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."
Nothing is wrong with that but I would expect that if you saw your wife not copeing with everyday life that you would releive her of her responsibilites and also stop producing more children.
Just what we need--another demented man insisting for the world what a biblical marriage is! Ugh
I hadn't either. Stories like this appall me so that i avoid them. i was so horrified by what she had done that i avoided this story like the plague. then on FoxNews last night i saw a blurb about the best friend's testimony and that led me to read this story here, which is the first i have read. I was astounded that he had stuck by her, because as much as i love my husband, if he laid a hand on any of our kids it would be OVER. You are right though, he HAS to defend her, because he KNOWS he is equally to blame.
I agree with you.
I don't think she should ever breathe free air again, but the one MOST DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE, in light of her psychiatric history is HIM.
I think thats probably alot of it.... If she was so insane how did she even THINK to call 911 or her husband?
"Insanity" can be convenient in her case.
Anyone remember the reports by her siblings right after the murders, weeks later saying "how much better she was feeling/doing". Killing her kids cured her "insanity"....
I am hopeful she gets DEATH like she gave her babies - and the thing is WHY would she want to LIVE? Who could LIVE with themselves after doing the absolute worse crime imaginable?
Her husband isn't as insane as she is, he didn't DROWN the kids...but he's just as nutty having more babies with her and after she kills them all - sticking by her....but in a way, he's doing us a favor because if he TESTIFIED against her, she'd become more of a LIBERAL victim.
Natural childbirth for the sake of a drug-free healthy baby is a beautiful option. Natural childbirth because some jerk of a husband decided that the pain and suffering was good for his wife is torture. There's a slight difference. I WOULD HAVE GONE NUTS MARRIED TO THIS MAN, AND I AM A STAY-AT-HOME MOM TO FOUR, HOMESCHOOLING TWO, WITH TWO ON THE WAY (adoption). There's nothing "Christian" about being a control freak!
You ARE right about that! As I think about it she gets a bit more time to recover than Andrea. Just last night I took her and my parents out for dinner for 3 hours. Saturday I'm taking her out to a live music bar. I can give you a URL of her getting one of her tattoos. The tattoo represents our 8 kids by the way. I keep very close eye on her mood and pray that her life is full of joy all the time.
Here is FR Search for "Yates" articles. . .
FR Article Search: "Yates"
http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/latest?ao=1&s=yates
Wrong, wrong, wrong. There is absolutely no doubt that he is grossly culpable by virtue of turning a blind eye alone. However, this broad didn't just snap. This was planned out in her twisted little mind and done by her own hands. SHE is the most directly responsible. You can take her so called psychiatric history and set it on the chair with her when they fry her.
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