PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) 鈥� sobbed uncontrollably Thursday as jurors viewed autopsy photos of the youngest of her three children whom she strangled in 2023, until the court eventually had to take an unscheduled break.
In the second week of her Massachusetts murder trial, prosecutors brought more friends, a former work colleague and her former father-in-law to testify about Clancy’s mental and emotional state. They said she was mostly open about her postpregnancy mental health struggles but seemed like a loving mother who cared for her kids.
Clancy has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old Callan.
Defense attorneys don’t dispute that she killed her children on Jan. 24, 2023, after sending her husband out on errands, but they argue that she was too mentally ill to bear criminal responsibility for her actions.
Prosecutors, however, said that and that the 35-year-old former labor and delivery nurse acted intentionally. She remains paralyzed from the waist down after jumping from the home鈥檚 second-story window that night.
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EDITOR鈥橲 NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.
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A friend recalls a difficult reunion after the killings
Much of the week has been dominated by witnesses detailing their memories of Clancy in the days, weeks and months before the killings.
Outwardly, Clancy appeared normal, most said, attending family functions, lunches with friends and activities with her children. None of the witnesses Thursday testified they heard Clancy express suicidal or homicidal thoughts, talking of hearing voices or wanting to harm her children.
But after the birth of her third child, she told a friend she was having trouble sleeping and noted harmful side effects from medications she was taking. Another former colleague at Massachusetts General Hospital, Andrea Hennigan, recalled a lunch where Clancy said she wouldn’t return to work because she 鈥渨as not in a mental state to take care of patients.鈥�
鈥淪he talked about insomnia and not feeling herself,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 believe she might have used the words brain fog or something like that.鈥�
The month of the killings, Clancy texted Hennigan that she was experiencing 鈥渂ad or negative side effects鈥� from her medications. She told another witness, Amy Bevins, around then that the medications had 鈥渃aused her to have some dark thoughts.鈥�
Another witness, Bethany Decollibus, attended a birthday party for Clancy’s daughter, Cora, in January 2023. Asked about her sleep troubles, Clancy said 鈥渢hings haven鈥檛 gotten better and that she feels like a zombie.鈥�
Lindsay Clancy’s former father-in-law testifies
Christopher Clancy praised his former daughter-in-law’s mothering skills. But he admitted knowing she was having issues. At one point, he suggested the grandchildren stay with him and his wife, but his son declined.
鈥淚 knew she was having a hard time sleeping,鈥� Christopher Clancy said. 鈥淚 knew she just didn鈥檛 feel well. I knew she went to the emergency room where my wife was working. Those types of struggles.鈥�
Lindsay Clancy’s attorneys in criminal and civil cases have said that she had , a condition that a small fraction of women exhibit after childbirth, and that she had bipolar disorder that wasn鈥檛 fully diagnosed until after the killings. Her attorneys say her condition seemed to worsen on the psychiatric medications, some of them problematic for bipolar patients.
If convicted of murder, she faces life in prison without parole. If found not guilty due to a lack of criminal responsibility, she would be committed to a state mental health facility.
Another case that echoes Clancy鈥檚 is going back to court
Meanwhile, the judge and the district attorney learned Thursday that they face a retrial in another case involving a mother鈥檚 mental state when she killed her two school-age children in 2018.
Massachusetts鈥� top court threw out Latarsha Sanders鈥� in the of sons Edson 鈥淢arlon鈥� Brito, 8, and La鈥檚on Brito, 5.
Sanders told police in a recorded interview that she stabbed the boys because 鈥渂ad people鈥� text-messaged her commands to carry out a 鈥渞itual鈥� connected to 鈥淰oodoo stuff鈥� and . The latter is a purported powerful secret society at the center of various conspiracy theories, and Sanders鈥� family said she had become obsessively fearful of it.
Like Clancy鈥檚 lawyers, Sanders鈥� defense argued she was mentally ill and shouldn鈥檛 be held criminally responsible, while prosecutors said she acted deliberately.
A defense neuropsychologist diagnosed Sanders with schizophrenia spectrum disorder, among other conditions, and testified that she was 鈥済rossly psychotic鈥� when she killed the children.
The appeal turns on psychiatric evidence
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court faulted the judge for not letting jurors hear many specifics from Sanders’ medical records. They showed, among other things, that clinicians at a prison and a psychiatric hospital suggested similar diagnoses after Sanders鈥� arrest.
Withholding the records from jurors 鈥渋mpermissibly stripped鈥� the defense of its medical foundation, Justice Frank M. Gaziano wrote in a unanimous decision.
Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz’s office said in a statement that it was thinking through next steps. Messages seeking comment were sent to a clerk for Superior Court Justice William Sullivan and to a court system spokesperson.
Sanders鈥� lawyer, Robert F. Shaw Jr., said he looked forward to retrying the case.
鈥淭he hope is that those records and that evidence will be able to be viewed by a jury with fresh eyes,鈥� he said by phone.
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Peltz reported from New York.
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