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Patrick Clancy, the daddy of 3 small children strangled within their Massachusetts house, become the primary witness Monday in his ex-wife’s homicide trial, providing jurors a harrowing account of the mental health decline he witnessed earlier than their deaths.
He used to be the primary witness referred to as within the trial of Lindsay Clancy, who faces homicide fees within the deaths of the couple’s 3 kids in January 2023. Prosecutors argue she acted intentionally, whilst protection legal professionals contend serious psychological sickness drove her movements.
Patrick described observing his then-wife fall right into a “giant spiral” after she started taking Seroquel, attesting that she misplaced weight, become seriously depressed and started expressing suicidal ideas.
“Terrible,” he stated when requested how Lindsay used to be doing bodily after beginning the drugs. “That used to be in reality the place her giant spiral began. She began to lose a large number of weight, and she or he become very depressed, and she or he used to be having a in reality onerous time.”
LINDSAY CLANCY’S HUSBAND COULD TESTIFY FOR HER AT TRIAL OVER DEATHS OF THEIR THREE CHILDREN
Patrick Clancy took the stand Monday and described observing his spouse fall right into a “giant spiral” earlier than she allegedly strangled their 3 small children throughout the circle of relatives’s Massachusetts house. (Greg Derr/Pool/The Patriot Ledger)
Patrick additionally testified that Lindsay instructed him she used to be experiencing intrusive ideas about harming their kids, despite the fact that she denied having a plan and stated the ideas disturbed her.
“I by no means noticed Lindsay hurt the youngsters,” he instructed jurors.
Patrick Clancy exits Plymouth Awesome Court docket, Plymouth, Mass., on Monday, July 27, 2026. His ex-wife, Lindsay Clancy, is on trial for the homicide in their 3 kids. (David McGlynn for Fox Information Virtual)
Margaret McLean, a former felony prosecutor and trial lawyer who teaches regulation at Boston School’s Carroll College of Control, stated Patrick’s measured supply did little to hide the anguish of a father being pressured to retrace the months previous his kids’s deaths.
“I feel his demeanor at the stand is in reality moderately medical. He’s telling it as it’s,” McLean instructed Fox Information Virtual. “You’ll see the anguish inside this guy’s eyes, his facial expressions. You’ll inform he’s anguished up there, and it’s a terrible factor to must relive and discuss.”
McLean stated Patrick gave the look to be compartmentalizing his feelings as he listened in moderation to the questions and supplied easy solutions.
“He’s were given to get via this,” she stated. “He’s were given to hear the questions and give you the solutions as absolute best he can, and I feel that he’s doing that.”
Lindsay Clancy reacts as the main points of her kids’s deaths are learn in courtroom on Monday. (Greg Derr/Pool/The Patriot Ledger)
Patrick testified that he used to be now not involved for the kids’s protection when Lindsay first shared that the intrusive ideas had been telling her to harm herself in addition to her kids. Moments after discussing the ideas, he stated, she might be noticed making the kids lunch, taking part in with them or making ready them for mattress.
Patrick instructed jurors that he become alarmed after Lindsay used to be prescribed 13 psychiatric drugs within the months previous to the murders and that he driven for an in-person appointment as a result of he believed there used to be a “disconnect” between the seriousness of her situation and the temporary telehealth classes she used to be receiving.
“It looked like maximum of her telehealth appointments had been beautiful fast, and there simply wasn’t, like, a large number of consideration,” he stated.
Patrick additionally described taking Lindsay to medical institution emergency departments and serving to her input McLean Hospital after she endured expressing suicidal ideas.
He testified that he “would have paid the rest” if insurance coverage had develop into a drawback to maintaining her hospitalized.
Lindsay Clancy used to be indicted on 3 counts each and every of homicide within the 2023 deaths of her 5-year-old daughter Cora, 3-year-old son Dawson and 7-month-old son Callan. She pleaded now not accountable to the fees. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger by way of Pool)
The testimony may just go away jurors asking whether or not the caution brought about an good enough reaction, McLean stated, whilst cautioning in opposition to hanging blame on Patrick or members of the family who would possibly not have understood the severity of the chance.
“Such a lot of folks don’t perceive psychological well being these days, so I’m now not blaming him in any respect,” McLean stated. “Any one would possibly have accomplished what he did, however that’s the phase that scared me.”
WATCH: Lindsay Clancy clutches tissues as jurors listen about her 3 kids
Patrick’s testimony adopted starkly other opening statements from prosecutors and the protection.
Assistant District Legal professional Shanan Buckingham instructed jurors that Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, had been “intentionally and meticulously killed” via their mom on Jan. 24, 2023.
Buckingham alleged that Clancy intentionally despatched Patrick from their Duxbury house to select up drugs and takeout meals, giving herself sufficient time to strangle each and every kid with an workout band earlier than making an attempt to kill herself.
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McLean stated Buckingham gave jurors a “roadmap of chilly, calculated intent” whilst humanizing each and every kid’s pursuits and that specialize in the time and bodily effort required to hold out 3 separate strangulations.
“The prosecution did that as a result of she [Buckingham] needs the jury to needless to say the act of strangulation takes time and bodily effort,” McLean stated. “It calls for a aware option to proceed 3 separate occasions.”
Plymouth County Assistant District Legal professional Shanan Buckingham delivers her opening remark in courtroom on Monday. (Greg Derr/Pool/The Patriot Ledger)
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The Commonwealth’s technique, she stated, is to reject the protection’s bid that Clancy suffered a surprising psychotic spoil and as an alternative painting her as arranged, useful and regulated.
All the way through opening statements, protection lawyer Kevin Reddington conceded that Clancy killed the kids however argued that the one significant dispute is what used to be going down within her thoughts.
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“She is aware of that she killed those kids,” Reddington instructed jurors. “The problem for attention is what used to be happening in that girl’s thoughts.”
McLean described the concession as a calculated transfer via a veteran trial lawyer.
“Through doing that, he is trying to strip the prosecution in their surprise price and power the jury to appear purely at Lindsay Clancy’s psychological capability,” she stated.
Reddington argued that Clancy had no purpose to kill kids she had liked and nurtured. He additionally displayed graphic medical institution images appearing Clancy with accidents to her neck and wrists.
Lindsay Clancy’s homicide trial is anticipated to final six to 8 weeks, and the witness record accommodates greater than 200 names. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger by way of Pool)
McLean stated the protection used to be framing Clancy’s paralysis “now not resulting from against the law, however because the tragic ultimate symptom of an entire postpartum psychotic spoil.”
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Clancy, a former hard work and supply nurse at Massachusetts Basic Health center, has pleaded now not accountable to a few counts each and every of homicide and strangulation. Her legal professionals don’t dispute that she killed the kids however argue that she lacked felony duty on account of serious postpartum psychosis.
Pass judgement on William Sullivan instructed jurors that the Commonwealth will have to end up past an inexpensive doubt that Clancy used to be criminally accountable when the kids had been killed.
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“It’s going to be black and white for some folks, grey house for folks,” McLean stated. “It will be one of the crucial toughest issues that this jury, or any jury, will ever must come to a decision.”
