Lindsay Clancy breaks down crying during testimony about children's autopsies
Testimony in the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy was interrupted multiple times on Wednesday, as the Massachusetts woman audibly sobbed in response to testimony about the autopsies of her deceased children.
Judge William Sullivan opted to excuse the jury at times during the testimony of doctors Renee Stonebridge and Barbara Olson, who described the injuries to two of the Clancy children, Cora and Dawson.
"Sometimes there's evidence that's presented in the trial that creates an emotional reaction," Judge Sullivan told the jurors, reminding them that the law "says you must separate any emotional reaction on your part from the informational value and weight that the evidence produces."
Clancy, 35, was seen hunched over the defense table with a box of tissues nearby during both doctors' testimony. She reportedly began crying as Olson, a medical examiner, described Cora's injuries, and she was removed from the courtroom in her wheelchair a few minutes later during a recess.
Clancy has pleaded not guilty to three murder charges in connection with the deaths of her 5-year-old daughter Cora, 3-year-old son Dawson, and infant son Callan at her family's home in the Boston suburb of Duxbury on Jan. 24, 2023.
Clancy's defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, has argued she had postpartum psychosis and severe mental illness, and that she attempted to take her own life after strangling her children.
Postpartum psychosis is a rare but serious medical emergency characterized by severe, rapid onset psychiatric episodes such as mania, depression or hallucinations. It can have rapid onset in the days or weeks after birth, research shows.
Jurors heard from a total of six witnesses on Wednesday, including the two doctors who conducted the autopsies, as well as three law enforcement officers who kept watch over Clancy in the hospital after she killed her three kids and tried to take her own life.
Jurors also heard from another medical professional -- therapist Latiesha Dukes -- who treated Clancy in the weeks before she killed her children. Dukes told jurors that Clancy expressed concerns about being addicted to benzodiazepines, but did not show obvious signs of mania or psychosis. Like the other medical professionals who treated Clancy, Dukes testified that she was unaware of some of her struggles finding treatment for her postpartum depression.
Earlier in the week, on Tuesday, jurors heard from the psychiatric nurse practitioner who treated Lindsay Clancy in the weeks before Clancy strangled her children to death.
Nurse practitioner Rebecca Jollotta specifically testified about patient portal messages she exchanged with Clancy during that period, telling jurors Clancy repeatedly attempted to change psychiatric medications despite acknowledging that switching drugs would likely impact her mental health.
"It's just a scary, very scary, stressful time for me, and starting new meds with side effects is very scary to me," Clancy wrote in one message, according to prosecutors.
Jollotta testified that she tried to be encouraging, telling Clancy her conditions would improve and that new medications can take weeks to take effect.
Jollotta is one of several medical professionals being sued by both Clancy and her ex-husband Patrick Clancy for allegedly overmedicating and failing to properly treat Lindsay Clancy following the birth of her third child. Jollotta, along with the other medical professionals named in the suits, has denied the allegations.
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