Yates Friend: I Begged Russell to Get Help

March 20 -- Throughout her depression and the battles with her demons, Andrea Yates had a best friend. Deborah Holmes, Yates' friend of 16 years, said she wanted to force the troubled Houston woman into treatment without Russell Yates' permission.

"I don't know that he really believed that she was mentally ill, but that she was just weak," Holmes told ABCNEWS' Good Morning America.

Holmes said she pleaded with Russell Yates on several occasions to take Andrea to a doctor.

"He said, 'I am not going to coddle her, I'm not going to hold her hand,' and, you know, 'She needs to be strong, she needs to help herself,'" Holmes said. "I said, 'That's the point. She can't help herself. She is not able. She's not capable.'"

Holmes said she spoke to Russell Yates "numerous times" about taking Andrea to seek medical help. "I don't know if he was in denial or, just, he wanted to be in control," she said on Good Morning America, adding, "There are times when I think I could just kick him."

ABCNEWS reported Friday that prosecutors intend to consider factors that could lead them to prosecute Russell Yates for either child endangerment or negligent homicide in connection with the deaths of his five children. Prosecutors would charge Russell if and when the evidence warrants, but do not have the evidence now, sources said.

Andrea Yates, 37, was sentenced Monday to life in prison for drowning the five youngsters in the bathtub in the family's home last June. A jury rejected the defense argument that Andrea was insane at the time of the killings, but spared her the death penalty.

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‘Andrea Has Killed All the Kids’

Holmes said she and Andrea Yates were best friends for 16 years. The two raised their children together, and Holmes sometimes left her kids in Yates' care.

The two friends saw each other twice in the eight days before Yates' arrest. Holmes said it was very clear that Yates was suffering from severe mental illness.

"I saw a very scared, very shaken woman," she said. "There were times that when I would see her look so scary, I would not let her out of my sight. I would not even turn my back on her."