PLYMOUTH, Mass. (Court TV) — Tensions rose in a Massachusetts courtroom this week as prosecutors continued to build their case against Lindsay Clancy, a mother accused of murdering her three young children.
Lindsay Clancy sits in court. (CJ Gunther/Boston Herald)
Clancy, 36, has admitted to strangling Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, with exercise bands in the family’s home, but maintains that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time and is not criminally responsible for her actions. While the defense hasn’t begun presenting its case to the jury yet, Clancy’s mental health dominated much of this week’s testimony.
“I know what I meant”
Dr. Jennifer Tufts was the defendant’s treating psychiatrist in the months before the children were killed, and prescribed Clancy multiple medications to manage what Tufts had diagnosed as postpartum anxiety and depression.
During cross-examination, Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, revealed that Tufts had received her board certification days before the defendant’s intake at her office and that Tufts had no additional training in treating postpartum psychosis. At one point, Judge William Sullivan reprimanded Tufts for failing to let Reddington finish his questions before answering.
Tufts grew frustrated when Reddington pointed out a discrepancy in the notes she had written in Clancy’s medical record, declaring, “I know what I meant.”
“Sad and Depressed”
Investigators who analyzed forensic downloads of the electronic devices in the Clancy home testified that the defendant kept a journal on her phone.
In one journal entry, read into the record, Clancy wrote, “I’m sad and depressed because I am not able to parent my third child like my first. … I’m struggling so hard because I wanted to parent each of my kids like my first, and since I can’t, that’s depressing to me. This is definitely the root cause of all our problems. Now I feel like I’m not parenting any of my kids the way I want to, and that makes me sad too, but I’m going to try my best today.”
In another note, modified just one day before her children’s deaths, Clancy wrote, “Medication stole my motherhood and my life.”
“Is that it?”
Reddington appeared unimpressed with the testimony from forensic examiner Kyle Pavao, asking, “Is that it?” after prosecutors finished their direct examination. Pavao testified that a device in the Clancy home visited the “suicide methods” website months before the children were killed. Reddington then had Pavao confirm that the defendant wasn’t in the house when the search was conducted.
“I can’t do this”
Clancy began sobbing in court as a medical examiner testified to how her children were strangled. She yelled, “I can’t do this,” as the jury was led out of the courtroom. Reddington had previously offered to stipulate to the testimony to avoid such an outburst.
TikTok user calls prosecution an “abomination”
Prosecutors opposed a request from the defense to add a witness to the case who had posted on social media about the mental hospital where Clancy was treated. The TikTok user posted a video claiming that she had previously worked in the same hospital and felt the prosecution was mischaracterizing the treatment patients receive there.
In her request that Sullivan block the defense from adding the social media user as a witness, prosecutor Shanan Buckingham said the user “said that the prosecution of this case is an abomination.”
Sullivan took the issue under advisement but suggested the defense find another witness to testify about the hospital’s treatment practices.
Testimony resumes on Monday.
