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Psychiatrist: Yates thought about killing kids night before deaths

Neuropsychologist: Yates suffered from schizophrenia

Dr. Melissa Ferguson, a psychiatrist at the Harris County (Texas) Jail, testified that Andrea Yates was "one of the sickest patients I had ever seen."

HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- Andrea Yates thought about killing her five children the night before she carried out the act, a psychiatrist said Monday under cross-examination by the prosecution.

Dr. Melissa Ferguson, a psychiatrist at the Harris County Jail, testified that Yates told her about her thoughts in an interview after she was arrested.

Prosecutors are trying to show that the Houston-area mother knew what she was doing when she killed her children and that the killings were premeditated acts.

"Andrea Yates said she had thought about drowning the children the night before," said Ferguson, describing a conversation with Yates in a lengthy six-day interview process.

Ferguson also told the court that Yates said that drowning the children on June 20 was "the right thing to do."

"The children were going to be tormented the rest of their lives, and they were going to perish in the fires of hell," Ferguson quoted Yates as saying.

Later in the day, Dr. George Ringholz, a neuropsychologist from Baylor College of Medicine, testified on behalf of the defense. Ringholz conducted an extensive evaluation of Yates based on her medical history and interviews with three family members, including her husband, Russell Yates.

He said Yates suffered from schizophrenia that only intensified after she stopped taking her antipsychotic medication June 6, two weeks before the killings. He said that by the day the children were killed, the drug would have been completely out of her system, which would have dramatically increased her symptoms.

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"There's no doubt in my mind that Andrea Yates suffered from psychosis on June 20," Ringholz told the court.

Earlier, Ferguson described Yates as "one of the sickest patients I had ever seen." She said Yates exhibited signs of paranoia and delusions -- that she told her, "I am Satan," and wanted to shave her head to reveal the "mark of the beast," or 666, that she believed was on her scalp.

The doctor said Yates is now taking a cocktail of four medications: the powerful anti-psychotic medication Haldol; Cogentin, to counter the side-effects of Haldol; and the anti-depressants Effexor and Wellbutrin.

Yates, 37, is charged with two counts of capital murder in the deaths of three of the children -- Noah, 7, John, 5, and Mary, 6 months. She is not on trial for the drownings of Luke, 3, and Paul, 2.

Yates confessed to drowning the children but has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Among those expected to testify for the defense are other doctors who treated Yates in jail, family members and the family's medical expert, Dr. Phillip Resnick.

The prosecution will get a chance to rebut the defense's case. Prosecutors are expected to call to the stand Dr. Parke Dietz, a University of California-Los Angeles psychiatrist famous for convincing a Wisconsin jury that serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was not insane.

Prosecutors rested their case Friday, one day after presenting their most dramatic evidence: a videotape and photographs taken shortly after police discovered the children's bodies and an audiotaped statement that Yates gave to police.