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."
My point is that your mother's life and Andrea's life were probably as different as night and day.
Whether his wife was sane or insane, guilty or innocent, life sentences of a kind have already been dispensed for many people, including Rusty Yates. ''If Andrea gets well and works through her guilt and can go on, we've got a chance,'' he said hopefully as the evening drew to a close. ''But I know I can't hold her hand for 50 years while she cries. I just don't have the strength to do it.''
Oh, what an INHUMAN BEAST.
You people are simply, utterly miserable.
Give it a rest. You show more contempt for different opinions from people on this board than you do for a guy who impregnated a suicidal woman again and again. What, are we supposed to bleed for poor Rusty, when he KNEW that his wife was a wackjob, AND he kept on having kids with her, AND he managed to spend time riding his bike and going to the gym instead of watching his children? If he's haunted for the rest of his life, good!
Duh, it's pretty much a no-brainer that when the doctor tells you that your suicidal wife will get even worse if she gets pregnant again, it's time to stop having babies.
Thanks for sharing the details of what happened to you -- it sounds like you did exactly the right thing. As for Rusty Yates, the paper trail is pretty long of doctors telling him how bad off his wife was; he just didn't want to hear it. And I'm sure a malpractice lawsuit from him is in the future for the doctors who treated his wife, even though they told him how bad off she was, and to not have any more children.
You have got to be kidding. What, should he have spanked her like one of the kids? Given her three minutes alone a week as opposed to three hours?
do you have children? living with 5 small children in a greyhound BUS? good grief, that alone is enough to drive one insane.
If you read the rest of what i have written here, you see that is NOT what i think at all.
Perhaps, Adam, you are right. perhaps had he showns his anger, she would have murdered him, instead of the kids.
What an ignorant statement
Mitigating circumstances are when you kill someone who is trying to kill you. All of these so-called 'insanity' pleas make me sick! I can talk to this witch about post-partem despression and having dealt with some a-hole for YEARS who was a diagosed paranoid schizophrenic and manic depressive I know a bit about what they're reporting about Andrea HOWEVER (and this a HUGE however) you don't systematically MURDER FIVE LITTLE CHILDREN AND BABIES and not be aware of what you're doing. If her husband had come home after work and found her drooling in the corner and crying uncontrollably, maybe, just maybe, I would think that she went off the deep end. Under what we now know of the circumstances...not on a bet!
What you said!!!
It would be perfectly natural for Russell Yates to feel angry towards his wife after she had attempted suicide. Do you know what suicide says?
It directly says "I don't care about you, I don't care about me, I don't care about the kids"
How can a person not be angry when afronted with such a statement? (It is really no different then running off with another man in that the end result is that they are choosing to abandon). And yet the "sane" person cannot be angry for it will (in his mind) lead her to do it again. This then makes the "sane" person held hostage because they have a right to be angry and yet must completely supress it. They cannot have any discussion with their spouse that is grounded in reality. The insane person takes no responsibility and does not care a whit that the other person assumes moral responsibility for them. They welcome this because it is another way for them to justify disengagement.
BTW, would you have sympathy for Rusty Yates if he broke down and at least took some blame and said "I failed my wife and children. I should have never left her alone with them. I didn't get her the help she needed, I wouldn't listen to friends and medical professionals." If he would just show an ounce of remorse and feel somewhat responsible.
Do you find it reprehensible that in certain countries little boys get their hands chopped off for stealing a cookie? I do.
He can certainly reflect on his own failings, but is it proper for him to think that his actions would under normal circumstances lead to such an outcome? I think that by your standard all football , all golf , all bridge games, freerepublic and every other diversion should be abolished. All of these types of pursuits are abused by many many people. I would venture to say that every one, at some time in their life, has neglected their loved ones in pursuit of stupid or unimportant things. Does getting a priority wrong have a moral equivelence to murder?
He possibly had his priorities mixed up, she murdered five kids.
Nope, he says he's being unfairly portrayed by the girlfriend. He says he did everything he could for her and the medical community let them down. Nope. No regrets for perfect Rusty.
Do you really think he has no regrets? You are crazy. He may even be allowing himslef to look like the evil jerk because at least that would give him an explanation as to why this happened. He may rather understand what happened then defend himself, and it is very convenient to portray himself as a bad person so he can understand it. However, there is no understanding events like this. There will NEVER be an explanation as to why this happened, and looking for a cause and effect type answer is like chasing the wind. He will need several years to understand this.
As a parent, when my children have hurt themselves I blame myself and think "I should have been watching them better." As a parent, you feel a responsibility to protect them, and even when it is not your fault you tend to blame yourself. Not good old Rusty. He says he doesn't see how he could have even prevented this. Hmm..
You are using a horrible tragedy to validate yourself. That is a shame.
Yeah. . .especially the last chapter.
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