Bills Grow For Yates’ Defense

Spokane County taxpayers were hit with another bill in the case against Robert Lee Yates Jr. on Tuesday, this time from the suspected serial killer’s defense team.

County commissioners approved a request from the Public Defender’s Office for $55,000 to pay for computer equipment and the salaries of an additional attorney and paralegal through the end of this year.

Public Defender Donald Westerman said the additional resources were necessary to handle Yates’ defense and several other high-profile murder cases his office expects to go to trial this year.

“We clearly do not have adequate staff to effectively handle an aggravated murder case at this time,” said Westerman, whose office also is preparing to defend accused killers Brad Jackson and Stanley Pietrzak.

Jackson is charged with killing his 9-year-old daughter, while Pietrzak stands accused of killing a young woman and burning her body in an old apartment-house furnace.

Westerman said the computer equipment is needed to process reams of paperwork generated by detectives investigating the case against Yates, who is charged with aggravated first-degree murder in the deaths of eight women in Spokane and Tacoma.

“There’s no way to deal adequately with those police reports in a manual fashion,” Westerman said.

More charges also may be filed as the case against the father of five and former Army helicopter pilot expands.

Westerman warned commissioners he probably will be back later this year asking for more money “due to investigator and expert witness costs for this case and several other first-degree murder cases that had to be contracted out of the office.”

He said he also may ask commissioners to extend the contracts of the new attorney and paralegal for another year.

The bill may go higher if County Prosecutor Steve Tucker decides to seek the death penalty, Westerman said.

The case against Yates has cost taxpayers nearly $2 million, and authorities estimate they will spend that much more by the time a trial is concluded.

Commissioners recently granted Tucker’s request for nearly $77,000 to hire an additional attorney and paralegal for his office.

Sheriff Mark Sterk also has received more than $200,000 in budget increases for the case this year.

County officials, including Westerman, are seeking reimbursement of some of the money through a state program intended to help local governments defray the costs of lengthy murder cases.