Yates Gets Life as Husband Is Criticized

As Andrea Yates was formally sentenced to life in prison Monday for drowning her children, some of her relatives accused her husband of not doing enough to help her.

State District Judge Belinda Hill told Yates she was going to prison for two concurrent life terms for drowning three of her children.

“Good luck to you, Mrs. Yates,” Hill said as she dismissed the 37-year-old former nurse, who will be eligible for parole in 2041.

Jurors last week rejected an insanity defense and convicted Yates of capital murder in the drownings of Noah, 7; John, 5; and Mary, 6 months. Evidence also was presented about the drownings of Paul, 3; and Luke, 2.

The same jury rejected lethal injection as a punishment Friday, meaning Monday’s life sentence was automatic.

“She wants to know what all this means and it’s very difficult to explain,” defense attorney Wendell Odom said. “. . . I think Andrea right now thrives on solitude and being quiet and being away from it all.”

Her family, however, was far from quiet.

Brian Kennedy, her brother, in an interview broadcast on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” called Russell Yates an “unemotional” husband who was inattentive to his wife’s needs.

“I think that any man and woman whose spouse was that severely down, confused, that sick, that I would do whatever it would take to make sure my other half would get the help that was necessary,” Kennedy said.

Andrea Yates’ mother, Jutta Karin Kennedy, also appeared on “Good Morning America.” She said her son-in-law told her after the birth of their fourth child that he had never changed a diaper.

Russell “Rusty” Yates, meanwhile, told NBC’s “Today” show that some people “don’t understand the biochemical nature of Andrea’s illness . . . so they’ll say there must have been something else going on in that household, or there must have been this or that, and it’s all false.”