Posted on 08/02/2004 8:14:54 PM PDT by Indy Pendance
The husband of Andrea Yates, the Clear Lake area woman who admitted to drowning her five children in the family's bathtub three years ago, has filed for divorce.
In his divorce petition, Rusty Yates, 39, says he and his wife of 11 years ceased to live together as husband and wife on or about June 20, 2001 - the day Andrea Yates called police and told arriving officers she had drowned her children.
``The marriage has become insupportable because of discord or conflict of personalities between petitioner (Rusty Yates) and respondent (Andrea Yates) that destroys the legitimate ends of the marriage relationship and prevents any reasonable expectation of reconciliation,'' the three-page petition says.
The couple was married April 17, 1993.
A Harris County jury in March 2002 convicted Andrea Yates, who turned 40 last month, and sentenced her to life in prison. She admitted to drowning her children - Noah, 7; John, 5; Paul, 3; Luke, 2; and Mary, 6 months. She was only charged and convicted with the slayings of Noah, John and Mary.
The divorce petition cites that the couple has no children.
Rusty Yates, who regularly visits his wife at the Skyview prison psychiatric unit near Rusk, says the couple will enter into an agreement to divide their assets, the petition filed by Houston attorney David Salinsky says. If an agreement cannot be reached, Yates asks that the court to divide the assets.
The family's Clear Lake area home where the children were drowned was recently sold.
Salinsky was not in his office late Monday afternoon for comment. Rusty Yates also could not be reached at his Johnson Space Center office and did not return a message left on his cell phone.
George Parnham, Andrea Yates' defense attorney, said he was sure she was aware of the divorce request.
``Andrea knew this was coming. She had been aware of it for some time. I don't think Rusty would pull this on her unexpectedly. And there's no questioning the fact that he still cares deeply for Andrea,'' said Parnham, who is handling Yates' criminal appeal.
Parnham questioned the timing of the divorce request on the heels of the three-year anniversary of the children's deaths.
``I'm not sure that this was the most appropriate time for Rusty to do this,'' he said. ``Then again there's probably not any most appropriate time."
Andrea Yates was returned to her prison unit last week after a nine-day stay at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. She was taken to the prison hospital unit after she refused to eat and drink and was in ``an acute confusional state'' both mentally and physically.
She was fed intravenously while hospitalized.
Parnham said he could not say if Yates' recent hospitalization was a result of the her marriage ending.
``I just hope the whole process causes her as little anguish as possible,'' he said.
This guy is a creep of the first order. Not because of this filing.
Ole Rusty...whatta guy.
I guess I should just say.."#whatever removed by moderator" for my disgust with rusty is beyonds words..
Uh, color me cynical... but... he should have cared when she was sick before. When family and neighbors remarked upon it and he dismissed it. This really comes as no big shock. Rusty needs to get closure and move on and all that.
He knew she was nuts, but made her live in a school bus with four kids. He knew she was nuts but let her home school the four and have a new baby. He knew she was nuts.
Who would buy that house?
My wife thinks he is a scumbag for some reason.....
Really!
He could possibly arrange a conjugal visit and knock her up once more for old times sake.
Unless it was to a developer.
She killed his children 3 YEARS AGO. And he now is getting around to divorcing her and has been visiting her. It's beyond me how he could stand the site of her after what she did. Something about that guy seems very off.
Interesting statement, in light of the situation.
I'd have that house blessed a few times over before I set foot in there. I'll bet they either sold it cheap or sold it very expensive to some crime fantasy wackjob.
lol
This guy is a creep of the first order.
She killed their five kids but he's a creep of the first order?
Yes, actually Mr. Yates is super creepy. He has that nefarious colored cropped hair a la Ken doll complete with anotomically correct parts. Seriously, I think he is a hideous control freak with an extremely dark side who drove Andrea into insanity. Too bad she was too weak to flee him before going over the edge and murdering her kids. Hopefully no other woman falls into this mans trap. He's a real zinger.
Nothing excuses what she did. Of course. But from all that I've heard her husband dumped the weight of the world on her when he knew she had problems.
Sad sad sad. Those little angels.
And they were such a cute couple.
She murdered five people three years ago and she's still in jail? What's with that?
She obviously needs a new attorney.
With a DEE-vorce pending?
FREE CLARA HARRIS! FREE CLARA HARRIS! FREE CLARA HARRIS.
(sinister laugh)
Whoever bought it probably got a great deal.
I'd burn that house to the ground and never rebuild.
Who gives a crap about this woman who murdered 5 babies - any existence she has is too good for her.
I'm not saying he's a great guy or even a decent guy, but no matter what, his wife murdered their five children.
No matter how you slice it or dice it, he didn't drown his children, she did.
Or have an exorcism. Really.
But geez, who could live there?
Knowing that she chased the little guys all over to catch them....
and who could bathe in that bathtub?
Oh, man. It's worse than I had feared.
Why not..the creep's whole mission in life seemed to be keeping her pregnant.
I don't get your post. Why is the hubby such a bad guy? Have there been other stories that I missed?
If I had money, I'd turn it into a halfway house of abused/abandoned children, you know a REAL foster home as opposed to those hellholes we read about in the news.
Apparently. Read the thread.
Who gets the house?
he is a relatively young man .....men usually need companionship etc, and I think that Rusty has been very loyal and supportive of Andrea....
I wish him well....I hope Andrea finds peace...
mostly, I wish that years ago, instead of hiding their eyes, Rusty and the families of Rusty and Andrea would have pitched in more.. and got that woman into a hospital for a long period of time, and constant surveillance when she was out....
sometimes following the Bible and believing in God without using the common sense God gave you can be every bit as destructive as not following God at all....
God didn't expect us to lay back and not be active participants in our lives..
Andrea, IMO...was a bomb waiting to explode......
I'd burn it to the ground and then build a home for abused children.
No one should have to walk through a house like that.
Yes he's a creep and worse. This guy is as culpable as his wife for what happened to those kids. If you have followed this case at all you would know that to.
I didn't say he was the fall guy just that he was still married to her and visiting after what SHE did. Is he trying to score points with someone being the "good guy" and sticking by her.
It just doesn't strike me as something a rationale person would do, then again neither does holding each of your five children underwater until they stop moving, birds of a feather.
I actually wish she'd "recover" enough to suffer the truth of what she did - that would be an improvement.
The divorce actually is the only thing that makes sense in this story.
"Seriously, I think he is a hideous control freak with an extremely dark side who drove Andrea into insanity....Hopefully no other woman falls into this mans trap. He's a real zinger."
Sunny, I am just agreeing with you today. I was going to post something in agreement with you on another thread, but it had already been pulled due to its being a dup. So I will agree with you here.
The rest is just me talking, not sunnyside's views at all that I know.
Two things I've never understood about this case, one seriously serious, and one just a matter of annoying media bias.
The first (serious) thing: This woman was obviously unstable, and maybe worse, after the birth of the 4th child. Now, I am pro-life as the next person, but I am not anti-birth control (certain forms). But even if one is anti-birth control there is the ULTIMATE form of birth control and that is self-restraint. This man is an actual rocket scientist, but despite his wife's mental illness, he had to get laid regularly? Excuse me, but that is how I feel.
The second (media bias) thing: what is all the stuff about the "homeschooling"? At best the oldest of these poor children was old enough to be in 1st grade, who ever heard of home kindergarten? This is the thing I have never understood about this case, I really think "homeschool" was nothing but a media slur being used against Christian homeschoolers in the reporting.
I think he'll do the same thing over again with another woman with Andrea's personality, weak willed and a few marbles rolling around.
She was obviously having problems and he continued to impregnate her. He left his defenseless children with her despite her depression and delusions. He is a creep of the first order.
So who will marry her now? Scott Peterson or Mark Hacking?
hahaha...if only!
She is a terribly ill woman who was exploited by her control freak husband.
I am not, by any means, excusing her actions. She deserves to be in jail-----but so does he.
He married an unstable woman, kept her pregnant, confined her to a tiny space with small children and then acts stunned?
Screw him!
She is not a Susan Smith, she is nuts. And he knew it and confined his children with a crazy woman.
He undoubtally has another in the wings.
BTW....it doesn't take much to get pregnant really....once in a blue moon will do it....
I agree....a little more spacing in the birth of their children might in itself have prevented this tragedy...
He's got screws loose too, but he didn't drown the children - I thought he was especially nuts with how he stood by her after she murdered their family.
That story was about the most horrific murder I've ever followed - and the way the liberal media tried to make her out to be some poor victim - Katie Colic leading the pack - like I said, I hope she gets "well" so she really knows what she did and relives it the rest of her life.
Those 5 babies are dead now and she should never be free.
His wife was a sick woman, mentally sick, but just as sick (or so it turned out) as if she'd had cancer. It was clear that he knew that, his mom was coming over every day, she just was a bit late that one fatal day; but it seems as if he wanted his wife to just "carry on" and didn't want to treat her like the sick woman she was, and evidently still is.
I've seen mental illness up close, I think it is really the worst of all things, but you can't kid yourself about it, it can really be a killer.
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