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American Morning

In Yates Murder Trial, Defendant's Mother and Husband Expected on Witness Stand Today

Aired February 27, 2002 - 07:09   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Turning now to what is going on in Houston, the Andrea Yates murder trial, where the defendant's mother and her husband are expected on the witness stand later today. Russell Yates' support for his wife has never wavered. He is convinced that severe mental illness drove her to drown their five children.

Now, he will testify in an effort to save her life.

"Time" magazine writer Tim Roche talked at length with Russell Yates for a magazine profile. He joins us now from Atlanta this morning.

Good to see you again.

TIM ROCHE, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Good morning.

ZAHN: Welcome, Tim.

How much time did you get to spend with Russell Yates?

ROCHE: Well, over a period of about four months we spent about 40 hours talking to him, sometimes at their home in Houston, oftentimes on the phone. There were plenty of times when he and I would be talking on the phone well past midnight just, I'd just let him reminisce about his home life, his family life before all of this happened.

ZAHN: When he reflected on his home life, what did he seem to be consumed by?

ROCHE: Well, he seemed to be consumed by the happy moments. He was really concerned that people were, had, were not able to understand that he and Andrea were parents who were completely devoted to their children, that their children were their hobby and their home life was just wrecked whenever she came down with this mental illness after their fourth child.

Of course, as we know now, Andrea actually had suffered from mental illness from the time of the birth of her first child and perhaps suffered it, at least depression, throughout most of her life.

ZAHN: Did he ever talk about whether he felt he could ever provide her adequate help for what she was going through?

ROCHE: Well, as he describes it, and as you spend more time with him you begin to understand his perspective a little bit better, that he did seek help after she attempted suicide those two times in 1999 and then sought help again after the birth of their fifth child and her psychosis returned.

He says one of the things about mental illness is how it impacts the extended family, the caregivers, not just the person who suffers from it. And one of the questions that I kept asking is if you were unhappy with the treatment she was receiving, why didn't you seek out another doctor? Why didn't you take her to another hospital? And he explains that each time he would visit with the doctor in this case, Dr. Saeed (ph), that Dr. Saeed would tell him just enough to make him feel confident, just enough to get by.

And then about a week would go by and he would realize that the doctor's opinion was not necessarily working for Andrea and he would go back, express that frustration and then Saeed would tell him something else that would be comforting.

About the time she killed the children, Rusty says he was just so frustrated he didn't know what else he could do and when the doctor is refusing to hospitalize her, what else can you do?

ZAHN: Did he at any point in any of these conversations blame himself for not pushing harder to find someone new to address her problems?

ROCHE: Sometimes yes and sometimes no. What I found during the course of those months is that Rusty is beginning to understand what he did right, what he could have done differently, what options he may have had or different have. I've never heard him say that he felt like he contributed to the deaths of the children because he could have done more.

However, I have heard him say that he wishes that he would have recognized that there was a much more specific need or an urgent need to get her help there at the end.

ZAHN: But after Andrea's two suicide attempts, didn't he believe that the kids at some point might be in danger?

ROCHE: He says no, that he had no indication, because he had never been told, and Andrea, according to him, didn't share this with anyone other than one psychologist in 1999, that she had thoughts of harming the children. Of course, because she had attempted suicide in '99 both Rusty, his mother and other members of the family thought if anything, if anything, she would kill herself, not the kids.

ZAHN: Some people might be surprised that Russell Yates continues to live in the home where his life killed his five children. Does he understand why people might find that odd?

ROCHE: He does. In fact, when I first visited the home way back in August, I had a hard time being there, as he walked me around the house. He even showed me the bathroom where this happened, those sorts of things. I kind of got the willies and I told him that. And he said that he did as well, but at that point it was his home. Where else could he go? He's not an extreme -- he's not a wealthy man. He couldn't afford to stay in a hotel for an extended period of time. He had happy memories. He was surrounded by pleasant thoughts when he was in the house.

And one of the things that I found interesting as I kept talking to him is that he doesn't look at this as a cold-blooded murder. He doesn't look at it as a slaughter in his house. He looks at it as a heart attack. He keeps talking about a heart attack. If Andrea had been driving down the road, had a heart attack, swerved across to oncoming traffic and ended up killing the children in this car accident, he would blame the heart attack, the medical illness -- I mean the health illness to, for the deaths of his children. And actually mental illness is actually no different than a heart attack, in his view.

ZAHN: Well, of course, it remains to be seen what a jury might think of that analogy.

But Tim Roche, you've certainly spent more time with Russell Yates than anybody, after 40 hours of conversations. And thank you for helping us maybe understand a little bit of what he might express later on today.

ROCHE: Sure. Thank you.

ZAHN: Thanks for your time, Tim.

ROCHE: Any time.

ZAHN: Appreciate it.

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