An Alabama man kills his father himself for killing his wife on bail

HAMILTON, Ala. (WIAT) – Brittni Baker and her family could not breathe for months.

Since January, they had feared Christopher Yielding, a man accused of murdering their loved one, would find them.

Then, on a Sunday evening in September, relief came.

On the night of September 18, after shooting and killing his father, Charles, at his parents’ home in Marion County, Chris Yielding killed himself, according to coroners and his mother. Yielding, 43, was up for the murder of his wife, Mandy Dozier bail free.

Brittni Baker would never bring justice to her aunt Mandy for Chris’ actions. But at least she would get some relief. Christopher Yielding would never hurt anyone again.

Brittni Baker has known Chris Yielding since she was eight years old. He was a great guy as a kid, she said.

“He was the guy who taught me how to do a headstand against the wall,” she said.

But the years have changed, says Brittni. When she found out he was dating Aunt Mandy, she was surprised. Chris Yielding was a different man than the boy she knew.

“I didn’t see them ever get together,” she said. “And he was just mean. He was angry.”

She said that Mandy and Chris often argued. The police were called more than once.

And that wasn’t the Mandy she knew either. She and Mandy were inseparable in their childhood, said Brittni. In elementary school, Brittni wrote a letter about how Mandy was her role model. Years later, before Mandy had her eldest daughter, she wrote a letter to Brittni.

“In the letter, she talked about wanting to have a daughter like me one day,” Brittni recalled, her voice breaking with emotion.

Mandy loved to fish. She loved to hunt. She loved frogs, turtles and her dog Jagger. She could recite every single word from the movies Friday and House of 1,000 Corpses. And she loved Eminem.

But in the end she made a mistake that turned out to be fatal, Brittni said:

“She made the mistake of trusting a guy, which she shouldn’t.”

But Chris Yielding and Mandy Dozier had teamed up. The two both enjoyed nature – “arrowhead ditch and things like that” – explained Brittni. Yielding had even proposed to Mandy in a place they loved — in a remote area on the northern edge of the Hamilton city limits.

It was there, Brittni said, near where Christopher Yielding had asked Mandy Dozier to spend their lives together, where he allegedly dumped her body and left her exposed to the Alabama sun for days. Her family would have to hold a closed casket funeral.

Brittni found out Mandy Dozier’s body had been found via social media. The remains had not yet been identified, but based on where they were found – with Chris and Mandy – Brittni knew the worst had happened.

Before her body was found in 2020, Dozier had been missing for days.

Her family last heard from her on a Monday evening.

“We all spoke to her that day,” said Brittni. “She wanted to go home. My grandma, who was her mother, had spoken to her. She made pork chops for dinner and everything seemed fine.”

On Tuesday, Mandy’s oldest daughter picked her up for a doctor’s appointment. Her mother wasn’t there, but Chris was there. As she approached the house, Brittni said, Chris ran out the front door and told Mandy’s daughter that her mother left the night before and never returned.

Eventually, Brittni explained, Chris agreed to file a missing persons report, but he never went any further. On Saturday, Brittni decided to file a complaint herself.

“She would never go so many days without speaking to her children,” Brittni said.

When she got to the police station to report Mandy missing, the building was a ghost town. An employee told Brittni the police were “on a big case”. The case, Brittni would soon find out, was that of her aunt.

This Sunday, Christopher Yielding was arrested for the murder of Mandy Dozier, according to court records. Yielding, Dozier shot in the head, prosecutors claimed.

Yielding’s arrest for Dozier’s murder was the latest in a long line of interactions with police.

Court records show Yielding was charged with violence against others, including his ex-wife and mother Effie Mae Yielding, back in 2002.

In 2006, a condition of Yielding’s bail for criminal mischief was that the man have no contact with his mother. This charge was later dismissed.

In 2016, in a case alleging Yielding attacked a man with a knife, Yielding’s parents signed a letter to a local judge asking that their son be given a “second chance.”

The letter said the parents had long believed Chris Yielding needed psychological help. Giving in is hyperactive, they wrote, and paranoid.

“He once told us he saw satellites in the attic,” they wrote, “and looked at his phone and said, ‘Look at these dots. They will be here soon.’”

They closed the letter with a request.

“Please, Your Honor, give our son a second chance,” they said. “He needs psychological help and addiction help, not prison.”

Three months later, Yielding was accused of threatening his mother after he shot a gun in the air at her home.

Now, nine months after her son was released from prison on murder charges, Effie Mae Yielding told CBS 42 that when Chris arrived at her home on Sept. 18, he had nothing to say.

“My son shot him,” Effie Mae said of her husband.

Charles Edward Richard Yielding, 80, had served as minister, she said. The couple was married for 63 years.

“He was a good guy,” said Effie Mae. “And he was a good dad.”

Brittni Baker said she has no hatred for the Yielding family but that Chris’ death is a relief.

In January, Brittni’s grandmother – Mandy’s mother – died. As she sat at her funeral, Brittni’s phone rang. It was the local prosecutor’s office. A representative informed Brittni that Chris would be released on bail.

“I was scared,” she said. “I was so scared that he would kill or hurt their children.”

According to court documents, Yielding was released Jan. 25 after posting $500,000 bail.

In the nine months following his release, Brittni and her family held their breath. They avoided going to places they thought they might see Chris. Everywhere they went they felt persecuted. It was a life of terror.

But that Sunday in September everything changed.

“We were able to breathe for the first time since January,” she said.