James"Thunder"Early
02-01-2006, 09:08 PM
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1566413
Judge Sets $200,000 Bond for Andrea Yates
Texas Judge Sets $200G Bond for Andrea Yates to Leave Jail, Go to Psych Hospital to Await Retrial
By PAM EASTON
The Associated Press
HOUSTON - A judge set a $200,000 bond Wednesday for Andrea Yates to leave jail for a state mental hospital, where she will await a new trial on murder charges in the drowning deaths of her five children.
State District Judge Belinda Hill told Yates, 41, she could not order her to commit herself to the hospital but set the bond based on Yates remaining at the facility until her March 20 trial.
Prosecutors had asked that bond be set at $1 million.
Yates' defense attorney, George Parnham, said he was unsure if Yates or her family could pay the $20,000 in cash needed for the $200,000 bond. He had sought a $50,000, which would have required $5,000 in cash.
"What I have wanted for Andrea all along, you know, is for her to be in a mental hospital," her ex-husband, Russell Yates, told reporters.
Yates is accused of drowning her children, ages 6 months to 7 years, in the family's bathtub in 2001.
Her convictions were overturned last year because the state's expert witness, forensic psychiatrist Park Dietz, had testified that shortly before Yates killed her children, television's "Law and Order" series broadcast an episode about a woman with postpartum depression who drowned her children. No such episode had aired.
Yates has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Copyright © 2006 ABC News Internet Ventures
Judge Sets $200,000 Bond for Andrea Yates
Texas Judge Sets $200G Bond for Andrea Yates to Leave Jail, Go to Psych Hospital to Await Retrial
By PAM EASTON
The Associated Press
HOUSTON - A judge set a $200,000 bond Wednesday for Andrea Yates to leave jail for a state mental hospital, where she will await a new trial on murder charges in the drowning deaths of her five children.
State District Judge Belinda Hill told Yates, 41, she could not order her to commit herself to the hospital but set the bond based on Yates remaining at the facility until her March 20 trial.
Prosecutors had asked that bond be set at $1 million.
Yates' defense attorney, George Parnham, said he was unsure if Yates or her family could pay the $20,000 in cash needed for the $200,000 bond. He had sought a $50,000, which would have required $5,000 in cash.
"What I have wanted for Andrea all along, you know, is for her to be in a mental hospital," her ex-husband, Russell Yates, told reporters.
Yates is accused of drowning her children, ages 6 months to 7 years, in the family's bathtub in 2001.
Her convictions were overturned last year because the state's expert witness, forensic psychiatrist Park Dietz, had testified that shortly before Yates killed her children, television's "Law and Order" series broadcast an episode about a woman with postpartum depression who drowned her children. No such episode had aired.
Yates has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Copyright © 2006 ABC News Internet Ventures