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.
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