Spokane Serial Killer Gets Life
S P O K A N E, Wash., Oct. 26, 2000 -- A man who confessed to killing 13people and one attempted murder dating back a quarter century toavoid the death penalty asked God to right his wrongs as he wassentenced today to 408 years in prison.
“I pray that God will right the wrongs that I have committedand that justice will bring closure,” Robert L. Yates Jr. told asmall courtroom packed with sobbing relatives of his victims.
Last week, the 48-year-old Army veteran and National Guardhelicopter pilot admitted to 10 Spokane-area slayings from 1996 to1998, the murders of a young man and woman in southern Washingtonin 1975 and the murder of a woman in the state’s northeasterncorner in 1988.
Yates, a father of five, could still face the death penalty inPierce County in western Washington, where he is charged with twoadditional slayings.
Spokane County Superior Judge Richard Schroeder also fined Yates$620,000, and signed him over to the custody of the PierceCounty sheriff.
Death Penalty Debate RenewedFamily members of victims, during sentencing testimony,confronted Yates.
“Do you have any idea what it’s like to go to a cemetery for afamily reunion for 25 years?” asked Chris Oliver, brother of victimPatrick Oliver, who was killed in Walla Walla in 1975.
“He has disgraced and dishonored every uniform he ever wore,”said John Joseph, father of Jennifer Joseph, killed in 1997.
The case renewed debate about the state’s death penalty lawsafter Yates avoided capital punishment by confessing to the murdersand showing investigators where a missing body was buried. Lastweek, investigators using a map drawn by Yates, found the remainsof a woman buried in the side yard of his Spokane house, beneathhis bedroom window.
The attempted murder charge involved the 1998 shooting of aprostitute who subsequently escaped from Yates and survived.
A special homicide task force set up in 1997 to investigate thedeaths of Spokane prostitutes is still following leads in otherunsolved slayings in the region, Spokane County Sheriff’s Sgt. CalWalker said today.
The case prompted legislators to propose making it easier toseek capital punishment by adding “serial killing” to the list of aggravating circumstances in which the death penalty may beapplied.