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American Morning

Yates Apparently to Face One Capital Murder Charge

Aired June 22, 2001 - 11:10   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now on to another troubling story, this one in Houston, Texas. A mother accused of drowning her five children has now been arraigned. Andrea Yates went before a judge this morning; the legal process has now begun.

CNN's Jeff Flock picks up the story from there -- Jeff.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Miles, a couple of headlines out of Houston this morning. One is the details of this apparent crime, or apparent details of the crime now beginning to emerge; and the other is the court appearance that you mentioned this morning.

Let's take a look; that took place about two and a half hours ago outside a noisy public courts building here in Houston. Ms. Yates appearing for, oh, about 10 minutes or so, revealing that she does not have an attorney. The court then appointed one for her. So, presumably, her defense now begins.

What that will be, at this point, we have no great idea. And, in fact, we don't really know what the prosecution intends to do either, in terms of pursuing or choosing not to pursue the death penalty.

Now, we talked to Joe Owmby, who is one of the local prosecutors here working on the case about the charges that she faces specifically right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE OWMBY, PROSECUTOR: There is actually not two counts of capital murder. The only charge that I'm aware of at this time, the charge we saw yesterday was a charge of capital murder for killing two people in the same transaction, Noah and John.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLOCK: Now, as to those children, Noah, John and the others, the details that emerge today -- or at least apparent details emerging in "The Houston Chronicle" today, the paper citing a police source who has apparently seen a videotape of the statement that Ms. Yates apparently gave to police, says that in that statement she details how she methodically killed the five children. And perhaps in the most chilling piece of detail in that, that apparently the 7-year-old, Noah, the oldest, came upon Ms. Yates, his mother, while she was drowning his 6-month-old sister, Mary, tried to flee, and Ms. Yates apparently brought him back to the bathroom and drowned him as well.

Chilling details, this case. I suppose we suspected that when the details began to emerge they would be -- so it is.

We, of course, will continue to watch this. No new court appearances scheduled any time soon. Presumably now with an attorney, she begins to think about how she will mount her defense.

That's the latest from here in Houston, Miles; back to you.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Jeff Flock in Houston, watching that story for us. And we will keep you up to date on it as it unfolds.

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