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Texas mom indicted in drownings of kids
HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- A woman who allegedly drowned her five children in a bathtub was indicted for murder Monday in three of the deaths. A Harris County grand jury returned one indictment against Andrea Pia Yates, 37, for the killings of her sons Noah, 7, and John, 5, said District Court Clerk Fred King, and another for the death of the youngest victim, 6-month-old Mary Yates. Under Texas law a person needs to be charged with at least two killings to be eligible for the death penalty.
Yates had been treated for postpartum depression after delivering their fourth and fifth children. Her attorneys have said she has a history of mental illness and is not fit to stand trial. The other children drowned in her home on June 20 were Paul, 2, and Luke Yates, 3. Police said when they arrived at the home, Mrs. Yates opened the door and said, "I killed my children." Police found four of the children wrapped in a sheet on a bed and another in the bathtub. Her husband, Russell Yates, is a NASA computer specialist at the Johnson Space Center. He was at work at the time of the drownings. He said his wife called him at work afterward to tell him to come home. Concerned by the tone of her voice, he asked if anyone was hurt. He said she responded, Yes, it was the children -- "all of them." When he arrived at home, he found police at the scene and his children dead. Andrea Yates is being held at a mental facility at the Harris County Jail. Her attorneys have asked for a competency hearing on whether she can stand trial. In court documents filed in early July, attorney Wendell Odom described his client as "in a psychotic state" and "unable to consult with her attorney with a reasonable degree of rational understanding as to the proceedings against her." |
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