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Defense testimony in Yates trial

The defense has not yet rested its case.

Dr. Melissa Ferguson, Harris County Jail psychiatrist: Testified Yates was "one of the sickest patients I had ever seen."

Ferguson said Yates exhibited signs of paranoia and delusions, saying "I am Satan" and wanting to shave her head to reveal the "mark of the beast," or 666, that she believed was on her scalp. She told jurors Yates had stopped taking her anti-psychotic medication in the weeks before the killings. It is unclear whether Yates stopped taking her medication on her own or whether the prescription had ended. Currently, Ferguson said, Yates is taking a cocktail of four medications.

Dr. George Ringholz, neuropsychologist: Diagnosed Yates as schizophrenic after studying her medical history and interviewing three family members. Ringholz said Yates suffered an "acute psychotic episode" and "did not know that the actions she took on that day were wrong."

Russell Yates, husband: Said he never grasped the extent of wife's illness, that he was told her post-partum depression and other symptoms were treatable and that at no time did her behavior suggest she was a danger to the children.

Yates testified that his wife described her state of mind during depression as being in a "dark place," but never discussed her mental illness or even admitted she was sick. He told jurors that in the days before the killings, his wife awoke in the middle of the night screaming and, when questioned, told her husband she dreamed she was trapped in her bed. But he said nothing about her appearance looked threatening the morning she drowned the children.

Deborah Holmes, 16-year friend of Yates: Described Andrea's bouts with depression in 1999 and 2000.

Holmes described Andrea as having no emotion and not taking care of herself. 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. She testified 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.

Dr. Steve Rosenblatt, psychiatrist: Yates was hallucinating and in a psychotic state during exam five days after the killings. It would have taken her weeks to become as sick as she appeared on the day of the exam, and that she was, in all likelihood, in the same state at the time of the killings.

Dr. Phillip Resnick, psychiatrist: Yates faced "a cruel dilemma which turned upside down her sense of right and wrong."

Resnick said she believed that by killing her children, she not only sent them to heaven, but saved them from an eternity in the fires of hell. He called the killings altruistic: Yates, who believed she was possessed by Satan, set herself up to be executed for her crime, thereby ridding the earth of Satan.

Evidence presented:

10-minute home video of Yates playing with her children.

Brief videotape shot during one of Resnick's sessions where Yates -- gaunt, pale, stooped, dressed in an orange jail uniform, her hair oily, deep circles under her eyes -- talks in monotone about how the killings were in her children's best interests because it was better to send them to heaven than to see them perish in hell.