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Yates: Wife seemed normal on day of killings

Friend: Andrea looked 'like a scared animal'

Russell Yates shown in testimony earlier this week.

HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- Days before his wife drowned their five children, Andrea Yates's screams woke her husband in the middle of the night, Russell Yates testified Thursday. But he also said he noticed nothing unusual about his wife's behavior on the morning the children died.

Under cross-examination by prosecutor Joseph Owmby, Yates said on that day his wife prepared bowls of cereal for herself and the children for breakfast, and nothing about her behavior appeared threatening.

However, he testified that just days before the killings, his wife awoke screaming and, when questioned, told her husband she dreamed she was trapped in her bed.

Andrea Yates, 37, confessed to police on June 20 that she drowned her children in a bathtub because she had been a bad mother who hopelessly damaged them.

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She has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to two counts of capital murder in the deaths of Noah, 7, John, 5, and Mary, 6 months. She is not on trial for the drownings of Luke, 3, and Paul, 2.

Later Thursday, longtime friend Deborah Holmes testified that she pleaded with Russell Yates to take Andrea to the hospital after his wife's father died in 2001. Holmes said Russell did not take his wife to the hospital, but said Andrea was eventually admitted to a hospital for treatment for her depression.

Holmes described herself as "best friends, closer than sisters" with Andrea Yates. She said she visited Andrea at home after she had been released from the hospital, and said Andrea was "non-responsive," would sit and stare at her children, and looked "like a scared animal" as she aimlessly paced the rooms in her home.

Nuts and bolts of marriage

Defense psychiatrists have described Yates as psychotic, exhibiting extreme signs of paranoia and delusions. They testified that Andrea Yates had stopped taking anti-psychotic medication in the weeks before the killings.

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Prosecutors contend she knew that what she was doing was wrong and that the killings were premeditated.

Prosecutors Thursday also questioned Russell Yates about the nuts and bolts of his marriage.

The husband, who exchanged nervous glances with his wife during his testimony, said the couple had opted for a traditional marriage and simple lifestyle that allowed her to stay at home with the children. Although he handled the family's finances, all decisions were made jointly, he testified.

After the couple began having children, they lived in a mobile home park and then in a modified bus. Yates has said in the past that they chose that lifestyle for a few years because they didn't want to feel tied down.

Natural childbirth for five children

It was the second day of trial testimony for Russell Yates, who took the witness stand Wednesday to defend his wife. He broke down several times during his first session of testimony.

Russell Yates testified his wife delivered their children through natural childbirth, telling the court Thursday, "Sometimes Andrea liked to take the hard road instead of the easy road."

He also repeated that he never grasped the extent of Andrea Yates' illness, that he was told her postpartum depression and other symptoms were treatable and that at no time did her behavior suggest she was a danger to the children.

Her attorneys have called a series of experts to testify about her mental state at the time of the killings. They plan to call more experts and family members, including Andrea's mother, Jutta Karin Kennedy, to the stand.

-- CNN Correspondent David Mattingly contributed to this report.