Houston — Andrea Yates, who has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity in the bathtub drowning deaths of her five children, went on trial Monday as attorneys began evaluating dozens of potential jurors.
Yates, 37, could get the death penalty if jurors decide she was sane last summer when she drowned the children, ranging in age from 6 months to 7 years.
The Yates family is shown in this photograph taken in November 2000, location unknown. In back are Andrea Yates, pregnant with daughter Mary, and her husband, Russell. In front are, from left, John, Luke, Paul and Noah.
Yates stared downward or rested her hand on her chin as 60 potential jurors assembled in the courtroom after completing a 14-page questionnaire. Her husband, Russell, and her mother were among the spectators seated at the back of the room.
Individual questioning by prosecutors and defense attorneys was to begin today. State District Judge Belinda Hill said she expects that once testimony begins, probably next month, the trial will probably take about four weeks.
"This is going to be a pretty long process," she said.
On the day of her arrest, Yates called 911 and then told officers who arrived at her home that she had killed her five children.
In a back bedroom, four lifeless children were discovered under a sheet on a bed. A fifth body was face down in a half-filled bathtub.
Yates' attorneys and her husband say she suffers from a severe form of postpartum depression. If found innocent, they say she will be placed in a mental hospital.
Both prosecutors and defense attorneys have submitted long lists of expert witnesses to testify about Yates' mental status.
Evidence to be considered includes a tape-recorded confession Yates gave police officers the day of the drownings, medical records detailing her bouts with depression and suicide attempts, and a doctor's caution that the couple think twice about having additional children after their fourth child was born in 1999.
Yates faces two capital murder charges: for drowning Noah, 7, and John, 5; and for drowning Mary, 6 months. In Texas, a person convicted of a multiple murder or killing an infant is eligible for the death penalty.
Charges are pending for the drownings of Paul, 3, and Luke, 2.
The judge on Monday denied a defense request that the indictment be dropped on the grounds that Harris County Dist. Atty. Chuck Rosenthal allegedly talked to reporters about secret grand jury testimony.
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