The Massachusetts mother accused of killing her three children appeared in court for the first time ahead of her murder trial.
Lindsay Clancy appeared solemn and unblinking as she was brought into a Plymouth District Court courtroom for a motion hearing on Friday in a wheelchair — which she is bound to after becoming paraplegic from cutting her neck and jumping out a window after slaying her children, WCVB reported.
Clancy, who previously appeared by video from her hospital bed for hearings, listened as Judge William F. Sullivan and lawyers set her next court date for March 2 for oral arguments on various issues — including her bid for a split trial.
The former nurse wants a trial first for a jury to determine if she is responsible for fatally strangling her kids Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and 8-month-old Callan with an exercise band at their Duxbury, Mass. home in January 2023.
She has requested a second, separate trial, which would then allow jurors to decide if she was suffering from a “mental disease or defect” when she allegedly killed them, her lawyer, Kevin Reddington, wrote in a filing ahead of the hearing.
The courtroom heard discussions about her upcoming April 10 mental evaluation to be conducted by an expert chosen by prosecutors.
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.
