PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) 鈥� sobbed uncontrollably Thursday as jurors viewed autopsy photos of the youngest of her three children who 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. For the most part, they said she was open about her postpregnancy mental health struggles but seemed like a loving mother who cared for her kids.
The prosecution wants to show the 35-year-old former labor and delivery nurse acted intentionally and should be held , while Clancy’s defense says she had , a rare and dangerous psychiatric condition that affects women’s hold on reality after childbirth.
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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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Clancy has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, who she killed on Jan. 24, 2023 after sending her husband out on errands. Prosecutors say this was a ruse to get her husband out of the house. She remains paralyzed from the waist down after jumping from the home’s second-story window that night.
A friend recalls a difficult reunion after the killings
None of the witnesses Thursday testified they heard Clancy express suicidal or homicidal thoughts. However, after the birth of her third child, she told them of trouble sleeping and harmful side effects from medications. She text-messaged one childhood friend to say medication had 鈥渃aused her to have some dark thoughts.鈥�
Amy Bevins visited Clancy in a rehabilitation facility after the killings. The two made small talk, she said, and played a game. When asked by prosecutors if Clancy brought up her children or cried about them, she said she had not.
But on cross-examination by Clancy’s defense attorney, Bevins acknowledged the meeting was 鈥渁wkward鈥� and that Clancy’s sister had said not to bring up the kids.
Lindsay Clancy’s former father-in-law takes the stand
Christopher Clancy testified that he knew his then-daughter-in-law 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�
Clancy鈥檚 lawyers don鈥檛 dispute that she killed the children. But in the criminal trial and a medical malpractice lawsuit, her attorneys say 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, Lindsay Clancy 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. Prosecutors noted that Sanders tried to clean up the bloody crime scene, initially denied killing the children, and had written, in a disjointed personal notebook, about
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 neuropsychologist was allowed to mention that he鈥檇 reviewed her medical records. But the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court faulted the judge for not letting jurors hear many specifics from the records, in which clinicians at a prison and a psychiatric hospital suggested similar diagnoses after Sanders鈥� arrest.
The doctors also noted that Sanders said she鈥檇 heard voices for decades, reported ongoing delusional and paranoid thoughts, and displayed odd behavior, such as licking windows.
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.
A message seeking comment was sent to a spokesperson for Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz, and messages were left for the judge, Superior Court Justice William Sullivan, through the court system.
Sanders鈥� lawyer, Robert F. Shaw Jr., welcomed the opinion and 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. Sanders is in prison, and he hadn鈥檛 yet been able to meet with her to discuss the court ruling.
Her relatives last year that they hoped Clancy鈥檚 trial would generate more public scrutiny of Sanders鈥� case.
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