A Baraboo man has pleaded innocent to charges that he killed his five-week-old twins in mid-April. David Yates entered his pleas Monday in Sauk County Circuit Court to two counts of first-degree intentional homicide, in the beating deaths of Tyler and Savannah Yates.
A two-week trial for the 46 year-old Yates is set to begin February 9th in Baraboo. But Yates was apparently not happy with that date – and the judge gave him three days to ask that the trial start earlier. A pathologist said both twins were battered to death, and their injuries looked as if they were in a car that rolled over several times. Both infants suffered multiple blunt force head trauma, and Tyler Yates had heart and rib cage injuries which looked like his chest was compressed.
Baraboo police investigators said both youngsters were dead for 12-to-24 hours before they found the bodies. The defense attorney and the children’s mother have both said Yates has mental health and alcohol abuse problems, although his attorney would not say if those issues would be a factor in a trial. Bates is jailed under a million-dollar bond.