Yates lived by rigid schedule, according to husband
Posted on 03/01/2002 1:45:51 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Yates lived by rigid schedule, according to husband
Husband also testifies she was allowed 3 hours a week without her kids
03/01/2002
HOUSTON - Russell "Rusty" Yates told jurors Thursday about how his wife, Andrea, lived by a rigid schedule as housekeeper and teacher and was allowed three hours each week to do whatever she wanted, alone, without her children.
"Man's the breadwinner and the woman's the homemaker," Mr. Yates said Thursday during Mrs. Yates' capital murder trial. Mrs. Yates pleaded insanity after admitting that she drowned her five children in June.
While he talked proudly of the couple's decision to toe a higher ethical line based on biblical teachings and lessons gleaned from a conservative newsletter called "Perilous Times," Mr. Yates coincidentally painted a picture for jurors of a bleak life bereft of any outlet for Mrs. Yates besides her children.
AP "A scared animal" is how Debbie Holmes testified that her friend Andrea Yates behaved in the days before she killed her children. |
Mr. Yates, 37, told the jury that he and his wife agreed before their wedding in 1993 to a "traditional" marriage in which he would serve as sole breadwinner and she would be homemaker.
The pact included being a stay-at-home mother, primary caregiver and, eventually, home-school teacher. Mr. Yates said that he controlled the cash and that she stuck carefully to an allowance.
Therapist Earline Wilcott, who met with Mrs. Yates after her suicide attempts, testified that her client felt overwhelmed and trapped.
Ms. Wilcott said Mrs. Yates felt criticized for the way she ran the household. Ms. Wilcott said Mrs. Yates told her that her husband bought her a book on how to get organized.
When pressure from raising their children appeared to be getting to Mrs. Yates, she could always look forward to Thursdays. Mr. Yates testified that for three hours once each week from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Mrs. Yates could do whatever she wanted, alone, without the children.
The free time was to provide some relief for his wife, Mr. Yates said. "I guess that's what we decided," he said.
Mrs. Yates is a diagnosed schizophrenic predisposed to pitch-black depressions that followed the births of her last two children. Testimony has shown that the 37-year-old registered nurse with perfectionist tendencies and a solid Christian faith went along with the home management plan she and Mr. Yates hammered out before marriage.
During a second day of testimony, this time during questioning by Harris County prosecutor Joe Owmby, Mr. Yates, a NASA engineer, said he and Mrs. Yates agreed before marrying that she would give up her job at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center at Houston.
"We thought it best that Andrea be home," Mr. Yates testified.
Prosecutors say Mrs. Yates was fully aware of what she was doing when she drowned Noah, 7; John, 5; Paul, 3; Luke, 2; and 6-month-old Mary in the family bathtub.
Mrs. Yates' trial, which began Feb. 18, is expected to go through next week. She faces life in prison or lethal injection if convicted.
During questioning, Mr. Yates said his wife was quiet and remarkably modest. After they were married, Mrs. Yates wouldn't undress in front of her husband. "That's a pretty personal question, but generally that's true. She's shy," he testified.
While Mr. Yates found time for interests such as biking to work, joining a gym and working in the garage, Mrs. Yates had the children and home-schooling to keep up with.
Their life also included some unusual experiments and choices.
Almost as soon as their first home was built, they rented it out, trading it for a 38-foot trailer to live a "simpler life."
"I think a lot of it was that Andrea was generally happy in the house, I probably wasn't as happy in the house," he said.
After being married 41/2 years, with three young children and another on the way, they sold the trailer for a $37,000 converted Greyhound bus.
"I didn't view it as a hardship," Mr. Yates said. "We like it better than a house."
After the 1999 birth of their fourth child, Luke, the close quarters appeared to get to her. She summoned her husband home one day. He found her sobbing and shaking in the back of the bus.
The next day, she took an overdose. Less than a month later, she held a knife to her throat.
Mr. Yates told jurors how he faithfully drove his wife to therapy after her two suicide attempts.
He also told jurors that his wife opted for natural childbirth.
Although he conceded that the newsletter he and his wife read advocated natural childbirth for a "humbling experience for a woman," Mr. Yates said it was his wife's idea to go without local anesthetic.
"It was her choice," he said. "Sometimes Andrea liked to take the hard road instead of an easy road."
Despite warnings from at least one psychiatrist who said having more children would bring Mrs. Yates a harsher version of the depression that sent her to try to kill herself, they had a fifth child on Nov. 30, 2000.
They knew that Haldol pulled her out of the depths in 1999, after the birth of Luke. When Mrs. Yates faltered again, particularly after her father died in March 2001, they asked for the drug again.
"I knew she was sick," Mr. Yates said. "She wouldn't have tried to commit suicide if she hadn't been sick."
Four days before she drowned her children, Mrs. Yates awoke screaming that she was trapped. As her husband comforted her, she told him about her nightmare. "Something about in her dream she was trapped in her bed," Mr. Yates said.
"A scared animal" is how Debbie Holmes later testified that Mrs. Yates behaved in the days before she killed her children. The women met about 16 years ago at M.D. Anderson.
Mrs. Holmes said Mrs. Yates spoke only three complete sentences to her in the four months before the children died. Her hair greasy and matted, her body reeking, Mrs. Yates was a walking zombie then, Mrs. Holmes said.
"I was appalled," said Mrs. Holmes. "She looked like a cancer patient." When she heard that the children were drowned, a teary Mrs. Holmes said she collapsed.
"I fell on the floor, and I just cried," Mrs. Holmes said. "I was screaming. It can't be my Andrea."
This story is not a great advertisement for the benefits of home schooling combined with traditional stay-at-home mothering.
He is standing beside her, because, If she is truly not sane, he would be CULPABLE, for deaths of those children...
His neglect of the situation would no doubt, given her mental state, be prosecuatable as A.Endangering the Welfare, and B. outright Neglect. I am sure there are stiff enough penalties to lock him away for a good long time (though not nearly long enough, he should be getting the needle IMHO).
"Rusty" the bachalor will be unfettered and rolling in insurance money.
You are so right. THAT is why Christians need to own up to the fact that what this guy did was NOT true to the Christian traditional family lifestyle. YOUR husband is the poster boy for that, and those like him.
Poor Andrea. I hope God forgives her.
you know that He already has....
Eh, speak for yourself, sweety!
The state should be prosecuting Him next.
When I was about 15 years old, I babysat for a woman in a similar condition. Controlling but loving husband. This woman was ready to crack. Five kids in seven years.
After an episode when I was helping her out after school, she just seemed so not there. I told my mom. My mom called in some county help. The woman was taken away and put in a mental hospital.
The father remarried and had another three children from his second wife. This woman was fine to handle all the stress.
I think Andrea called out for help, but no one heard.
She deserves the death penalty, though. She had to awaken from her depression when she killed the last two or three children. Those were cold blooded murders with the kids scratching at her trying to stay alive.
They should throw away the key on him also .. He is just as guilty as she is ..
Her husband did nothing to stop producing children after he was warned by the doctors.
He did nothing to protect his children when he knew his wife had a mental problem.
He allowed her to never have a break from her duties as a mother.
He enabled her to commit the murders by ignoring the doctors and the warning signs.
He is just as guilty as she is.
Those poor little babies, the terror they must have felt brings tears to my eyes every time I think about it.
Second point: I know some of you sympahtize with this woman, but even if the man were the monster the defense, IN AN EFFORT TO SHIFT BLAME from their client, says he is, why was she not moved to RESCUE the children? Because she chose the path of least resistance for herself, and she chose it long ago, and at some point she willingly unlocked the door and stepped on path that made the selfish murderer she was on that day. Every murderer behind bars will tell you a line of victimhood if you let them, but all are not as smooth-cheeked and teary and as whupped-dog looking as Ms. Yates.
Look, either we have free will or we don't. We either have inherent rights or we don't. And if we don't, then by all means let's trust our few privileges to a maternal government that only want what's best for us, that can decide which innocents should live and which should die. But if those are your ethics, then line up for your peacefully for your permits and quit whining about the tragedy in New York. And put a hand to the back of God's head and help drown him in the cradle.
But, I have a good husband, who would do more than his share of the "raising", as he did back then.
Although I am an "unchurched christian", I am beginning to believe that there is such a force/thing as Satan, and we can see his handiwork all over in this situation.... from Russle Yates' behavior, to the opportunity for traditional family values to be blamed for these murdered babies.
When an entire society fails to support women who choose to work at home, raising their children, these women become isolated and lonely. There is no longer a community that supports and respects their efforts, and grandmothers, aunts, and female friends may all working, increasing the pressure and conflict on the "homemaker"...
I feel so sorry for young women today who face this choice between family life and career. I am convinced that the breakdown of traditional values is in part responsible for the chaos we see in our schools and communities today, and then along comes a case like this to bring it all into the open...
She should never have been left alone to deal with 5 children, let alone try to home school them. I am of pretty sane mind, and I know my kids (bless their little hearts) can push my buttons until I have "steam coming out of my ears." But, I take a deep breath (or quite a few), we take a walk or exercise, and we wipe the slate clean and start over. How can a woman who is already at the breaking point handle FIVE CHILDREN!?!?
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