Paralyzed nurse says she’ll admit to killing her three children while in throes of postpartum depression in move that could see her avoid prison

A paralyzed nurse accused of killing her three children while in a state of postpartum depression has indicated she is willing to admit to the crime in the hopes of avoiding prison, her lawyers have said.

Lindsay Clancy, 35, allegedly strangled her children – Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight–month–old Callan – to death before jumping out of a window in January 2023, leaving her permanently paralyzed from the waist down. 

The Massachusetts mother-of-three has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and three counts of strangulation or suffocation.

Her attorneys argue she was overmedicated and in the throes of postpartum psychosis at the time of the killings.

But Clancy is willing to plead no contest to the murders if the court agrees to split her trial into two phases – one to determine guilt and the other to determine whether she had a ‘mental disease or defect’ at the time of the killings.

‘The defendant is willing to stipulate formally in writing to her involvement in the underlying conduct resulting in the death of the three children,’ Clancy’s attorney Kevin Reddington wrote in a Thursday court filing obtained by Court TV.

‘With that understanding, the defendant submits that the only live issue for consideration at trial would be the defendant’s state of mind as it relates to the defense of lack of criminal responsibility.’ 

If Clancy were found to be mentally incompetent, she could be committed to a mental institution instead of sentenced to prison.

The latest court filing comes after Judge William Sullivan last month denied Clancy’s request to have her murder trial split in two parts.

‘It would be nearly impossible to divide the evidence cleanly between the two phases as the defendant proposes,’ Sullivan wrote in his order. 

‘Many of the same witnesses would be called to testify during both phases of trial, likely involving duplicative issues. Importantly the information conveyed by counsel regarding trial planning has indicated lengthy and extensive expert testimony. 

‘Having witnesses provide the same testimony for, at best, marginally different purposes for each proposed phase does not further the interests of judicial economy.’

Reddington has now asked the judge to reconsider his ruling if Clancy were to admit to the murders. Clancy would not plead guilty, but would agree during the trial that she killed her children.

The prosecution, which opposes the split trial, wants the case to proceed as planned. 

Prosecutors have accused Clancy of strangling her three children with exercise bands in the basement of her $750,000 Duxbury home on January 24, 2023.

After the alleged murders, she tried to kill herself by jumping from a second–story window but survived and must now use a wheelchair for the rest of her life. 

From September 2022 to January 2023, Clancy suffered from depression and was prescribed multiple psychiatric drugs including antidepressants, mood stabilizers, and benzodiazepines, per the suit.

Her attorneys claim the meds caused paranoia, suicidal thoughts, and fear of being alone, with no lab work conducted after they were prescribed.

The defense has said that Clancy was so over-medicated that she was hearing a ‘loud, demanding, repetitious voice’ in her head that told her to ‘kill the children so you can kill yourself.’

But prosecutors alleged that Clancy had deliberately sent her husband out to run errands on the night of the murders so that she would have time to commit them. 

They also argued that she was not suffering from postpartum depression, and they have alleged that she used her cellphone to research ways to kill in the days before her children died.

In January, Clancy’s husband Patrick filed a lawsuit accusing his wife’s doctors of ‘misprescribing’ a cocktail of ‘powerful medications’ that worsened her mental health.

The lawsuit was filed against Dr Jennifer Tufts, nurse Rebecca Jollotta, Aster Mental Health Inc, and South Shore Health System. 

It details her interactions with medical providers and claims that overmedication and poor monitoring allegedly led to her children’s deaths.

‘If [the doctors] had not acted negligently, and rather had provided adequate care, it is more likely than not that Patrick and Lindsay’s children would still be alive today,’ the lawsuit stated.

Clancy is being held at the Tewksbury State Hospital pending trial. Her jury trial is scheduled to begin in July.