Lindsay Clancy was having "one of her best days" when she killed her 3 children, ex-husband Patrick testifies

The trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Duxbury, Massachusetts mother charged with the murders of her three children, began Monday with opening statements. Her ex-husband Patrick then took the stand in Plymouth Superior Court as the first witness in the trial.

Clancy, 35, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her children - 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan - in the family's home on Jan. 24, 2023, before trying to take her own life.   

Patrick Clancy testified that despite her recent mental health struggles, Lindsay was having "one of her best days" in the hours before she has admitted to killing her children.

Patrick Clancy was the first person to find the children that night. The couple divorced after their children's deaths and Patrick Clancy remarried.

Court ended for the day Monday with Patrick Clancy still on the stand. There is no court Tuesday, and he will resume his testimony when proceedings resume on Wednesday.

Patrick Clancy takes witness stand

Patrick Clancy took the stand around 11:45 a.m. and stepped down around 3 p.m. as he was talking about the day his children were killed.

In the fall of 2022, Lindsay Clancy asked Patrick to sleep in the basement because she was having trouble sleeping as she battled mental health issues.

"She kept getting worse and worse," Patrick Clancy testified.

Prosecutor Jennifer Sprague noted that while Lindsay Clancy was prescribed several drugs for her mental health, she was not taking many pills from each bottle.

In December 2022, Lindsay Clancy switched to a new medication, Patrick Clancy told the court.

"That was really where her big spiral started," he said. 

Lindsay Clancy made suicidal statements, Patrick testified. He added that Lindsay told him she had thoughts of hurting her children. 

"It was very confusing because the next minute she was making them lunch or putting them to bed," he testified. "I never saw Lindsay harm the kids."

In late December 2022, Lindsay Clancy was admitted to McLean Hospital.

By January, she had been released. Patrick Clancy testified that she seemed to be improving. On January 24, 2023, the day the children were killed, Patrick Clancy said everything seemed normal in their Duxbury home. 

"She was having one of her best days," Patrick said.

WBZ-TV legal analyst Jennifer Roman said Patrick Clancy is a key witness to both sides in the case.

"Patrick Clancy is definitely empathetic and sympathetic to Lindsay Clancy, and he is a key witness for both sides, because he was her husband living there day in and day out with her, and he did give some compelling testimony today about how she was struggling," said WBZ-TV legal analyst Jennifer Roman. "I think at the end of the day, it's what the prosecution can do with those other facts that he was able to lay out today. You know, sort of demonstrating she was not an accurate reporter."

Lindsay Clancy made "calculated decision," prosecutor says

Earlier, Shanan Buckingham gave the opening statement for the prosecution, beginning just after 10:10 a.m. and lasting about 20 minutes. 

Buckingham said Dawson, Cora and Callan were "deliberately and meticulously killed" and Lindsay Clancy made a "calculated decision" to murder them.

"This is not a public debate about women's mental health and how the medical system treats women. This case is about this defendant, Lindsay Clancy," Buckingham said.  

Defense said Lindsay Clancy "had no motive" to kill children

Clancy admits to killing her children, according to her attorney Kevin Reddington, but he claims she was overmedicated for mental health issues and she suffered from extreme postpartum psychosis.

"She had no motive. She loved her children," Reddington said in his opening statement. 

The defense attorney said Google searches will show she sought information on postpartum care, ketamine treatment, insomnia and suicidal ideations.

"She's living in her own hell. She knows what happened to those kids," Reddington said. "This is a young woman that with her husband tried very hard to get the help she needed."

Opening statements concluded around 11 a.m. after about an hour.

Legal expert on Lindsay Clancy trial

Eighteen jurors - 12 women and six men - are hearing the case before Plymouth Superior Court Judge William Sullivan.

"Why would a loving, devoted mother do this is the million-dollar question that both sides need to answer for that jury," Roman said. 

Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, is accused of strangling her three children with exercise bands.

"Both sides are going to lean into the very gruesome nature of this alleged crime. But they're going to take a very different approach," Roman said.

"The prosecution is going to show signs that they think show premeditation, that she had been planning this and thinking about it and being methodical about it. The defense is going to throw the question, I think, back at the jury. How could somebody that's otherwise been known to be a loving and devoted mother, a caregiver, how could she have done this to her children unless she was suffering from a mental defect."

Roman believes prosecutors Buckingham and Jennifer Sprague will focus on the tragedy of the case.

"They want to seize that jury pool and say, 'This is what it looks like. This is the aftermath,'" Roman said. 

She expects the defense to also target the emotion, but from a different angle while questioning Clancy's ex-husband.

"Patrick Clancy has historically, from what we've seen, been very sympathetic and supportive of Lindsay Clancy, even coming out earlier on and saying she couldn't have done this unless she was suffering from some type of psychosis," Roman said.

On Friday, a judge approved Patrick Clancy's motion to suppress media access to his 911 call and pictures of his deceased children at the trial. The photos and call will be presented to the jury.

Lindsay Clancy trial

Jury selection, which took four days, was emotional at times as candidates were asked about their families' experience with psychiatrists, psychologists, or mental health facilities. Potential jurors were also asked about exposure to postpartum depression and bipolar disorder.

On the night of the children's deaths, Clancy was paralyzed when she jumped out of a window in an attempt to take her own life. She appears in court in a wheelchair, and has been receiving treatment at Tewksbury State Hospital since January 2023.

The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks. A list of potential witnesses has nearly 200 names on it.

If Clancy is found guilty, she faces life in prison without a chance at parole. If she's found not criminally responsible, she will be sent to a state mental health facility.