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CNN Live At Daybreak

Yates Found Guilty

Aired March 13, 2002 - 06:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Back to Andrea Yates -- the Texas jury will begin deciding her fate tomorrow. That's when the sentencing phase of the Yates' trial begins. It took those same jurors a relatively short time yesterday to convict the Houston mother of capital murder in the drowning deaths of her children.

Lillian Kim has details for you from the trial.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LILLIAN KIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: After three and a half weeks of testimony and 38 witnesses, it took the jury less than four hours to reach a verdict.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mrs. Yates, please stand. In cause (ph) number 880205, the State of Texas versus Andrea Pia Yates, we, the jury, find the defendant, Andrea Pia Yates, guilty of capital murder as charged in the indictment.

KIM: Her husband, Russell, distraught by the guilty verdict. Yates had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Her defense attorneys arguing that the Houston mother was so mentally ill, that she did not know right from wrong when she drowned her five children in the family's bathtub last June.

GEORGE PARNHAM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I'm not particularly criticizing the verdict, but it seems to me that we're still back in the days of Salem witchcraft when you take a demonized woman and take a life.

KIM: In their closing argument, prosecutors acknowledged Yates suffered from severe mental illness at the time of the killing, but maintained she was aware that her actions were wrong.

KAYLYNN WILLIFORD, PROSECUTOR: She had a plan and it was to take those children's lives -- not to take her own life. She didn't want to do that.

KIM: Outside the courthouse Russell Yates received hugs of support, part of a candlelight vigil for his wife Andrea.

The penalty phase is set to begin on Thursday. The same jury will decide if Andrea Yates should be put to death by lethal injection or be sentenced to life in prison with a possibility of parole in 40 years.

Lillian Kim, CNN, Houston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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