Posted on 06/28/2006 12:38:46 PM PDT by presidio9
Seven-year-old Noah Yates struggled so hard while his mother was drowning him in the bathtub that his small fists remained stiff and over his head even several hours later, the medical examiner testified Wednesday.
Testifying on the third day of Andrea Yates' murder trial, Dr. Luis A. Sanchez said Noah, the oldest of Yates' five children drowned that day in 2001, had extensive rigor mortis because of intense movements indicating a struggle just before death.
Noah also had deep bruises consistent with someone holding him down, as did 6-month-old Mary and 5-year-old John, Sanchez testified.
Sanchez also said that based on their brain weights, which were significantly heavier than normal for children their ages, they had been held under water for minutes rather than seconds. The 9 inches of water was murky from the youngsters' bodily secretions, Sanchez said.
"It was a slow death; it was not quick," Sanchez, the Harris County medical examiner, told jurors.
Yates, who turns 42 on Sunday, again has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. The defense says she suffered from severe postpartum psychosis and did not know that drowning the youngsters was wrong.
Yates is being tried only in the deaths of Mary, John and Noah, a common practice in cases of multiple slayings. Ruling in favor of the defense, state District Judge Belinda Hill did not allow prosecutors to show autopsy photos of 2-year-old Luke or 3-year-old Paul or present evidence about their injuries.
Prosecutors have said they will rest their case after Sanchez testifies. He is the 12th witness for the state, which is retrying Yates after an appeals court overturned her 2002 conviction last year because of erroneous testimony.
Prosecutors said that during the trial's rebuttal phase, after the defense presents its case, they will call Dr. Park Dietz, the psychiatrist whose testimony inadvertently caused Yates' conviction to be overturned.
Dietz, also a consultant to the "Law & Order" television series, told jurors in Yates' first trial that one episode depicting a woman who drowned her kids in a bathtub and was acquitted by reason of insanity aired before the Yates children died.
No such episode existed, attorneys learned after Yates was convicted but before jurors sentenced her to life in prison.
If convicted, Yates will be sentenced to life in prison because prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty. After the first jury rejected death, prosecutors could not seek execution again because they did not find any new evidence.
Drown, strangle, stab, what's the difference? He DID know that she'd threatened to kill them, and that she was seriously unstable. That's why when she called him at work right after she'd killed the children, and told him "I finally did it", he didn't ask "Did what?", he asked "Which one?"
You'd rather not wait for God? That's not a very good attitude. I'm waiting on God for OJ, MJ, and a couple of other folks. Andrea belongs locked up in a mental institution for the rest of her days.
See blu's post above yours to me.
You are so sick! to be dragging the abortion issue onto this thread!!!!!!! I am totally anti-abortion, but for you to sum up these kids' death as equal to an abortion is just over the top!!! I am so offended I can't marshal my argument...and, honey, it takes a lot to fluster me!!
Her husband is a pig and should be on trial as well. After he was told that she shouldn't have more children because she couldn't handle it emotionally, Mr. Macho dictated that she would. She did, she couldn't handle it, he dumped her a$s and moved on leaving her to deal with everything alone. A pig.
Maybe we need more "bad attitudes." Good ones haven't gotten us very far, have they?
Huh? Where'd you get that? And at what point did ANDREA not become responsible for holding her kids under the water until they died? How about a little personal responsibility? Granted, having more kids wasn't the best move they made, but to blame him for her actions (remember, when she called him, she said "I finally did it") is whacked. SHE was there, SHE held them till they were dead. SHE ALONE KILLED THEM!
How about we all stop trying to assign blame to the minister, the shrink, the husband, and put it solely on the person whose hands were on the kids' throats as they died?
More reasons why Andrea Yates needs to be on Death Row. She's a demon. She doesn't need compassion and phony psychiatric treatment. She needs death
It's laughable seeing so many Free Republic woman making excuses for this mass murderer of children. The weaker sex has a weak mind when it comes to putting female killers on death row
I read about the case, it was all over the news at the time (and I lived in TX, so it was REALLY all over the news). I am not convinced that her explanation was her real motivation. You do, of course, understand that all of the info we get is spun by attnys and then filtered thru the media, yes?
susie
Blame the husband, blame the religion, blame the environment, yada yada yada. Its tangential and irrevelant. She did the crime and will do the time. Too bad she won't fry for this. Hopefully he picked a better wife this time.
"The weaker sex has a weak mind when it comes to putting female killers on death row."
S'pose you're referring to me. I believe Andrea should be executed -- absolutely. I also believe hubby should spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Please read your post #27.
You are the first woman here, that I've seen at least, who advocates execution for Andrea Yates. Bravo!
ahem, I also advocate her death. I am kind of surprised at the generalization about women taking it easy on her. We are know to be rather catty and quick to turn on our own.
Too bad she's only up for life. I think she should be drowned, just like she did to her kids. Psycho $itch.
There, does that clear it up for you?
And? Do we really need the sarcasm tag?
If I allowed my children to live in an environment, indeed, allow my children to be primarily cared for by a person I know has thought about and talked about harming them, then yes I believe I would hold at least some moral if not legal responsibility. A parent's primary job is to protect their children from harm, Rusty Yates failed to do so. This doesn't reduce Andrea's capability, but he wasn't a helpless victim in this, those poor children were.
I am sick and tired of people bloviating about the husband and how "evil" he was. People that know nothing about him except what little that has been printed and yet they think they know enough to judge him. I say let's focus on what we do know and that's the crime of a mother drowning her children.
The Husband didn't chase those kids down one-by-one and drown them over there desperate pleas and struggles, SHE DID.
I know there are lots of women out the for whom nothing is EVER their fault. The can drive their kids in a lake strapped into baby seats, or run over their husbands in the Mercedes SUV he bought for them or cuckold their husbands with teenage boys and there's always a man to blame, right?
Women really feel like they live in consequence free universe.
That clears it up for me. I was too hasty to generalize about this. My logic is simple. Someone who murders five children deserves the death penalty. I could care less about what went on in her head. I can see cutting a crazy person some slack for lesser crimes they don't repeat. But not when the loony toon kills (her) five children. Even killing one child should put someone on death row
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