Another juror in Lindsay Clancy’s triple murder trial has spoken out about the lone holdout and the emotional toll of the evidence in the case.
See judge declare a mistrial in Lindsay Clancy murder trial
The Lindsay Clancy murder trial jury was not able to come to a verdict, the judge declared a mistrial.
Another juror in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial has spoken out about the lone juror who multiple jury members said derailed deliberations.
Several members of the jury were initially leaning towards a guilty verdict, but all except one man eventually changed their minds, Nick Dargie told ABC News in an exclusive interview on Sept. 9. Dargie, 25, said it was “frustrating” that the holdout juror expressed uncertainty about whether the prosecution or the defense proved their case, but ultimately refused to change or explain his vote.
“There was several times I would ask him to show us evidence or, you know, describe a witness testimony that helped to prove what he was saying, and … he couldn’t,” Dargie told the outlet.
At one point, Dargie said he was “shocked” that the juror wrapped the exercise band Clancy used to strangle her three children – 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan – around a water bottle. But other times, Dargie said the juror wouldn’t engage and would “be scrolling on his phone while people were talking to him.”
Dargie’s comments echo frustrations expressed by other jurors, including the foreperson, in the wake of the mistrial. Roni Carlson, a former elementary school teacher who served as the jury foreperson, told NBC10 Boston that the holdout “admitted he had reasonable doubt” but still refused to vote not guilty by reason of insanity.
“He was very arrogant,” Paula Devlin, another juror who works for a defense contractor, told the outlet.
The dispute in the jury room ultimately led Judge William Sullivan to declare a mistrial in the closely watched case on Sept. 4. Over the course of 38 hours of deliberations, jurors repeatedly reported being unable to unanimously agree on whether Clancy should be held criminally responsible for killing her children.
At one point, the jury notified Sullivan that a juror had “refused to listen” to the court’s instructions on reasonable doubt. Clancy’s defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, repeatedly pushed to get the juror removed.
Sullivan reminded the jury about their obligations to follow his instructions, but declined to remove the juror, saying that it wasn’t appropriate for him to “agree with one juror or 11.”
Like others on the jury, Dargie also spoke about the emotional toll the weeks-long trial took, particularly the “frightening” 911 call made by Patrick Clancy after finding his wife, who had slashed her wrists and neck and jumped out of a second-story window, leaving her paralyzed, and later his children, who were in the basement of their home.
Clancy’s defense team did not dispute that she killed her children, but argued she could not be held criminally responsible because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time, also known as an insanity defense. Prosecutors argued she planned the killings and sent her husband out of the house to pick up food and medicine.
The mistrial has left Clancy’s fate in limbo. Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz has not yet said whether he will retry Clancy in front of a new jury, but more light could be shed on next steps in the case at a hearing on Sept. 29.
“Children were murdered and it’s our job to seek justice,” Cruz told reporters after the mistrial was declared.
Contributing: Amanda Lee Myers, Melina Khan and Christopher Cann