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Live Updates: Jury in Lindsay Clancy murder trial begins deliberations
Confirmed
During the first day, he described his then-wife's mental health struggles and said that, despite those issues, Lindsay Clancy had had "one of her best days" in the hours before the killings. In the entry, Lindsay Clancy mentioned being "on the fence" about starting a new medication, and said she wanted "to be able to relax and take care of my kids.
Sprague said Lindsay Clancy had thoughts in December of harming her kids and told Patrick and her mother, but not medical providers even though they asked. She said Lindsay Clancy started "planning" at 4 p.m., looking up how long it would take for Patrick to get to a restaurant to pick up takeout food.
On the second day of his testimony, Patrick Clancy described leaving the house to pick up takeout food that Lindsay Clancy had ordered. He ran outside, he said, and found Lindsay Clancy on the ground with "deep cuts on her wrists" and a red line across her neck.
He also noted that Lindsay Clancy did not take the stand, and said jurors cannot hold that against her. The prosecutor said Clancy’s decision to withhold her thoughts about harming her children in December 2022 from her mental health providers was proof she knew those thoughts were wrong.
Instead, Sprague said, the case is about whether Clancy was acting rationally and understood what she was doing was wrong. Prosecutor Sprague said Clancy "didn't want to try anymore," before making the decision to kill her children.
Prosecutor Sprague said it wasn't the fault of medical providers that Clancy was struggling. "This case is going to come down to those warring experts" and whether the facts presented in the trial are more consistent with the prosecution's experts or the defense's experts, CBS News legal contributor Rebecca Roiphe said. © 2026 CBS Interactive Inc.
After hearing "a loud scream from inside," Hall and fellow officer Brian Josephine entered the home and found Patrick Clancy in the basement, where he had discovered the bodies of his three children, Hall said. Defense attorney Reddington objected when Sprague brought up the Andrea Yates case and said Yates had heard voices telling her to kill her children for months, while Clancy acted after hearing a voice once.
Clancy also saw other medical professionals, obsessively googled treatments, called suicide hotlines, and checked herself into a hospital that released her three weeks before the killings, he said. Sprague argued Clancy planned the killings and sent Patrick, her then-husband, to pick up takeout from a location farther away than usual, giving her time to kill their children.
What's confirmed
- Prosecutor Sprague said Clancy "didn't want to try anymore," before making the decision to kill her children.
- I'm saying it's what she had to do to end her misery," Sprague said.
- Prosecutor Sprague said it wasn't the fault of medical providers that Clancy was struggling.
- While she told her then-husband about those thoughts, she withheld them from her doctors because she worried her children might be taken away, Sprague said.
- "This wasn't a woman suffering from a lack of care, a lack of resources," Sprague said.
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- When he asked where their children were, she said they were in the basement.
- Instead, Sprague said, the case is about whether Clancy was acting rationally and understood what she was doing was wrong.
What's still developing
- "I don't think I've ever seen a more dedicated group of jurors in any trial I've ever been involved in," the judge said.
- He also noted that Lindsay Clancy did not take the stand, and said jurors cannot hold that against her.
- "The fact that the defendant did not testify has nothing to do with the question of whether she's guilty or not guilty," he said.
- The judge said jurors must also not be influenced by the graphic nature of photos submitted as evidence.
- She said Clancy showed rationality by killing the older children first before the infant.
- She said strangling them showed extreme atrocity and cruelty.
- "She left them discarded on the basement floor like broken toys because she was done playing the game," Sprague said.
- Defense attorney Reddington objected when Sprague brought up the Andrea Yates case and said Yates had heard voices telling her to kill her children for months, while Clancy acted after hearing a voice once.