Give this female the respect of a lady ?

[HAY MAKER]

Updated June 29, 2006, 9:56 a.m. ET
Expert: Andrea Yates' children suffered 'slow death' at their mother's hands

By Lisa Sweetingham
Court TV
HOUSTON — Prosecutors rested their case against Andrea Yates Wednesday after a medical expert testified that the deep bruising and waterlogged internal organs observed during the autopsies of Yates' children indicated they struggled for several minutes as she drowned them one by one.

"It was a slow death," said Harris County Chief Medical Examiner Luis Sanchez. "It was not quick."

An autopsy photograph of the pale hand of Yates' 5-year-old son, John, showed that he was still clutching a long strand of his mother's dark hair.

Yates' 7-year-old son, Noah, had been floating face down in nine inches of bathtub water when medical examiners pulled him out and laid his stiff, 50-pound body face-up on a plastic sheet on the bathroom floor.

In photographs shown to jurors, Noah's small fists were clenched, his arms were raised above his head, and his lifeless knees were bent, defying gravity.

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"The entire body was very stiff, almost like a board," Sanchez told jurors.

Noah's extreme rigidity was due to intense muscular exertion in the last minutes of life, Sanchez said. He catalogued a list of injuries on Noah's head and body: deep internal bruising, abrasions, nail scratches, round focal bruises around his joints indicating squeezing fingertip pressure.

Prosecutors say Noah, the eldest of Yates' five children, fought the hardest to stay alive, but that she chased him down and dragged him into the bathroom, where she had just finished drowning his four siblings: first Paul, 3, then Luke, 2, John, and Mary, 6 months.

She laid all except Noah on her bed.

Noah was the last to die before Yates called police to turn herself in, and then called her husband to tell him to come home.

Yates, 41, remained quiet during the disturbing testimony Wednesday. She did not appear to cry, as she did during the viewing of chilling crime-scene footage on Tuesday, but she blinked, looked down and exhibited small, absent-minded jaw movements.

Sanchez was only allowed to testify about the autopsy results of the three children — Noah, John and Mary — whom Yates is accused of murdering.

Prosecutors have not brought charges for the deaths of Paul and Luke.

Sanchez also referred to a chart showing the typical weight of a 7-year-old's brain: 1,200 grams. He said that Noah's brain weighed 1,675 grams. John and Mary's brains were also inordinately weighted with fluid.

"These brains were significantly heavy," Sanchez said. "They were full of fluid, to the point where they were almost the size of an adult brain."

He told jurors they were among the most significant cases of edema he had seen, the likely cause being forcefully held under the bath tub water for minutes, not seconds.

The infant Mary, who weighed just 20 pounds, had less external bruising than her brothers, Sanchez said, but her head and the back of her neck showed contusions consistent with being forcibly submerged.

Autopsy results showed that Mary had a stomach full of milk, while the two boys had eaten corn puffs, Sanchez said. The family ate breakfast at the kitchen table on the morning of June 20, 2001.

Yates waited until about 9 a.m., when her husband Rusty left for work, before she drew the bath, brought her infant daughter into the bathroom, and then called her children, one after another, into the bath.

This is the second trial for the former nurse and Texas housewife.

Yates has twice pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Jurors in Yates' first trial found her guilty of capital murder in March 2002, but the conviction was overturned in 2005 because of the erroneous testimony of a prosecution witness.

If she is found not guilty the second time around, Yates will be sent to a psychiatric hospital for an undetermined period of time.

If she is found guilty, she faces life in prison.

Prosecutors say that Yates may be mentally ill, but she knew right from wrong when she killed her five children, and therefore is not legally insane.

Defense attorneys point to Yates' troubling history with postpartum depression, suicide attempts and psychotic behavior. Yates' defense team will call medical experts who are expected to testify that Yates believed when she killed her children that it was the right thing to do.

For at the time, Yates believed she was possessed by Satan, according to attorneys. And in order to save her children from her own bad mothering, she believed she had to kill them.

The defense will call its first witness Thursday morning.

[ranchwife]

this very same topic was brought up before in political bull and i remain standing firmly by my original statement.....THIS WOMAN MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR WHAT SHE HAS DONE!!! She was "sane" enough to wait until her husband left for work to hunt those innocent babes down one at a time and take their lives!! I hope, however, that she gets LIFE IN PRISON so that each and every night she may relive the horrible last moments of those babies lives and may the guilt literally EAT HER!! Further more, may she NEVER GET OUT to be given the chance to bring more innocent lives into her twisted world!!

There....I will quietly climb off of my soapbox now!!!

[Judith]

Ranchwife,

I don't even think this type of monster feels guilt. She killed those babies as casually as we flick away a fly. I'm a mom and let me tell you even when my munchin drives me to the brink of insanity I've never even thought of killing him. This individual needs the needle. Keeping her in jail on your tax dollars is a waste of time.

[CattleRMe]

I agree she knew enough to wait to drown them until she was alone...........

[ranchwife]

[the_jersey_lilly_2000]

OH great!!! this could be real Fun (NOT) for Mr Lilly. If she gets the death penalty she'll be "done" where he works. He's not in that end of it, but when they have one that's "in the news" alot, or contriversial the press makes for goin to work a royal pain in the behind. Not to mention the protestors.

[Judith]

the really sad thing is that there is always the few people who believe that this type of person can be cured or fixed or?

I think that just like with cattle animals etc there are at least 10% that should be put down for aggression. Just born with a severe defect that can not be fixed.

The worst crimes in my mine are those commited against the elderly or babies..

[kolanuraven]

The hubby is about as guilty as she is....he KNEW she had problems and just sat on his butt and did nothing!! He's a conspirator in my book!

[OldDog/NewTricks]

And should her husband get off Scott-Free

He looked at her as just a F__K and baby factory - all the signs were there - He should have known and seen some signs (In Fact He Did Knowtaht Trouble was comming) - This Is a Treable Thing but I lay some of the BLAME at His Feet.

I did a Line Breeding - 3 of the "Get" Bitches ate their young - I did away with the hole line.

We Males MUST Start to acept our parts...

OK! - Now I'm In Trouble But I can take it

[IL Rancher]

I beleive there where even quotes out of him during the trial if she got off that he would want to have more children with her... I don't know how he sleeps at night with that attitude.

I don't think there is any curing her from her illiness but I wonder if having to live with the guilt (Gosh, I sure hope she feels guilt) of offing her children might be worse than then death penalty in the end. If I was responsibile for the mear injury to my children from stupidty or neglagince I know I would feel incredibly guilty..

[EastTexasGal]

Well the verdict is IN...Innocent by Insanity...which means she will be in the Mental Hospital till the Judge sees her fit to go back into society. In my Psy class we had as a guest speaker one of the Pyschologist for the state, she said that the woman would never see day light. Whether she was found guilty or Innocent...that she will spend the rest of her days in the Hospital. I do think thats where she needs to be.

Easty

[Oldtimer]