The Massachusetts woman charged with the tragic deaths of her three young children made her initial court appearance in anticipation of her murder trial.
Lindsay Clancy appeared visibly somber as she entered the Plymouth District Courtroom for a motion hearing on Friday. She arrived in a wheelchair due to paraplegia, a consequence of injuring her neck and leaping from a window following the alleged murders, according to WCVB.
Previously, Clancy attended hearings via video link from her hospital bed. During this session, she listened as Judge William F. Sullivan and the attorneys scheduled her next court appearance for March 2, when they will address several legal matters, including her request for a bifurcated trial.
The former nurse seeks an initial trial where a jury would determine her culpability in the deaths of her children—Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and 8-month-old Callan—whom she allegedly strangled using an exercise band at their Duxbury, Massachusetts residence in January 2023.
Her legal team, led by Kevin Reddington, has filed for a second trial phase to allow jurors to assess whether she was afflicted by a “mental disease or defect” during the incident.
Discussions in the courtroom also covered her forthcoming mental health evaluation, set for April 10, to be conducted by a prosecution-appointed expert.
Judge Sullivan said he wanted the exam to happen soon, adding that the test “is going forward on that date no matter what.”
Sullivan also asked Clancy and her lawyer whether they wished for Clancy to be brought back to court for future in-person hearings.
Reddington leaned over and spoke with Clancy before telling the judge, “I’d like to have her here.”
“I’m very protective of her, and I don’t want her to be stressed,” Reddington, who has alleged Clancy was suffering from severe postpartum mental health issues during the time of the killings, later told the outlet.
“It’s a very emotionally draining thing, and she’s nervous and scared, and I want her to gradually acclimate,” he said.
The alleged killer mother claimed in a lawsuit that several doctors mismanaged her treatment of bipolar disorder, loading her up with a myriad of drugs from October to December of 2022, such as Zoloft, trazodone, Prozac, Ambien, Remeron, Klonopin, Seroquel, Ativan, Valium, and Lamictal.
She was overtaken by a “force” and began hearing voices when she started taking Seroquel, the day she killed her kids, her suit claimed.
Her husband, Patrick Clancy, filed a separate lawsuit against her doctors, also claiming she was “overmedicated” to the point of hearing voices at the time of the killings.
She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder a year after her arrest — a condition that antidepressants usually make worse, the suit said.
“She’s a loving mother, always has been,” Paula Musgrove, Clancy’s mother, told the outlet after the hearing.
Clancy has been on suicide watch at Tewksbury State Hospital since her arrest. Her trial is set for July 2026 in Plymouth Superior Court.
