After five weeks, nearly 80 witnesses and hundreds of pieces of evidence, it would be a monumental task to figure out which testimony in the murder trial of former Connecticut resident Lindsay Clancy, charged with killing her children, had the greatest impact on the jury.
But there were some moments that stand out.
Clancy is accused of murdering her three children - 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan Clancy. Clancy's now-former husband, Patrick Clancy, testified that he had returned home on Jan. 24, 2023, to find Clancy had jumped from a second-floor window of their Duxbury, Mass., home. He found the children in the basement, strangled with exercise bands.
The trial focused on Clancy's mental health issues and treatment prior to the killings and whether experts felt she was mentally ill but in control of her actions when she murdered her children.
Clancy, who grew up in Wallingford, mounted what is commonly known as an "insanity defense" in the deaths. Her defense attorney Kevin Reddington, has not denied she committed the killings, instead arguing that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and was improperly medicated. Prosecutors contend she planned the killings and should be held criminally responsible.
The jury on Friday was continuing to deliberate her fate.
Here is a list of key testimony in the trial:
Patrick Clancy was the first witness to take the stand for the prosecution when the trial started on July 27. His testimony was notable not only because he was the last person other than his wife to see his children alive, he also told the jury during cross-examination by defense attorney Kevin Reddington that his now-former wife was a wonderful mother who would do anything for their children.
He spoke of Lindsay Clancy's deteriorating mental health and the several prescription medications she had received from different providers. He also testified that she told him she was having intrusive thoughts of harming their children. But he said she "seemed much better" after spending four days in a mental health facility during the first week of January 2023.
His first day on the stand ended as he started recounting the events of Jan. 24, 2023. That morning, he said, Lindsay Clancy appeared to be "having one of her best days."
As his testimony resumed the next day, Patrick Clancy recalled how he returned home from picking up takeout food and medication to find his wife seriously hurt in their backyard and the three children in the basement with exercise bands around their necks. "She killed the kids!" Patrick Clancy can be heard in a 911 call to dispatchers that was played in the courtroom.
As one of the first witness for the defense, Lindsay Clancy's mother, Paula Musgrove, tearfully spoke of the three grandchildren she lost, some of the most poignant moments of the trial - demonstrating to the jury that despite the unimaginable loss, she still loved and supported her daughter.
Musgrove told the court that she loved her grandchildren with "all my heart."
"You'll never know what it's like to love a grandchild until you become a grandmother," she said. "It was the most beautiful thing. I love them with all of my heart."
She also provided a stunning revelation, that in the weeks before the killings, her daughter admitted to her and Patrick Clancy that she was having thoughts of harming the children.
"I remember her being very nervous, I remember her saying, 'I just have to tell you guys something,' and and then she told us," Musgrove said on the stand.
"What did she tell you?" Reddington asked. "She said, 'I have thoughts of harming the children,'" her Connecticut mother testified.
Judge William Sullivan had to stop the proceedings twice after witnesses on the stand being questioned by prosecutors either were asked about or volunteered their thoughts on the family's Catholic faith, which he said was "absolutely inappropriate."
In the first instance, Patrick Clancy's mother ,Susan Clancy, was being cross-examined by Assistant District Attorney Shanan Buckingham when the prosecutor asked about her faith. Susan Clancy had just testified that her daughter-in-law was a good person who was "begging for help."
"Are you a active member in the Catholic Church?" Buckingham asked.
"Yes," Susan Clancy responded.
"So you're aware that murder is considered a mortal sin?" the prosecutor asked.
Sullivan halted the testimony, called for a sidebar, and then directed jurors not to consider Buckingham's question.
The following week, Reddington asked for a mistrial when Lindsay Clancy's Catholic faith was brought up again, this time by an expert testifying for the prosecution.
"That was part of her expectation was that she and her children would be together in heaven with God. She was raised as a Catholic," forensic psychologist Kirk Helibrun said. "As I understand Catholic considerations, that's not necessarily what happens. But when I asked her about that, when I said, 'Isn't suicide a mortal sin?'"
Reddington objected to the statement, and Sullivan then called for a sidebar. Jurors were sent out of the room and, after a brief recess, Reddington made a motion to request a mistrial.
"This is intentional misconduct on part of the prosecution. You know that this whole idea of injecting Roman Catholic faith, the concept of mortal sin, into this trial occurred about a week ago," Reddington told Sullivan. "This is just over the top. It's the same thing again."
Sullivan denied Reddington's motion for a mistrial but instructed prosecutors to keep a tight rein on their witnesses and then told the jury to strike the remarks.
It was a turn of events that punctuated days of at times contentious testimony from three rebuttal witnesses put on the stand by prosecutors.
For days, Reddington hammered at testimony provided for the prosecution by expert forensic psychologists and psychiatrists Dr. Avrum Mack, Dr. Kirk Heilbrun and Dr. Gregory Saathoff.
But one final question Reddington asked of Saathoff in the last hours of the trial stood out.
Reddington finished his cross-examination of Saathoff by reading a passage from the prosecution's opening statements, contending that Clancy "no longer liked the the life she thought she wanted" so she decided to kill Cora, Dawson and Callan before killing herself. The passage also said that Clancy had "manipulated her providers" and "made a choice" four months into treatment to end her life.
He then asked Saathoff whether the psychiatrist agreed with the passages. Saathoff said the comments "really minimizes what she was going through."
Sign up for the Connecticut Briefing from CT Insider. Get the biggest headlines of the day from our network of journalists around the state.
This article originally published at Lindsay Clancy's murder trial had nearly 80 witnesses. These 4 moments stood out.