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.
I agree. And I still think she had some secret rage with the husband and this was to get back at him. Just my theory. I don't buy the post partum crap, since I had it and would never have hurt my child! Never!
Yeah, the fact that she waited until the window where she'd be totally unsupervised sure does indicate a total lack of planning and foresight, eh?
I think he's a good man who married the wrong woman. I hope he can salvage his life.
That this thing is still breathing offends me.
Did you have postpartum depression, or psychosis? That would make all the difference.
I don't believe in divorce, but if ever there were justifiable grounds for one, this is it.
Except for the fact that he kept knocking up his wife after several doctors told them not to have any more children, since the wife was psychotic, he was a great husband.
Depression. That's what happens when your husband (now ex) annnounces he's going fishing for the weekend while you and the baby are still in the hospital!
In Yates is a message for all Children of Abraham. If that voice in your head tells you to kill your children, it probably ain't God talking to you.
Okay, now that was purely uncool of him, and I'm guessing that wasn't the only reason he's now an ex.
Why didn't the GYN just prescribe birth control? It would've been obvious that his patient was 'active' and surely that would've been preferable to murder!
Why has this bee-otch been given another trial?
Right you are! ;o) But more to the point, he's still alone and I'm happy now! Uncool has it's own reward!
Are you suggesting he should have remained by the side of the woman who murdered his kids?
That is a good question, and I don't know the answer.
I would guess that a doctor can prescribe away, but unless a patient is institutionalized, it's hard to MAKE someone take medicine. It's entirely possible he did prescribe birth control and she didn't use it.
It's also possible that their faith forbids birth control. I'm not familiar enough with their denomination to say.
Ex-ACT-ly! (And good for you!)
You might get some positive answers to that question....
That is too quick and a waste of good lead. She deserves nothing less than to be held down in murky water and slowly asphixiated. I will be glad to provide the murk if she can't secrete enough of it herself. Vile bitc#.
You had post partum depression, or post partum psychosis? There's a huge difference. A friend of mine had the latter; fortunately, she was a psychologist so she knew what was happening to her, and institutionalized herself before she could do the damage the "voices" were telling her to do.
Already? And why is that odd? It's sad he was married to such an evil person. It's odd to me he waited so long to divorce her.
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