Trial Opens Against Accused Serial Killer
Robert Yates appeared to lead a normal life but had a “one-of-a-kind hobby”--killing vulnerable women, a prosecutor said as Yates’ death-penalty trial began.
Yates, who admitted killing 13 people in a plea deal with Spokane County prosecutors that spared his life, faces possible execution if he his found guilty of two additional killings in Pierce County.
In his opening statement, deputy prosecutor Jerry Costello told a Tacoma court that he will prove Yates committed all 15 slayings, saying there were astonishing similarities. “The only variable, really, is geography.”
Yates was sentenced to 408 years in prison in exchange for his guilty plea in October 2000.
But Pierce County prosecutors refused to sign off on the Spokane County deal.
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