Testimony: Yates Planned Murders

A psychologist who thinks Andrea Yates is competent to stand trial on murder charges testified Thursday that Yates decided to drown her five children the night before the crime.

Dr. Steven Rubenzer said when Yates made the disclosure to him in an Aug. 2 meeting, he asked her to tell him nothing more.

“I believed I had enough information to establish she was able to talk about these things,” Rubenzer said, testifying at a hearing to determine whether Yates is competent to stand trial. “I didn’t want to pull out any more information than was necessary.”

Rubenzer, a witness for Harris County prosecutors, said that while Yates is mentally ill, she is competent. He also testified Yates just now is starting to accept she is mentally ill.

“As far as I know, her psychotic features are in full remission. Her depression is not in full remission,” Rubenzer said.

When he tested Yates in July, she passed two parts of a three-part test but did poorly when it came to “her ability to appraise her situation within the court system. Her score on that scale was very low.”

But Rubenzer said she’s improved since.

Also Thursday, a nurse who has treated Yates since she was placed in the Harris County Jail after her June 20 arrest testified that she is improving but that he remains worried about her mental health.

Yates was at first catatonic but now smiles, reads and plays dominoes, John Bayliss said.

Yates has told a psychologist she thinks she should die to destroy herself and Satan, according to testimony Wednesday.

Her attorney, George Parnham, took the stand and said Yates was not competent to go on “trial for her life.”

“She has a greater understanding of the proceeding against her than she does [an] ability to assist me in preparing for her defense.”

Yates, 37, is charged with capital murder. Police say that, after officers arrived at her home, Yates admitted killing her children.