RUSK, Texas, March 21 (UPI) -- Convicted killer Andrea Yates was turned over to the state prison system Thursday to begin serving a life sentence for drowning her children.
Yates, 37, arrived at the Woodman intake for female inmates at Gatesville in central Texas about 5:45 a.m. in the custody of Harris County sheriff's deputies, a prison official said. She was photographed, fingerprinted and issued a set of white prison uniforms and then driven to the Skyview psychiatric unit at Rusk in East Texas.
"She was solemn, cooperative and without comment," said Larry Todd, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Yates will be evaluated for at least 30 days by doctors and prison officials at the Skyview unit. The University of Texas at Galveston Medical School provides the medical care at the unit, which has a capacity of 550 inmates. "It's the finest available," Todd said.
Yates will be assigned to a single cell during the evaluation, which is standard intake procedure for prisoners. She could be permanently assigned to the psychiatric unit. She must serve 40 years in prison before she is eligible for parole.
Yates was convicted of capital murder March 12 at Houston and three days later the jury sentenced her to life in prison. She called police to her Houston home June 20 and told them she had drowned her five children in the family's bathtub.
Yates pleaded innocent by reason of insanity because she suffered from postpartum depression with psychosis. Her lawyers argued that she did not know it was wrong to kill her children but the jury of eight women and four men disagreed. Her lawyers are preparing an appeal.
