Lindsay Clancy’s trial has hit another unexpected delay.
One day after JudgeWilliam Sullivansent home jurors early for an “unforeseen circumstance,” he once again dismissed the court early Aug. 20.
“It’s going to be a short day, but also gear up for a longer day tomorrow,” Sullivan said in court Aug. 20, per ABC News. “If you’re going to hold it against anybody, hold it against me.”
Meanwhile, News Nation reporterBrian Etin—who was present in the court room—noted in an X post that when Sullivan was sharing the reason for the unexpected abbre
Later, Etin wrote in a separate post “Something is going on behind the scenes.”
Sullivan’s early dismissal of the court comes just one day after he dismissed the jury for Clancy’s trial,which will determine whether she should be held criminally responsible for the 2023 killings of exPatrick Clancy’s childrenCora, 5,Dawson, 3, andCallan, 8 months.
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Lindsay Clancy Murder Trial Revelations: Last Texts, Search History, Unexpected Court Delay & More
“This is not something we saw coming, but you’re not to speculate about what it is,” Sullivan instructed the 18 jurors in court Aug. 19, per ABC News. “You’re not to hold it against either side. It’s just something that we have to deal with.”
Throughout the 36-year-old’s trial, prosecution has argued that she “deliberately and meticulously” planned to kill her three children and then herself on Jan. 24, 2023 at the family’s Duxbury, Massachusetts home. Meanwhile, Clancy’s defense is arguing that the former labor and delivery nurse was a dedicated mother and experiencing postpartum psychosis at the time of her children’s murders. (As a result of injuries sustained during her apparent suicide attempt, Clancy is permanently paralyzed.)
Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe
On Aug. 17, Clancy’s motherPaula Musgrovetestified that her daughter had admitted she “had thoughts of harming the children” in a December 2022 conversation, just one month before their deaths.
“I remember her being very nervous,” Musgrove recalled on the witness stand. “I remember her saying, ‘I just have to tell you guys something, and then she told us…She told us that she had thoughts of harming the children.’”
Elsewhere in her testimony, Musgrove maintained that she saw her daughter be a “very loving mother” to her kids.
“I felt it was the best thing that ever happened to her,” Musgrove said, “and she would do anything for her children.”
For a deeper look at Clancy’s trial, keep reading…
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The 35-year-old former nurse has not denied killing daughter Cora, 5, and sons Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, but has pleaded not guilty of murder, the defense attributing her actions to postpartum psychosis.
Patrick Clancy testified that Lindsay struggled with her mental health after giving birth to Callan in May 2023, according to CNN.
She also sought treatment after Dawson was born in 2019, he said, “but it didn’t last very long.”
Lindsay’s “big spiral,” as he referred to it, occurred in December 2023 after she started taking a new medication, one of several she’d been prescribed since September, Patrick said. He testified that Lindsay told him she had “intrusive thoughts” about harming their children and herself.
He didn’t worry about the kids’ safety, he said, because she didn’t seem to have “any intention” of actually hurting them.
On Dec. 31, Patrick said, Lindsay went to the E.R. at Massachusetts General Hospital “because she was still talking about thoughts of suicide. She was admitted to an affiliated psychiatric facility, and when she was discharged Jan. 5 she seemed “much better.”
“She was playing with the kids,” he said, “and she seemed in a good mood.”
That morning she had taken Cora to a doctor’s appointment and he had texted her a picture of Dawson after he “dressed himself completely for the first time.”
Patrick told the court he had felt “hopeful” since his wife’s release from the hospital. “Her mood seemed better,” he said. “She was more active, and she was able…to partake in more things.”
Before he left to pick up dinner and medication for Cora, he said he kissed one of the kids on the head and told them he’d “be right back.”
Prosecutors allege Lindsay sent Patrick on errands to get him out of the house on purpose. Then, Plymouth County Assistant District Attorney Shanan Buckingham said in her opening statement, she strangled the children with exercise bands “deliberately and meticulously.”
Patrick testified July 29 that no one told him he shouldn’t leave Linday alone with their kids, telling the court, “I didn’t know what psychosis was until after this happened.”
“I want help,” she wrote in an entry read by her attorney. “I want to be well.”
In another, she said, “I have crazy brain fog. I feel like I can’t make a plan. I live moment to moment waiting for the next nap time. I’m terrified of Cal getting overtired now because I feel can’t help him.”
He said, per The Guardian, that his lab found that only the level of quetiapine in her blood was slightly elevated, but it wasn’t at a “toxic” or “suicidal concentration.” He further described the levels in her blood as “not consistent” with someone who takes a bunch of pills before trying to end her life.
Under defense cross-examination, Brower also said that toxicology results “don’t tell the entire story.”
Lindsay’s attorney Kevin Reddington said in his July 28 opening statement that she has bipolar disorder and medication worsened her condition.
On the day she killed Cora, Dawson and Callan, Reddington said, she heard a voice telling her, “‘This is your last chance. Kill the children so you can kill yourself.'”
“I observed a wonderful mom who loved her kids,” Rossi said. “She was concerned about their safety, and Callan eating and sleeping. She was a wonderful mother.”
“She talked about insomnia and not feeling herself,” Hennigan said, per the AP. “I believe she might have used the words brain fog or something like that.”
Lindsay texted her in January 2023, Hennigan said, that she was experiencing “bad or negative side effects” from medication.
When they returned from their morning break the next day, Reddington told Judge Williams Sullivan he had an issue to raise.
Asked what he had to share, per the Ledger, the lawyer replied, “I want to tell you that [a prosecutor] got picked up on a hot mic saying ‘shut her up’ during the playing of their autopsy.”
“This is not like Handmaid’s Tale,” Reddington added. “You can’t tape her mouth shut.”
Prosecution lawyers said in response that they reviewed footage of the moment in question and what appeared to have been said was, ‘Shut it off,’ indicating they should remove the autopsy photos from the screen.
“Any chance you want to do take out from ThreeV,” she sent him at 4:53 p.m. on the evening of January 24, 2023, according to messages read in court Aug. 14 by prosecution witness State Trooper Timothy Chiappini, who analyzed Lindsay’s cell phone. “I didn’t cook anything. It’s been a long day.”
Patrick replied, “Yeah,” and she wrote back, “Okie dokie, check the menu when you can.”
Patrick then asked if Callan was up from his nap yet, and she replied, “It was just a short nap.”
Also per the texts read in court, Lindsay said at 5:07 p.m. that she’d have a Mediterranean Power Bowl, while Patrick went with “scallops and pork belly risotto” a minute later.
She also made searches related to postpartum psychosis five days before their Jan. 24 deaths. And on that day, she looked up “kids miralax” and “CVS pharmacy”.
Whiffin also spoke on the data recorded by Lindsay’s iPhone Apple Health app and her Apple Watch, that showed she had climbed two flights of stairs at 5:03 and 5:33 p.m.
Though he did not provide further details, Sullivan told the jury, per ABC News, “This is not something we saw coming, but you’re not to speculate about what it is. You’re not to hold it against either side. It’s just something that we have to deal with.”
E! News has reached out to Plymouth Superior Court for comment but has not heard back.
