Posted on 06/28/2006 12:38:46 PM PDT by presidio9
It's absolutely obscene that this whole thing is being dragged through the courtroom mud again, at huge taxpayer expense, because of some stupid little technicality that is totally irrelevant to the case. The woman must never be let loose again, and it really doesn't make a whit of difference what the official reason is for keeping her locked up.
Yeah? Wanna bet? By the time Andrea was led into her cell block, the interview with her husband would have already aired. The inmates would see a disheveled woman with dead eyes, drooling out her mouth, and say "no damn way". It's just no fun when they don't fight back.
She will be judged appropriately, just like everyone else we think got off easy. That judgement will be harsher than anything we could think of. It's all up to Him. He sees everything.
He joined the "singles group" at his church almost before the children's bodies were cold, and while he was still quite married legally.
HE was the evil person. SHE was the totally insane person. He knew full well that she was seriously mentally ill (she'd already carved the numbers 666 into her scalp), and had threatened to kill the children before, but he left them alone with her anyway, every day. He was responsible for the wacko brand of "Christianity" that was filling her head, to the exclusion of all else, to the point where she believed that the only way her children could go to heaven was if she killed them before they were old enough to be accountable for the fact that they weren't "developing properly". His control was so extreme that when he drove the family to a store which specialized in Christian homeschooling materials, he made Andrea and the children stay in the car while he went in first and made sure there weren't any bad influences inside, before he'd let her and the children come in. He had also been warned after the 2nd or 3rd child, after which Andrea was already having serious post-partum symptoms, that she should not get pregnant again because her mental illness would almost certainly worsen. But he made sure she did, again and again. When she called him at work right after she'd killed the children, she told him "I finally did it". He didn't ask "Did what?", he asked "Which one?"
It's Russell who should be on trial and facing life in prison. Andrea clearly was and is completely insane and needs to spend the rest of her life in a secure mental institution.
She was WAY past anti-depressants. IIRC correctly, she was SUPPOSED to be on anti-psychotics, but had stopped taking them, with her husband's knowledge.
I think you need to read up a bit more on Russell Yates and his role in this tragedy.
-well thank God he has moved on. She is not worth another moment of his time.
Education and Achievements: Andrea (Kennedy) Yates was born on July 2, 1964 in Houston, Tex. She graduated from Milby High School in Houston in 1982. She was the class valedictorian, captain of the swim team and an officer in the National Honor Society. She completed a two-year pre-nursing program at the University of Houston and then graduated in 1986 from the University of Texas School of Nursing in Houston. She worked as a registered nurse at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center from 1986 until 1994.
Andrea Meets Rusty Yates: Andrea and Rusty Yates, both 25, met at their apartment complex in Houston. Andrea, who was usually reserved, initiated the conversation. Andrea had never dated anyone until she turned 23 and prior to meeting Rusty she was healing from a broken relationship. They eventually moved in together and spent much of their time involved in religious study and prayer. They were married on April 17, 1993. They shared with their guests that they planned on having as many children as nature provided.
Andrea Called Herself "Fertile Myrtle": In their eight years of marriage, the Yates had five children; four boys and one girl. Andrea stopped jogging and swimming when she became pregnant with her second child. Friends say that she became reclusive. The decision to home-school the children seemed to feed her isolation.
The Yates Children: Feb. 26, 1994 – Noah Yates, Dec. 12, 1995 - John Yates, Sept. 13, 1997 - Paul Yates, Feb. 15, 1999 - Luke Yates, and on Nov. 30, 2000 - Mary Yates was the last child to be born.
Their Living Conditions: Rusty accepted work in Florida in 1996 and the family moved into a 38-foot travel trailer in Seminole, FL While in Florida, Andrea got pregnant, but miscarried. In 1997 they returned to Houston and lived in their trailer because Rusty wanted to "live light." The next year. Rusty decided to purchase a 350-square-foot, renovated bus which became their permanent home. Luke was born bringing the number of children to four. Living conditions were cramped and Andrea's insanity began to surface.
Michael Woroniecki: Michael Woroniecki was a traveling minister from whom Rusty purchased their bus and whose religious views had influenced both Rusty and Andrea. Rusty only agreed with some of Woroniecki's ideas but Andrea embraced the extremist sermons. He preached, "the role of women is derived from the sin of Eve and that bad mothers who are going to hell create bad children who will go to hell." Andrea was so totally captivated by Woroniecki that Rusty and Andrea's family grew concerned.
Andrea’s First Suicide Attempt : On June 16 1999, Andrea called Rusty and begged him to come home. He found her shaking involuntarily and chewing on her fingers. The next day, she was hospitalized after she tried to commit suicide by taking an overdose of pills. She was transferred to the Methodist Hospital psychiatric unit and diagnosed with a major depressive disorder. The medical staff described Andrea as evasive in discussing her problems. However, on June 24 she was prescribed an antidepressant and released.
Spiraling Downward: Once home, Andrea did not take the medication and as a result she began to self mutilate and refused to feed her children because she felt they were eating too much. She thought there were video cameras in the ceilings and said that the characters on television were talking to her and the children. She told Rusty about the hallucinations, yet neither of them informed Andrea's psychiatrist, Dr. Starbranch. On July 20, Andrea put a knife to her neck and begged her husband to let her die.
Warned About the Risks of Having More Babies : Andrea was again hospitalized and stayed in a catatonic state for 10 days. After being treated with an injection of different drugs that included Haldol, an anti-psychotic drug, her condition immediately improved. Rusty was optimistic about the drug therapy because Andrea appeared more like the person he first met. Dr. Starbranch warned the Yates that having another baby might bring on more episodes of psychotic behavior. Andrea was placed on out-patient care and prescribed Haldol.
New Hopes for the Future : Andrea's family urged Rusty to buy a home instead of returning Andrea to the cramped space of the bus. He purchased a nice home in a peaceful neighborhood. Once in her new home, Andrea's condition improved to the point that she returned to past activities like swimming, cooking and some socializing. She was also interacting well with her children. She expressed to Rusty that she had strong hopes for the future but still viewed her life on the bus as her failure.
The Tragic End: In March of 2000, Andrea, on Rusty's urging, became pregnant and stopped taking the Haldol. On November 30, 2000, Mary was born. Andrea was coping but on March 12, her father died and immediately her mental state digressed. She stopped talking, refused liquids, mutilated herself, and would not feed Mary. She also frantically read the Bible. By the end of March Andrea returned to a different hospital. Her psychiatrist, Dr. Mohammed Saeed, treated her briefly with Haldol but discontinued it, saying that she did not did not seem psychotic. Andrea was released only to return again in May. She was released in 10 days and in her last follow-up visit with Saeed, she was told to think positive thoughts and to see a psychologist.
Two days later, Rusty left for work and before his mother arrived to help, Andrea began to put into action the thoughts that had consumed her for two years.
Sad - we have totally devalued life in the country. Of course this has to do with abortion - liberals want her to get off scott free - killing children is ok with them. Sickening and sad what these children were forced to endur at the hands of this evil vile person - insult to injury is how their death will go unpunished.
According to Rusty Yates, he was never told by any doctor that his wife was psychotic. He didn't hear this until after his children were dead.
He was told that his wife had postpartum depression. I would lay blame on the psychiatrist who released her from treatment and took her off her medication at the same time, without supervision, and without warning the husband that her behavior might undergo drastic change.
Why should he do that? It's so much fun to accuse us of man-bashing.
Please see post 110, the paragraph that starts "Warned About the Risks of Having More Babies".
That indicates to me that both of them knew she was psychotic and that pregnancy would worsen the psychosis.
But yes, Dr. Saeed deserves obloquy for not perceiving that a self-mutilating, finger-chewing, no-baby-feeding, hearing-voices-from-the-TV woman was psychotic.
I'd rather not wait for God, if He even gets involved in such things. I'd rather see justice done to her now. Also, it is better for society that way.
And I don't care whether she can fight back. Her kids couldn't either.
You two both need to read up on this case. There was no real-world motive. She was severely psychotic and had been pushed into a bizarre version of Christianity by her husband. The combination left her believing that she was hopelessly headed to hell because she was a bad mother and her children weren't "developing properly", but that at least she could set them up to go to heaven by killing them before they were old enough to be accountable for all the horrible sins she believed they were obviously headed for. She had already told her husband and others that she believed this. She had already carved "666" into her own scalp. And HE made her stay home alone with all those helpless children every day.
No, i don't agree.
Take her out behind the barn and hold her down in the horses water trough so she dies a slow death, just like her babies.
As I noted elsewhere on this thread, the last psychiatrist took her off her meds. I have no doubt that this woman was delusional -- yet, it seems, rational enough not to mention to ANYONE that she had thoughts of killing her children.
I've seen what happens when a family member develops delusions, so my feelings are very different from many here. As for the idea that her husband should have prevented it, that's easy to say with hindsight. (I know that literature on post partum depression urges husbands to leave the patient with the children for short periods of time to show that he still has trust in her. Seems that's what he did -- again, having no warning that she had homicidal impulses.)
The problem with an insanity defense, is that there's no guarantee some doctors won't decide five years from now that she has recovered. She needs to be locked up for life. as she could be dangerous again.
Well I disagree with you. No husband could have anticipated that their wife would drown their children. With hindsight you can say he could have done more, should have gotten help, etc etc. Whatever. She committed the act, not him. Blaming it on religion is a copout. She committed the act and has to be held accountable. I believe Andrea should receive the dealth penalty for such a heinous evil act.
Who knows what Dr. Saeed saw and heard. Per the long article posted above, Andrea and Rusty had both withheld some pretty spectacular information from a previous psychiatrist. If she was temporarily free of hallucinations, etc. the last time Dr. Saeed saw her, and didn't give him key information (maybe because Russell told her not to), and Russell didn't give him the real story either, he may not have been able to evaluate her accurately. Given her history, if she wasn't behaving like a wildly raving lunatic when he saw her, and Russell didn't clue him in to the whole picture, he might reasonably have figured that she was much improved from her previous state and probably stable. Blatant evidence of psychosis and/or schizophrenia often does come and go unpredictably, so it's hit or miss whether a given appointment will coincide with bizarre behavior, even if bizarre behavior is erupting several times a day.
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