HOUSTON -- Hours after Andrea Yates was found guilty in the drowning deaths of her five children, her husband, Russell Yates joined those who gathered Tuesday at a vigil to support his wife.

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Yates, his mother and brother were among about a dozen people who held purple candles or signs supporting Andrea Yates at a vigil outside the Harris County Courthouse.

"This is for Andrea. We want to show that we love and respect her,'' Dora Yates said. "We want everyone to know this has been a travesty of justice.''

Yates remained mostly silent, saying only that his wife's defense attorney was a good man and that he hoped during the sentencing phase to be able to give a victim-impact statement, in which a relative of the victim may address the convicted killer.

"I hope I get to talk to Andrea,'' he said. "I really want to. It's not going to be typical.''

Andrea Yates Found Guilty

A Houston jury convicted Yates of capital murder in the drownings deaths of three of her five children.

The case was handed over to the jury at about 1 p.m. Tuesday to decide Yates' fate, and about 3 1/2 hours later they announced that they had reached a verdict.

The next step is the punishment phase, which is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at the Harris County Courthouse downtown.

Yates wore a white sweater and wept several times during the final arguments, but was stoic when the verdict was read.

Yates' attorneys said that she was very upset by the verdict.

Yates' husband, Russell was heard uttering, "Oh God," and also cried in the courtroom.

Yates, 37, now faces life in prison or the death penalty for the drownings of 7-year-old Noah, 5-year-old John and 6-month-old Mary. Charges could be filed later in the deaths of Paul, 3, and Luke, 2.

Yates was found guilty of two counts of capital murder covering the deaths of three of her children.

One count listed the killings of Noah and John as two victims killed during the commission of the same crime to qualify for capital punishment. The second count listed the death of Mary.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

State District Judge Belinda Hill recessed the court for lunch, and asked the jurors not to begin deliberating until they returned for further instructions, which was shortly before 1 p.m., at which time they began deliberating.

Tuesday's trial began with Hill giving the jury instructions before closing arguments, including its three choices in the case: whether Yates is guilty, not guilty, or not guilty by reason of insanity.

Hill also explained to jurors about Yates' decision not to take the stand.

"In this case, the defendant has elected not to testify," Hill said. "And you are instructed that you cannot and must not refer to or allude to that fact throughout your deliberations or taken through consideration for any purpose whatsoever as a circumstance against her."

Prosecutors began their closing arguments shortly after 9:30 a.m.

"I know that this whole three-week process has been much harder on you than it has on me," Prosecutor Joe Owmby said.

"Let me tell you what this case is about. This case is about the law of insanity, and what it says, and what it means, and the implications it holds for the society.

"It's about why we say the law is that you have to know right from wrong, and why we don't say that the product of your mental illness is enough for you to be found insane.

"She may have believed it was in the best interest of the children to drown them one after the other, but that's not the law in Texas," Owmby said.

"It's not that I am without sympathy or that you are without sympathy," he said. "You have to decide this case based on the facts of the law."

Prosecutors and defense attorneys agree Yates suffered from a severe mental disease and that she killed her five children in the family bathtub. What they don't agree on is whether she knew the killing was wrong.

The defense began its closing arguments and its address of the jurors about 15 minutes later.

"We'd like to thank you," defense attorney Wendell Odom said. "It's been a long haul. It's been four weeks, and we know we've imposed on you greatly.

"In essence, what you're really are going to decide is something that although the issue in dispute is hotly contested, one thing is not contested. Every lawyer in this courtroom will tell you, and every lawyer in this courtroom will agree that you decide what know is and what wrong is."

Odom termed mental illness a medical condition and compared the situation to a truck driver running over and killing five children after suffering a stroke.

"You wouldn't find him guilty of murder," Odom said. "Mental illness is a disease. It's a defect. We continue to treat it like it isn't."

Odom said the state was looking for a technicality by alleging Yates had a general concept that the world perceives drowning children as wrong.

"Does a loving mother kill her children if she knows it's wrong? It's just common sense," Odom said. "If we have an insanity law, and if Andrea Yates is not insane, then we just don't really have an insanity defense, do we?"

Defense lawyers urged jurors to remember Yates was suffering from postpartum depression, that she loved her children and that her mind was confused.

"The very lives that she brought forth into this world, as a mother she took," Yates' attorney George Parnham said. "And I implore you to please, please, not allow that horrific set of circumstances, Noah, John, Paul, Luke, and precious Mary, to take your eye off the prize, to deflect your attention from the very issue that you must come to grips with in this case."

Parnham said that the case is about prevention, adding: "This is an opportunity for this jury to make a determination about the status of women's mental health. Make no mistake, the world is watching."

The defense team took about an hour to deliver its closing arguments.

Then at 10:43 a.m., the prosecution resumed its final arguments.

The prosecution acknowledged Yates is mentally ill, but said she must be convicted of capital murder because she knew drowning her five children was wrong.

"That's the key," assistant district attorney Kaylynn Williford said. "Andrea Yates knew right from wrong, and she made a choice on June 20 to kill her children deliberately and with deception."

Williford argued Yates was so deliberate she covered the bodies after killing each child because she didn't want the children still alive to know, "Because Noah, and because John are old enough to get out of that house, get to a phone and get help if they discover what is going on."

She also noted bruises the children suffered as they struggled with their mother.

"In John's little fist is her hair," she said. "He fought. He didn't want to die."

As for Noah, the oldest child, "The loving act of that mother was to leave his body floating in the tub," she said.

The prosecution rested about an hour later.

Each side had 90 minutes Tuesday morning for summations before the jury was to begin deliberations.

In Texas, a defendant is presumed sane. To prove insanity, defense attorneys must convince jurors Yates suffered from a severe mental disease or defect, which prevented her from knowing her actions were wrong.