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Thread: Robert Lee Yates, Jr. - Washington

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    Robert Lee Yates, Jr. - Washington


    Connie LaFontaine Ellis


    Melinda Mercer




    Summary of Offense:

    Convicted on October 4, 2002 in Pierce County of killing Melinda Mercer, 24, in 1997 and Connie LaFontaine Ellis, 35, in 1998.

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    September 4, 2008

    SPOKANE -- Spokane Serial Killer Robert Yates has been transferred from death row in Walla Walla to Pierce County where he will be in court Friday as Judge John McCarthy signs his death warrant.

    Yates was tranferred from Walla Walla State Penitentiary to the Pierce County Jail early Thursday morning. During the Friday morning hearing Yates will face Judge McCarthy, who will sign the warrant and select a day for his execution.

    State law requires his execution to follow within the next 90 days.

    Yates has already unsuccessfully appealed his 2002 conviction in Pierce County for the murders of Melinda Mercer and Connie LaFontaine Ellis. Mercer was killed in 1997 while Ellis was killed in 1998 and in both cases their bodies were found near Camp Murray where Yates participated in training while serving as a helicopter pilot in the Washington Army National Guard.

    In between the murders of Melinda Mercer and Connie LaFontaine Ellis Yates also killed six women in Spokane County.

    Before being tried and convicted in Pierce County Yates agreed to a plea deal with Spokane County Prosecutor Steve Tucker that spared him the death penalty for the murders of more than a dozen people over a span of more than two decades.

    In exchange for his plea deal - which included confirming to authorities the whereabouts of victim Melody Murfin - Yates was given 408 years in prison without possibility of parole for the murders of 13 women in Spokane County, two people in Walla Walla County and one person in Skagit County between 1975 and 1998.

    After his sentencing in Spokane Yates was transferred to Pierce County where prosecutors there used details of his plea agreement to show the court his violent criminal history in order to secure his conviction and a death penalty verdict against him.

    Once the death warrant is signed Friday it will be sent to the superintendent of the Walla Walla State Penitentiary for execution of the sentence. Yates' attorneys are expected to ask for a stay of execution from the Washington State Supreme Court.

    If granted, Yates will be temporarily spared from the death penalty while he continues to appeal his death sentence.

    http://www.kxly.com/global/story.asp?s=8954774

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    September 5, 2008

    Spokane serial killer Robert Yates' execution date has been set for Sept. 19. Original criminal trial Judge John McCarthy signed the death warrant today at 11 a.m. in Pierce County Superior Court.

    The significance of today’s motion is a matter of the criminal justice process following a Washington death penalty case, said Deputy Pierce County Prosecutor Jerry Costello. After the sentencing, the conviction and sentencing were automatically reviewed by the Washington Supreme Court, which upheld the decisions.

    The U.S. Supreme Court denied Yates’ attorneys request to review the case, Costello explained. At that point, the original trial judge is directed to sign the death warrant.

    In 2002, a Tacoma jury found Yates was eligible for the death penalty following his conviction on two counts of aggravated murder for the slayings of two Pierce County women, Melinda Mercer, killed in December 1997, and Connie Ellis, killed in 1998.

    Yates was also convicted on 13 murders in Spokane County and was sentenced to 408 years in prison, according to previous news reports.

    Yates was tried in Pierce County for two murders after months of thinking he was negotiating a statewide life-in-prison deal with Spokane County Prosecutor Steve Tucker for 15 murders and one attempt in four counties, Yates was then abruptly charged with the two killings in Pierce County. Unlike his counterparts in Spokane, Walla Walla and Skagit counties, Pierce County’s then-Prosecutor John Ladenburg decided to seek the death penalty.

    At today’s hearing, McCarthy will sign a death warrant that includes a day of execution scheduled within the next 90 days, Costello said.

    Yates’ attorneys then will likely go to the state Supreme Court as soon as possible to file a stay of execution.

    Unless Yates has decided to not to fight it, which is “highly unlikely,” Costello said.

    http://www.spokesmanreview.com/break...y.asp?ID=16477

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    September 12, 2008

    OLYMPIA, Wash. -- The state Supreme Court has granted a stay of execution for condemned serial killer Robert Lee Yates Jr.

    An order signed Thursday by Chief Justice Gerry Alexander says Yates qualifies for a delay while appealing his death sentence.

    Pierce County Superior Court Judge John McCarthy signed Yates' death warrant Sept. 5, and set the execution date for Sept. 19.

    Yates plans to argue that his trial lawyers were ineffective, and that Washington's lethal injection system constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

    Yates was sentenced to death in 2002 for killing two Tacoma prostitutes.

    He also was sentenced to 408 years for murdering 13 people in three other counties, but avoided the death penalty in those cases through a plea deal.

    http://www.king5.com/localnews/stori...9d3a3.html?npc

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    Spokane serial killer writes to KREM 2 News from death row

    [Editor’s note: KREM 2 News chose to reveal Robert Yates' letter from death row because he unquestionably hurt this community like no other person in recent history. His words and actions still have broad interest in the community because of his terrible crimes. Many want to see him suffer. Others want him to repent. From the letter, it appears he's doing some of both.]

    KREM 2 News wrote to Spokane's serial killer Robert Yates several times since his arrest more than 10 years ago.

    The newsroom never received a substantive reply back until KREM 2 anchor Jane McCarthy received one.

    She wrote to him on death row in Walla Walla requesting his first ever interview.

    While he declined an on camera interview in his reply, the five pages he wrote revealed a lot about Robert Yates now.

    In the 90's, Yates murdered 10 women in Spokane County. He killed at least 3 more in other parts of the state.

    In April of 2000, the Serial Killer Task Force caught him. He tearfully confessed in court and received life in prison.

    Another trial in 2002 for 2 murders in Pierce County handed Yates a death sentence.

    Then nothing but silence from Yates, until a letter dated September 28th to Jane McCarthy.

    The quote at the top of the page from Victor Hugo sets a theme--"there is a grief that can't be spoken."

    In five neatly hand-written pages, Yates is seemingly consumed by grief, but looking for redemption from God.

    First Yates explained why he doesn't want to appear on camera. Yates wrote: "What good could possibly come from having me, the object of much scorn, brought before the eyes and ears of the viewing public? Haven't I caused enough pain and suffering already?"

    Most of the letter contains 32 quotes he's collected since his arrest.

    We learn he's allowed to watch some TV with a quote that he attributed to Christian television.

    He also quoted famous authors like C.S. Lewis and John Steinbeck, as well as religious figures. In a quote from Mother Teresa about the Prince of Darkness he commented that darkness once guided his own principles.

    Written amidst the long list of quotes Robert Yates quoted Robert Yates: "I needed long moments of personal conviction where an individual becomes obligated to respond to the convicting power of God's truth. It was that crisis encounter with truth… while reading the Bible in jail, that brought me humbly to the foot of the cross, to find hope, grace and cleansing by the blood of Christ, my savior."

    After 5 pages the reader is left with an image of a serial killer stained by horrendous crimes 10 years ago seemingly trying to wash away those stains through a newfound faith in healing.

    Yates wrote: "I'm confident that in Christ alone we will find the grace to heal, be reconciled, and be made whole… That is my hope and prayer for each person upon whose life I have brought so much grief, suffering and loss."

    Yates is still working his way through the lengthy appeals process that all death row inmates have. No firm date has been set for his execution.

    (Source: KING News)

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    Spokane serial killer Robert Yates' petition rejected by Washington Supreme Court

    The state Supreme Court has rejected a petition from Spokane serial killer Robert Yates.

    The court on Thursday dismissed Yates' petition, ruling that none of his claims of error merited review or a hearing.

    Yates' petition raised 25 grounds for relief, including ineffective assistance of counsel, juror bias and numerous procedural issues.

    Yates in 2000 was convicted of 13 counts of first degree murder and one count of attempted murder in Spokane County, and in a plea deal was sentenced to 408 years in prison instead of death. But the next year he was sentenced to death for two murders in Pierce County.

    He is on death row at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.

    http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-no..._robert_y.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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    On May 13, 2013, Yates filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/was...v00842/192741/

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    Serial killer Yates appealing death sentence

    Serial killer Robert Yates, whose death sentence has been upheld by the state Supreme Court, is seeking an appeal through the federal court system.

    The Seattle Times reports he filed a petition Wednesday in Seattle that says his lawyers failed to present evidence of mental illness during his 2002 trial in Pierce County. He was convicted of killing two women in 1997 and 1998 and got the death penalty.

    The 60-year-old former Air National Guard pilot from Spokane pleaded guilty in 2000 to 13 other murders in Spokane, Skagit and Walla Walla counties. He was given a sentence of more than 400 years in prison in a plea deal.

    http://www.spokesman.com/stories/201...eath-sentence/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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    Robert Yates could face the death penalty in Spokane after challenging his sentence

    Spokane serial killer Robert Yates is technically correct that the sentences he received for two murders was wrong, but he can’t withdraw his guilty pleas on those two charges, the state Supreme Court ruled today.

    Because he challenged his sentence, Yates could now face the death penalty from Spokane County under a section in his plea bargain that allowed him to avoid execution in exchange for a 408-year sentence.

    Spokane County Prosecutor Steve Tucker, who is retiring at the end of this year, said today he’ll discuss with staff whether to file the one remaining murder charge that could lead to the death penalty. Tucker’s initial reaction, however, was “I can’t see bringing him over here and giving him another 10 or 15 years of appeals.”

    Yates is already under a death sentence for two separate murder convictions in Pierce County handed down after he was sentenced on the Spokane County agreement.

    Under that 2000 agreement, Yates pleaded guilty to 13 counts of aggravated first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder in Spokane County Superior Court, and was sentenced to 408 years in prison after the consecutive sentences for those charges were added.

    He received 20 years each for the first two murders, which he committed in 1975. In his appeal, known as a personal restraint petition, Yates said that was before the state revised its sentencing law and the terms were calculated incorrectly.

    Rather than getting a definite 20 years for each murder, Yates said he should have been sentenced to a pair of indeterminate life sentences with a minimum of 20 years, which could be reviewed at some point by a Sentencing Review Board to determine the maximum he would serve on those two counts.

    Technically correct, the court said in a 7-2 opinion, but the practical effect means the error doesn’t matter.

    “Yates agreed to a sentence of 408 years in prison and he should have been sentenced to a minimum of 408 years with a potential extension to a life sentence,” Justice Susan Owens wrote for the majority. “Given the reality of the human life-span, there is no difference between those two sentences.”

    In another part of the ruling, however, Owens notes the part of the plea bargain that opens Yates to the death penalty in Spokane County if he appeals his sentence or tries to withdraw any of his guilty pleas. The state had argued that part of the agreement closed off any possibility of a challenge to the sentence.

    No, said Owens. Yates still had the legal right to appeal his sentence. But by doing so, the state could now say he was in breach of the plea agreement, file the one remaining murder charge in Spokane County, and seek the death penalty on it.

    That presents Spokane County with some interesting philosophical questions, Tucker said. Spokane prosecutors offered Yates the chance to escape the death penalty to get information from him on the locations of many of his victims, which he provided.

    “We weren’t talking about saving money,” Tucker said. In talking with the victims’ families, he estimated about two-thirds agreed with sending Yates to prison for life without parole, something Tucker called “death in prison.”

    Pierce County prosecutors later convicted Yates on two murders in that county, and his death sentence for those two convictions has been upheld by the state Supreme Court.

    But now the death penalty has a new level of uncertainty because Gov. Jay Inslee said he would not sign the death warrant for anyone on death row while he is in office, in hopes of starting a statewide conversation on whether Washington should keep capital punishment.

    Tucker said the death penalty was a useful tool in getting information from Yates to solve murders: “Otherwise, they don’t have to tell you anything.”

    But if Yates eventually does escape the death penalty, who is eligible for execution, the prosecutor asked: “If you can’t kill the worst of the worst… who can you kill?”

    http://www.spokesman.com/stories/201...tencing-error/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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    Yates' case will be featured tonight at 9:00 p.m. EDT on LMN's Monster in My Family episode Spokane Serial Killer:Robert Lee Yates.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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