PLYMOUTH, Mass. (Court TV) — Prosecutors spent the week trying to portray Lindsay Clancy — a Massachusetts mother accused of murdering her three children — as a controlling woman who plotted her kids' deaths.
Lindsay Clancy, 35, does not deny killing Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, but has said through her attorney that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time of their deaths.
The trial is scheduled to span more than one month, and prosecutors have been building their case as they present evidence to the jury they say proves Clancy was sane when she killed her children.
After strangling her three children with exercise bands, Clancy used a knife to slash her neck and wrists before jumping out of a second-story window at the family's home.
Multiple doctors testified about the defendant's injuries, including a shattered spine and self-inflicted lacerations, treated at both South Shore Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital.
In the hours after she was taken to the intensive care unit, Clancy's blood pressure dropped, sending her into cardiac arrest. She was saved after receiving a "massive blood transfusion protocol."
After Clancy woke up, nurses testified that she said she was confused and couldn't feel her lower extremities.
Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Cory Melo testified about items found during a search of the Clancy family's home, which included several journals and a postpartum anxiety workbook. In one entry, Clancy wrote, "Obsessed with [Callan's] sleep and nap schedule … hearing him cry for one-plus hours and not intervening just about killed me. I even said the words, 'I want to die,' to Pat." In other entries, the defendant described insomnia, anxiety and a feeling that she was "drowning every day."
The jury was out of the room, but those in the courtroom and watching on livestreams could hear Clancy's voice for the first time.
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Judge William Sullivan asked the defendant whether she agreed with her attorney's decision to stipulate to certain facts in an effort to reduce the number of prosecution witnesses. She said she agreed with the move, and Sullivan found she had made the decision knowingly and intelligently.
Elaine Rossi, who worked for a few months as a nanny for the Clancy family, described the defendant as a "wonderful mother." Rossi said she knew Clancy was anxious about returning to work and that Clancy's sleep difficulties had led her to stay in the basement overnight.
On Thursday, Clancy was unable to hold back tears as a medical examiner testified about her youngest son's injuries. As the doctor described ligature marks indicating he had been strangled to death, the defendant sobbed uncontrollably.
Lindsay Clancy's former father-in-law testified Thursday that he was aware of the struggles the defendant experienced in the weeks and months before she took her children's lives. He described her as "quiet" during holiday celebrations, and revealed that he and his wife had been invited to have dinner at the Clancys' home on the day the children were killed; they declined because they had other plans.
Testimony is scheduled to resume on Monday.
The post Shattered spine, journals and sobs: Biggest moments from week 2 of Lindsay Clancy's murder trial appeared first on Court TV.
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