New York ? The Texas mother who drowned her five kids in a bathtub five years ago could soon be freed after a Houston jury decided Wednesday she wasn’t guilty of murder because she was insane at the time.

Andrea Yates wept quietly in the courtroom as the jury returned its verdict after three days of deliberation, ending the high-profile retrial.

Yates, 42, will be committed to a state mental hospital until a judge deems her well enough to be released.

But New York forensic psychiatrist Dr. Michael Welner – who interviewed Yates in May as the prosecution’s lead expert – predicted she would be released quickly because her disorder is being well managed.

“I expect she will be home soon,” said Welner.

Welner, of NYU’s School of Medicine, said he respected the jury’s “difficult decision” but disagreed with the verdict.

“There’s a tremendous amount of evidence supporting the fact that she knew what she was doing was wrong,” he said.

However, the jury of six men and six women sided with Yates’ lawyers, who argued that she suffered from severe postpartum psychosis and believed she was trying to save her children from Satan when she drowned them one by one in June 2001. The defense did not dispute that Yates drowned her kids – Noah, 7; John, 5; Paul, 3; Luke, 2; and newborn Mary.

Juror Todd Frank said it was clear to him that Yates had psychosis before, during and after the drownings. “She needs help,” Frank told The Associated Press. “Although she’s treated, I think she’s worse than she was before. I think she’ll probably need treatment for the rest of her life.”

The children’s father, Rusty Yates, said the jury reached the right decision. “Yes, Andrea took the lives of our children. That’s the truth. But also yes, she was insane,” he said outside the courthouse. The couple divorced in 2005, and Rusty Yates has since remarried.

The jury was not allowed to read Welner’s report, compiled after he interviewed Yates and examined some 140 sources of evidence, many previously unreviewed, because the judge ruled some were hearsay.

Yates was convicted of murder in 2002, but the verdict was thrown out on appeal because of prejudicial testimony.