ROBERT LEE YATES

'Robert Lee Yates, Jr.' (born May 27 1952) is a convicted serial killer from Spokane, Washington. From 1996 to 1998, Yates is known to have murdered at least 13 women in Spokane County, Washington. All 13 of these women were prostitutes working on Spokane's "Skid Row" red-light district on E. Sprague Avenue. Yates has also confessed to two murders committed in Walla Walla, Washington in 1975 and one murder committed in Skagit County, Washington in 1988. In 2002, Yates was convicted of two murders of women from Pierce County, Washington.

Contents

Background

The murders

Convictions and additional investigations

Victims

References

External links

Background

Yates grew up in Oak Harbor, Washington on Whidbey Island in western Washington ^[1]. He grew up in a middle class household whose family was part of the Seventh-day Adventist church.
Yates graduated from high school and in 1975 got a job at the Washington State MALES Penitentiary in Walla Walla, Washington, as a prison guard. After working there for only six months, Yates enlisted in the United States Army in 1977, where he became a helicopter pilot. Yates served in various countries outside the U.S., including Germany and Somalia during the ill-fated UN peacekeeping mission of the early 1990s. Yates was also certified to legally fly civilian transport airplanes and helicopters. Yates earned several military awards and medals during his 19-year military career, including three Army achievement medals, three Army commendation medals, two Armed Forces expeditionary medals, and three meritorious service medals ^[2].

The murders

The murders Yates committed between 1996 and 1998 in Spokane all involved either prostitutes or street walkers on Spokane's "Skid Row" area on E. Sprague Avenue. All the victims were initially solicited for prostitution by Yates, who would have sex with them (often in his 1979 Ford van), sometimes do drugs with them, then kill them and dump their bodies in rural locations. All of his victims died of gunshot wounds to the head; eight of the murders were committed with a Raven .25-caliber handgun and one attempted murder was also linked to the same model of handgun ^[3]. On August 1, 1998, Yates picked up prostitute Christine Smith, who managed to escape after being shot, assaulted and robbed ^[4]. On September 19, 1998, Yates was asked to give a DNA sample to Spokane police after being stopped, he refused, stating that it was too extreme a request for a "family man" ^[4]. One particularly bizarre detail of Yates' murders involved the case of murder victim Melody Murfin, whose body was buried just outside of the bedroom window of Yates' family home.

Convictions and additional investigations

Yates was arrested on April 18 1999, for the murder of Jennifer Joseph ^[4]. In 2000, he was convicted of 13 counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder in Spokane County Superior Court. The judge sentenced Yates to 408 years in prison, essentially a life sentence ^[1]. Yates avoided the death penalty by confessing to the Spokane County murders in exchange for the life sentence ^[8].
In 2001, Yates was charged in Pierce County, Washington with the murders of two additional women. The prosecution in Pierce County sought the death penalty for the deaths of Melinda L. Mercer in 1997 and Connie Ellis in 1998 which were thought to be linked to the killings in Spokane County ^[8]. In October 2002, Yates was convicted of those murders and sentenced to death by lethal injection ^[10].
Yates currently is on death row at the Washington State Penitentiary ^[1] in Walla Walla, Washington.

Victims

Name	Date of discovery
Patrick Oliver	July 13, 1975
Susan Savage	July 13, 1975
Stacy E. Hawn	December 28, 1988
Patricia Barnes	August 25, 1996
Shannon Zielinski	June 14, 1996
Heather Hernandez	August 26, 1997
Jennifer Joseph	August 26, 1997
Darla Scott	November 5, 1997
Melinda Mercer	December 7, 1997
Shawn Johnson	December 18, 1997
Laurie Wason	December 26, 1997
Sunny Oster	February 8, 1998
Linda Maybin	April 1, 1998
Melody Murfin	May 12, 1998
Michelyn Derning	July 7, 1998
Connie LaFontaine Ellis	October 13, 1998

References

1. http://www.karisable.com/skazyates.htm
2. http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/yates/guy_8.html
3. http://www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/serialkillers/yates.htm
4. http://www.radford.edu/~maamodt/Psyc%20405/serial%20killers/Yates,%20Robert%20Lee.htm
5. http://www.radford.edu/~maamodt/Psyc%20405/serial%20killers/Yates,%20Robert%20Lee.htm
6. http://www.radford.edu/~maamodt/Psyc%20405/serial%20killers/Yates,%20Robert%20Lee.htm
7. http://www.karisable.com/skazyates.htm
8. http://web.archive.org/web/20010421083705/http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/serialkillers010112.html
9. http://web.archive.org/web/20010421083705/http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/serialkillers010112.html
10. http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=webyates03&date=20021003&query=%22Robert+Lee+Yates%22
11. http://www.karisable.com/skazyates.htm

External links

★ Kari & Associates - Robert Lee Yates, Jr. page

★ Radford University Dept. of Psychology - Robert Lee Yates, Jr. timeline and summary page

★ CourtTV CrimeLibrary.com - Robert Lee Yates, Jr. page