Accused Serial Killer Pleads Not Guilty
A man charged with shooting and killing eight prostitutes in one of the state’s largest serial killing cases pleaded not guilty Wednesday.
Robert Lee Yates Jr., 48, entered the pleas to aggravated first-degree murder stemming from the killings in Spokane in 1997 and 1998.
He also pleaded not guilty to single counts of first-degree attempted murder and first-degree robbery stemming from an assault on a woman who survived. The woman was unable to identify Yates from a photo lineup but said he looked like the man who had assaulted her, police said in court documents.
The prosecution contends robbery was a motive in the killings because the victims had been stripped of cash and purses. The women were shot with small-caliber weapons and their heads were wrapped in plastic grocery bags.
The case against Yates includes voluminous DNA evidence.
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