know what else to do which
I think is typical with mental illness we don't know what to do the next day Rusty took Andrea and
the kids to her mother's house that afternoon Andrea took an overdose of her father's sleeping pills and tried to
commit suicide totally shocked I I never expected her to try that because she's very very strong so something must have
really uh weakened her at some point to where she actually attempt suicide Andrea was rushed to a nearby
hospital and transferred to a psychiatric unit where she was diagnosed with a major depressive disorder the
hospital psychiatrist prescribed the anti-depressant Zola and she was there for about a week the
medical records show that she was released because the insurance had run out didn't matter whether she was well
or not but the insurance had run out she was then referred to a Dr Eileen starbranch a
psychiatrist Dr starbranch recommended switching from the anti-depressant to Zyprexa an anticho used for treating
bipolar Mania and schizophrenia Andrea didn't want want to be on medications for one thing Reverend War Nei believes
that medicines are bad that doctors are bad so Andrea flushed this very expensive zy praia down the
toilet Andrea Yates was developing a pattern of not taking the medications that could help control her illness she
did what was called cheeking she would stick the the meds or medicines in her cheek looked like she had taken them and
really hadn't and would later spit him out Andrea was staying at her parents house to recuperate scratching bald
spots on her head and picking sores on her body she showed little signs of recovering her condition continued to
deteriorate and as author Susie Spencer learned she began to hallucinate re-experiencing the vision she had after
her first son Noah was born she's having a vision says get a knife get a knife get a knife get a knife get a knife so
she ran and got a state knife from her mother's house goes into the bathroom and is holding it to her neck when Rusty
comes in going you know noticing Andrea is missing where his sheet goes to the bathroom and she's saying get back let
me do it let me do it please let me do it and he wrestled the knife away from her took her back into the hospital this
time Andrea was admitted to a private center for psychiatric treatment after an emergency dose of the
anticho drug hll Andrea loosened up and confessed to the doctors that she suffered the knife Vision as many as 10
times in several days and feared her Visions predicted violence when she went back into the
hospital at this point she had claw marks on her legs where she had been trying to hold herself back from hurting
anyone and she was trying to save her Children's Life by taking her own life about 50% of women with postpartum
psychosis go on to be diagnosed uh with bipolar disorder or manic depressive illness the psychiatrist at the
treatment center diagnosed Andrea with a major depressive disorder that was severe and recurrent with psychotic
features in Andrea Yates case after looking at all the medical records and getting some psychological testing
speaking to her family she'd probably had it for a very long time but her symptoms were not so severe that she
wasn't standing on the street corner speaking to her self as Andrea's mother and siblings began discussing her
condition they admitted their own struggles with depression and learned that a majority of the family had sought
professional help women who have relatives with manic depressive illness are at a much greater risk for having
postpartum psychosis the psychiatrist recommended electric shock treatments but Rusty and Andrea decided against it
so after three weeks in the Psychiatric Center Andrea was released with prescriptions for an arsenal of drugs
including the anti-depressants of fexer and Wellbutrin and the antipsychotic hdll she continued monthly visits with
do starbranch I really don't think my sister's children completely understood um I think that they knew that their
mother was sick and needed to get some help but uh they all missed their mother because she was gone quite a bit during
that summer after Andrea attempted suicide Mrs Kennedy went to Rusty and said Rusty no more but get Andrea a
house so it was while she was in the hospital in 1999 that he went out and bought the house in Clear Lake and in
September she was at home in their new home throwing her son Paul a birthday party with making him an elaborate cake
that looked like a truck she was very creative in her birthday cakes for kids Andria's condition improved in their new
house her Focus continued to be the children as she cared for her son and homeschool the older three and the kids
were obviously brilliant if you've ever looked at any of their artwork these are incredibly talented
children for 4 months life seemed to be returning to normal in November despite warnings from
doctors Andrea and Rusty decided to have another baby women with histories of postpartum psychosis have 50 to 80%
chance of having another episode Andrea stopped taking her medication and discontinued the use of birth control in
4 months she was pregnant coming up Andrea's fifth child is born setting off the series of events that would end an
unspeakable [Music] tragedy Andrea Yates had suffered violent Visions after the births of her
first and fourth child she survived two suicide attempts and was finally given a
combination of anti-depressants and anticho that appeared to calm her delusions and
paranoia Rusty and Andrea knew she suffered from postpartum psychosis the psychiatrist had told them that having
another child could trigger another psychotic episode having a child is a choice and there are ways that you can
control pregnancy and there are ways that you can make decisions not to bring more children into this world if you
know there's dangers Rusty explained this as if you were given a brand new mercedesbenz and said here it is for
free but if you take this mercedesbenz you're going to have the flu for two weeks would you do it he
said of course he said that's the way we thought of it Andrea might get sick but
we knew there were medicines out there that could help and would put her on those medicines and should' be
fine Andrea and Rusty ended their sessions with Dr starbranch and Andrea stopped taking both her medications and
her birth control on November 30th 2000 they had a baby girl Mary that's so cute
a big brother hold his big little sister that spring three months before the murders Andrea's ailing father died
Andre as much as she loved my father and was close to him I know that this was just really really hard on on her as it
was on me too Andrea began to deteriorate she stopped talking refused to drink liquids and scratched ball
spots on her head Rusty recognized the symptoms and took Andrea for treatment over the next two months she would be
committed and released from a private psychiatric Treatment Center twice the staff psychiatrist put her back on
medication changing drugs and adjusting dosages a lot of this information that is that has come out now my mother and I
were not privileged to that so all my mother and I basically witnessed at this point was my sister's roller coaster
ride two days before the murders Rusty took Andrea back to the psychiatric center for a follow-up visit and told
the psychiatrist she was not improving again her dosage of anti-depressants was adjusted what we learned early on was
that there wasn't any one thing that was a stressor to cause her to eventually go
into into the psychosis it seemed to be a number of different factors uh the primary factor being um the birth of
children and how that affected her and then the other environmental stressors a religious uh delusion if you will um
that gets reinforced as time goes by you add it all together you get the right combination and it's just a recipe for
disaster it's better to tie a stone around neck and throw yourself in this seas and cause little one to stum
[Music] stumble finally on June 20th 2001 Andrea did the unthinkable what happened it was just
you know incomprehensible I mean I I just can't I I you know looking back you know
I struggled with it all last night I couldn't sleep last night I was like you know is there anything I could have done
you know for Andrea to be held criminally responsible she would have to be found legally sane there are millions
of people with five children that that work and are and and some are divorced some are with five children in homes
with abusive husbands some of them have all of those factors plus some degree of
mental illness and do not kill their children do not do violent acts Texas is a very strict standard as to uh uh the
insanity defense um there's two criteria one is that um someone has to have a mental
disease or defect well everybody acknowledged that she clearly had a mental disease and or defect and the
second criteria is that she didn't know that her actions were wrong according to a National Institute
of mental health study the insanity defense is used less than 1% of the time and of those cases only 26% are argued
successfully adding to the defense's challenges the Texas guidelines are among the toughest to meet defense
lawyers had even convened their own test jury to see how their strategy would hold up we did a uh a mock trial before
we went to trial and the biggest problem we had was they just could not get over
the fact that uh uh she killed her children and confessed to killing her children when mugshots Returns the trial
of Andrea Yates will she be found legally sane and criminally responsible for the murder of
her [Music] children Andrea Yates trial began 8 months after she drowned her five
children the state of Texas versus Andrew P Yates the state was not taking any chances and only tried her for three
of the murders holding back the other two in case they didn't get a conviction if found criminally responsible Andrea
faced a death sentence our approach to this case all along was to simplify the case for the jury whether or not the
person knows right from wrong and to keep the jury focused on that issue rather than the than the history of
mental illness and it was much more difficult for us to try to convince a jury to look beyond the literal
interpretation as to what she thinks right and what she thinks wrong is uh and make your decision on
that the state's case focused on the physical evidence of the crime and used it to demonstrate that Andrea was
legally sane the morning of the murders she had to prepare to do this and part of that prep pration was was choosing a
time when it could be done and that was the time between 9 and 10:00 in the morning one of the things that I felt we
could only show through the physical evidence was how she chose the order of the children to kill them if she had
started with Noah the oldest Noah's seven we know Noah put up the biggest fight she could have alerted the other
children and possibly John the 5-year-old could have gotten out and so this was a very methodical organized
manner in which she went about executing the children both sides agreed that Andrea
was mentally ill but the defense argued that her illness made her too sick to be
able to know right from wrong to illustrate this they played for the jury portions where Andrea exhibited extreme
delusion they've been eating some candy one morning and we Hadar the TV on cartoon and and just
flashed a scene where the comic the cartoon characters were talking to us the Caron say hey kids stop eating so
much candy okay that flash and then back to the program all right so you concluded that the TV had this special
message for you and your family she had tried to kill the devil in 1999 twice when she tried to commit
suicide I believe she had tried over and over to get rid of the devil you can't get rid of the devil so the only option
she had to save her children from a life in hell was to kill them and to sacrifice her own eternal life for the
children afraid Satan would ruin my children to his to himself and maybe that even I had some Satan in me
it was important to be able to have a jury not believe that we were uh defending her on the devil made me do it
premise and we were cautious but we nevertheless were able to through the little cartoon that was introduced in
evidence The Jezebel with The Stumbling children uh that this was Andrea's delusion the defense argued that Andrea
is a IAL confession should have been videotaped so the jury could see how she was acting right after the
murders the interviews they did see were taped weeks even months after the drownings and by the time of the trial
with the help of her medication Andrea appeared to be more stable this is a huge problem this is a moral dilemma for
a psychiatrist it might have been to Andrea's Advantage legally to not medicate her to leave her quote unquote
crazy so that the jury could see what state she was in at the time she committed the
drownings for everyone involved it was an extraordinarily emotional trial we can have experts and did have experts
that talked in terms of mental illness uh for three and a half weeks but it is so difficult to
overcome um pajamas it is difficult to overcome photographs it is difficult to overcome
the image of this young boy faced down in in in the bathtub the way that the case unfolded and because of some things
that happened during the case I was fairly confident that the jury would find her guilty uh that that is that
they would reject the insanity defense ladies and gentlemen the court has been advised that the jury has
reached a verdict after three weeks of testimony and dozens of witnesses the jury took only 3 and 1/2 hours to reach
a ver we the jury find the defendant Andrea P guilty of capital murder as charged in
the indictment Andrea Yates was found guilty on March 12th exactly one year after the
death of her father and I'm sitting right there behind Mrs Karen Kennedy Andrea's mother and Andrea's favorite
brother Brian and they say guilty and then Andrea turns around and she looks straight at Brian and I'm right behind
Brian and like I say she tried tried to smile and she just couldn't and she just
started weeping and turned around and walked off knowing andr I can't see how a minute will go by on on any day that she
won't constantly think about what had happened and and missing the children uh that I think that she'll always be
living with her pain I think the jurors really focused on these children and what they went through and how the
evidence of the killing of these children showed her state of mind that she knew right from wrong and was
responsible every single family member of the murder victims wanted this woman to live to not be tried for death and
here she was convicted and at that point they didn't know if she was going to be
sentenced to life or death 3 days later the jury would reconvene to decide whether Andrea Yates
would live or die her sentence next on Mugshots in the spring of 2002 a jury found
Andrea Yates legally sane when she drowned her five children there were only two possible sentences life in
prison or death by lethal injection I Can't Describe to you the feeling that a defense attorney has wherein uh uh
you've had a verdict that goes against you now you're going to go and decide whether or not someone's going to live
or die after deliberating for only 40 minutes the jury decided to spare Andrea yates's life she was sentenced to life
in prison I'm sure it's very very hard in her each day um for for for the sun to come up and then she's by herself and
and uh just uh probably doing a lot of a lot of thinking I would imagine clearly
she was Ill probably in her late teens or early 20s but but very subtly there were some choices made along the way
though that I think contributed to the final outcome I think one unfortunate thing that happened was that they met
this preacher not that the preacher caused her to be sick but she didn't have any ability to judge the rightness
or wrongness of what this man was saying to her one of my sisters asked me well how can you still love her I she's my
friend and what she did is not who she is um there's just a break with reality there for her don't look at cast in
blame just feel sorry I don't have pity for her I have pity for the children they never had a chance in that home
they were little they were defenseless I think there has to be responsibility for
adults she had different Avenues available to her and this was a choice that she made and I'm glad that she's
been held responsible Andrea Yates is imprisoned in the sky view unit a psychiatric prison in East Texas she
will be eligible for parole in 40 years a lot of people say the crest thing in the world for Andrea Yates was for her
to become healthy again and know what she did but all we know is Andrea Yates is one sick lady today with five dead
babies and she knows she killed them can you live with that could this mother who would stay up
all night sewing for him live with that I [Music] [Music] [Music] he he

Click here to watch great FREE Movies & TV: http://filmrise.com

Brief Summary

Andrea Yates drowned her five children, raising questions about mental illness and accountability in her subsequent trial.

Key points

The Shocking Crime. Andrea Yates drowned her five children, shocking the nation.
Rusty's Support. Despite the tragedy, Rusty expressed sympathy for Andrea, torn between love and blame.
Mental Illness Defense. Andrea's mental health struggles raised questions about her culpability.
Public Reaction. The public was divided, with some expressing sympathy and others outrage.
The Insanity Plea. Andrea's lawyers prepared an insanity defense while the state sought the death penalty.
The Unthinkable Act. On June 20th, 2001, Andrea Yates committed an unspeakable act that shocked the nation.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's an evil act.

Describing the nature of Andrea's actions.

0:50WatchJul 29, 2014

Tension

75/ 100High tension

More from True Crime Files

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.