Posted on 09/22/2001 3:30:52 AM PDT by ~Vor~
HOUSTON, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- Jurors recessed Friday night after failing to determine the mental competency of Andrea Yates, the Houston mother who allegedly drowned her five children. The jury will resume deliberation Saturday morning.
The jury of 11 women and one man worked for nearly five hours Friday before the judge ordered them sequestered for the night.
After hearing three days of testimony the jury must determine if the 37-year-old Houston mother understands the capital murder charges against her and can assist her attorneys.
If the jurors find Yates competent to stand trial she would go before another jury at a later date in a criminal trial on capital murder charges. Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty.
If Yates is found incompetent, the jury then must decide the degree of her mental incapacity. If they think she can recover in the foreseeable future, she would be committed to treatment until she can stand trial. If not, Yates would be committed indefinitely, subject to periodic reviews.
During the three days, the jurors heard psychologists and other mental health professionals who offered conflicting views of her mental state. Her husband, Russell, and her lawyers say she was suffering from postpartum depression at the time her five children were drowned.
Medical records state she was treated for major depression with psychosis off and on over a two-year period before the slaying of the children June 20 in a bathtub at the Yates' home.
Dr. Steven Rubenzer, a court-appointed psychologist who testified for the state, said Thursday that Yates passed two out of three sections of a mental competency test he administered to her in July. He said she has improved since then and her psychosis is in full remission.
Rubenzer said that Yates was competent to stand trial now.
On Wednesday, another psychologist called by Yates' lawyers said she had improved under treatment but was still not ready to face a criminal trial at this time.
"She is rapidly getting better," said Dr. Gerald Harris, but he added that her memory and delusions might interfere with her assisting her defense right now.
Yates has been under treatment with drugs in the mental health wing of the Harris County Jail and could be fully competent within one to two months, he said.
Yates has been jailed since June 20 when she called police to her home in Clear Lake and told an officer she had drowned her five children: Noah, 7; John, 5; Paul 3, Luke, 2, and Mary, 6 months. She later pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
In the competency hearing, the jurors must determine if she is mentally competent right now to stand trial. If they find her competent, then the second jury at the criminal trial will determine if she was insane at the time she said she drowned the children at her home.
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Allegedly? I know, that's the way crime stories are always written, but she admitted it and was the one that called the cops on herself. I, for one, am tired of hearing that she allegedly did something that she freely admits doing.
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