PLYMOUTH, Mass. (Court TV) — Attorneys representing a Massachusetts woman accused of strangling her three young children to death before trying to kill herself appeared in court on Thursday to discuss the status of proceedings as her murder trial fast approaches.
Lindsay Clancy, 35, stands accused of three counts each of murder and strangulation or suffocation for the January 2023 deaths of 5-year-old Cora Clancy, 3-year-old Dawson Clancy, and 8-month-old Callan Clancy. She has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Lindsay Clancy appears in court via Zoom on April 23, 2026. (Court TV)
Her trial is slated to begin on July 20.
The defendant herself appeared via remote video and watched as her defense attorney and a prosecutor dealt with several housekeeping issues.
Chief among those issues was just how long the triple murder trial would last. All indications suggest a relatively lengthy affair.
During the hearing, Clancy’s defense lawyers said their side would call about 50 witnesses — but offered the caveat that some of those could be duplicative with the state’s own witnesses.
“There seems to be an overlap on a number of the witnesses on the civilian side that’s on the government’s list [and] is in my list, so it won’t be that bad,” defense attorney Kevin Reddington said. “It’s not going to be that good, but it’s not going to be that bad.”
Clancy’s attorney also said the majority of the people the defense intends call to the stand are likely to be “civilian witnesses of who have been very, very cooperative on both sides as far as exchanging reports and documents and evidence and things of that nature.”
The state, however, offered a more eye-popping number on Thursday, with prosecutors saying their witness list currently stands at 168 people.
The prosecutor said the state’s witness count had to do with a precedent that requires a large number of so-called “foundational” witnesses needed to introduce certain types of evidence.
Plymouth Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague offered the example of results from a private lab that tested some of the defendant’s blood. The prosecutor said she would have to call “approximately 12 witnesses” and “fly them in from out-of-state” to satisfy the precedent.
But the state and the defense said they were likely to come to an agreement that would shortcut the need for a large number of witnesses with regard to chain-of-custody concerns.
“We’ll be agreeable on that,” Reddington said.
Lindsay Clancy, Kevin Reddington, and prosecutors appear before Plymouth Superior Court Judge William F. Sullivan on May 28, 2026. (Court TV)
Both sides also agreed that a once-contentious issue had been thoroughly settled. Previously, the state and the defense were at loggerheads over how Clancy will be transported to trial.
In earlier motions, the state argued the defendant could simply be transferred using a wheelchair and a sheriff’s office van. The defense took issue with that assessment because Clancy is severely paralyzed after jumping from a second-story window.
Ultimately, it was determined the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office would provide transportation in a van to and from the courthouse and Tewksbury State Hospital, a historic mental illness facility where Clancy has been hospitalized since the January 2023 slayings.
Reddington said the work on that point “has been very, very acceptable, and they’ve been very good, very great on their transportation.”
The state, for its part, has expressed interest in having the jury tour the property where the three children were killed — but hit a roadblock.
“We will be filing a motion for review,” prosecutor Shannon Buckingham said. “We have been in touch with the homeowner, the current homeowner. He does plan on objecting and we’ll have counsel here, so I just wanted to give the court notice that there will be a hearing on that.”
“Oh, we’ll have a hearing on that,” Plymouth Superior Court Judge William F. Sullivan agreed.
The next pretrial hearing is scheduled for June 18.
