Post by Anja Nieser on Oct 1, 2006 5:47:00 GMT -5
Yates offered plea bargain in death of toddler
Indicted for capital murder, Darrell Yates III pleaded to a lesser charge
of injury to a child Tuesday in the death of 22-month-old Harold Cheyenne
Harris last year and was sentenced to 15 years in prison - a sentence
which baby Harold's family claims is too light and blames on what they
describe as a shoddy sheriff's department investigation.
Yates and Harold's mother, Amber McEntire, were arrested in December in
Matamoros, Mexico, where they fled following the child's October death.
Authorities found Harold's body, decomposing and ravaged by animals,
during a search of the woods less than 100 yards from the couple's rent
house Nov. 5. McEntire claimed the child choked on a piece of foam and
died, but an autopsy concluded Harold died of swelling in his brain.
"I feel like I did what I had to do, but I don't have to like it,"
District Attorney Stephanie Stephens said of the punishment.
Yates also pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence - for attempting to
dispose of the child's body - and bigamy, because he and McEntire were
married before they fled, but he had not yet divorced his estranged wife
in Houston. Yates' court-appointed attorney, Bill Agnew, said no one was
happy with the case's resolution.
"This was a difficult case, across the board, for everybody," Agnew said.
"The medical evidence was not conclusive either way. This was truly a
wide-open case."
After Judge Campbell Cox II accepted the pleas, baby Harold's grandmother,
Pamela Harris-Martin, took the witness stand to confront Yates.
"You got off; I know it and you know it," Harris-Martin told Yates,
pointing her finger at the man before pulling out a sheet of white paper
and a photo of the child. "This is what I remember. Now, all I have is
this: an autopsy report. I can't judge you on this side, but you will be
judged on the other side."
Before leaving the stand, Harris-Martin blamed the Nacogdoches County
Sheriff's Department's investigation for what she considered an unjust
sentence. Harold was reported missing Oct. 22, and deputies found his body
Nov. 5, near the home rented by McEntire and Yates.
"I guess it's human nature that you want someone to blame," said
Nacogdoches County Sheriff Thomas Kerss. "But the reality is that we
gathered the evidence available to us at the time and used all legal means
to gather and collect evidence. There are still a lot of unknowns in this
case."
In mid-October, McEntire and Yates removed Harold from day-care and took
the child to Shreveport, La., where they married, according to
investigators. In the days following, Harold died and was placed naked in
the woods near a rent home on Press Road, south of Nacogdoches, that
McEntire and Yates shared. The couple then fled to Mexico, where they
stayed in Matamoros and Reynosa, across the border from Brownsville,
Texas.
McEntire told her family in phone conversations that Harold was safe in
Mexico, but could not produce any evidence. Her family reported him
missing, and on Nov. 5 cadaver dogs found the child naked and badly
decomposed near the Press Road home.
In phone calls to Mexico, McEntire's family asked her to surrender. She
told them the child died from choking, and because his body was bruised
and blistered, she was afraid to notify authorities.
In December, the couple was arrested in Matamoros and transported to
Nacogdoches. Both were indicted for capital murder Jan. 24.
More than 2 months ago, McEntire gave birth to a baby girl while awaiting
trial in the Nacogdoches County jail. Texas Child Protective Services took
custody of the child. McEntire will appear at a pretrial hearing Friday.
Yates was led back to jail Tuesday, wearing loose-fitting orange scrubs.
"People need to take into consideration that he didn't walk out of this
courtroom with a smile on his face because he got 15 years," Agnew said.
"I wasn't happy, he wasn't happy, and Stephanie (Stephens) wasn't happy.
The times I've walked out of the courtroom, and everyone was upset, the
criminal justice system was served, because it's not about one side
winning."
(source: Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel)
Indicted for capital murder, Darrell Yates III pleaded to a lesser charge
of injury to a child Tuesday in the death of 22-month-old Harold Cheyenne
Harris last year and was sentenced to 15 years in prison - a sentence
which baby Harold's family claims is too light and blames on what they
describe as a shoddy sheriff's department investigation.
Yates and Harold's mother, Amber McEntire, were arrested in December in
Matamoros, Mexico, where they fled following the child's October death.
Authorities found Harold's body, decomposing and ravaged by animals,
during a search of the woods less than 100 yards from the couple's rent
house Nov. 5. McEntire claimed the child choked on a piece of foam and
died, but an autopsy concluded Harold died of swelling in his brain.
"I feel like I did what I had to do, but I don't have to like it,"
District Attorney Stephanie Stephens said of the punishment.
Yates also pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence - for attempting to
dispose of the child's body - and bigamy, because he and McEntire were
married before they fled, but he had not yet divorced his estranged wife
in Houston. Yates' court-appointed attorney, Bill Agnew, said no one was
happy with the case's resolution.
"This was a difficult case, across the board, for everybody," Agnew said.
"The medical evidence was not conclusive either way. This was truly a
wide-open case."
After Judge Campbell Cox II accepted the pleas, baby Harold's grandmother,
Pamela Harris-Martin, took the witness stand to confront Yates.
"You got off; I know it and you know it," Harris-Martin told Yates,
pointing her finger at the man before pulling out a sheet of white paper
and a photo of the child. "This is what I remember. Now, all I have is
this: an autopsy report. I can't judge you on this side, but you will be
judged on the other side."
Before leaving the stand, Harris-Martin blamed the Nacogdoches County
Sheriff's Department's investigation for what she considered an unjust
sentence. Harold was reported missing Oct. 22, and deputies found his body
Nov. 5, near the home rented by McEntire and Yates.
"I guess it's human nature that you want someone to blame," said
Nacogdoches County Sheriff Thomas Kerss. "But the reality is that we
gathered the evidence available to us at the time and used all legal means
to gather and collect evidence. There are still a lot of unknowns in this
case."
In mid-October, McEntire and Yates removed Harold from day-care and took
the child to Shreveport, La., where they married, according to
investigators. In the days following, Harold died and was placed naked in
the woods near a rent home on Press Road, south of Nacogdoches, that
McEntire and Yates shared. The couple then fled to Mexico, where they
stayed in Matamoros and Reynosa, across the border from Brownsville,
Texas.
McEntire told her family in phone conversations that Harold was safe in
Mexico, but could not produce any evidence. Her family reported him
missing, and on Nov. 5 cadaver dogs found the child naked and badly
decomposed near the Press Road home.
In phone calls to Mexico, McEntire's family asked her to surrender. She
told them the child died from choking, and because his body was bruised
and blistered, she was afraid to notify authorities.
In December, the couple was arrested in Matamoros and transported to
Nacogdoches. Both were indicted for capital murder Jan. 24.
More than 2 months ago, McEntire gave birth to a baby girl while awaiting
trial in the Nacogdoches County jail. Texas Child Protective Services took
custody of the child. McEntire will appear at a pretrial hearing Friday.
Yates was led back to jail Tuesday, wearing loose-fitting orange scrubs.
"People need to take into consideration that he didn't walk out of this
courtroom with a smile on his face because he got 15 years," Agnew said.
"I wasn't happy, he wasn't happy, and Stephanie (Stephens) wasn't happy.
The times I've walked out of the courtroom, and everyone was upset, the
criminal justice system was served, because it's not about one side
winning."
(source: Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel)