What did Robert Lee Yates do?
Robert Lee Yates is an American serial killer who is believed to have murdered at least 11 women in Spokane, Washington, between 1975 and 1998.
His first murders in 1975 were of two college students who were on a picnic. His subsequent murders were of sex workers who were working along East Sprague Avenue. He would have sex with them in his Ford van and then kill and dump their bodies in rural locations. All his victims died from gunshot wounds to the head or heart. He was nicknamed the “Grocery Bag Killer.”
How was Robert Lee Yates caught, and what happened during his trial?
On the 19th September, 1998, Yates was asked to give a DNA sample to a police officer after he was pulled over. He refused and claimed it was an extreme request for a “family man.”
Yates was eventually arrested on the 18th April, 2000, for the murder of Jennifer Joseph. After his arrest, a search warrant was executed on his white 1977 Corvette after it was identified as the vehicle where one of his final victims was seen.
In 2001, Yates was charged with the murders of two additional women. On the 19th September 19, 2002, Yates was convicted of those murders and sentenced to death by lethal injection.
Where is Robert Lee Yates now?
In 2018, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty violated the state constitution and Yates’ death sentence was commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Robert Lee Yates is currently imprisoned at the Washington State Penitentiary. He is 71 years of age.
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