HOUSTON, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Jurors in the upcoming trial of Andrea Yates will hear her confession that she drowned her five children in the family's bathtub last June.
State District Judge Belinda Hill also ruled late Tuesday the jury in the Jan. 7 trial will be able to consider the death penalty if the panel convicts Yates of capital murder.
Attorneys for Yates had asked Hill to suppress the confession the 37-year-old mother gave to police officers when they arrived at the family home June 20. They also wanted the judge to overturn the state's death penalty law but the judge refused.
Yates has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to capital murder charges. In a September hearing she was found competent to stand trial. In the criminal trial, the jury will determine if she was legally insane at the time she said she drowned the children, ages 6 months to 7 years.
In their motion, Yates' attorneys argued their client was mentally ill when officers arrived at the home and advised her of her rights.
During testimony in the pretrial hearing, Russell Yates, the defendant's husband, said he was not admitted to his own house while police were talking to his wife.
"I think she was psychotic and unable to think rationally and sanely at the time," he said.
Yates said police did not give him a chance to talk to his wife before she confessed. He was at work at the Johnson Space Center when his wife called and told him what had happened.
In another ruling, Hill also refused to overturn a Texas law that keeps the jury from being told a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity means Yates could be sent to a mental hospital. The judge could release her outright or sentence her to up to life in a mental hospital.
When police arrived at the Yates home June 20, they found the bodies of Noah, 7; John, 5; Paul, 3; Luke, 2; and Mary, 6 months. The four youngest children were on a bed in the master bedroom and the oldest boy was found face down in the bathtub.
