A psychiatric nurse practitioner who examined Lindsay Clancy months before she killed her three children took the stand in the third week of the Massachusetts mother’s murder trial. Rebecca Jollotta, a psychiatric nurse practitioner with South Shore Hospital’s perinatal behavioral health program, testified she had a telehealth visit with Clancy in November 2022. Clancy appeared anxious and was struggling to get a full night sleep. Still, she had no signs of mania or psychosis, and her thought process was “linear” and “goal-directed,” Jollotta testified.

Background of the Case

The trial has featured testimony about the lead-up to the killings and Clancy’s struggles with post-partum anxiety, depression, and insomnia — and stoked a nationwide conversation about the issues. Prosecutors have argued Clancy “acted intentionally, rationally, and swiftly” when she fatally strangled her three children and attempted suicide at their Duxbury home on January 24, 2023.

Her defense attorneys have argued what’s known as the “insanity defense,” saying she is not criminally responsible because she was in the midst of a psychotic episode stemming from postpartum mental illness. Her family, friends, and mental health professionals have said Clancy did not show any signs of psychosis before or after the killings and did not believe she was a danger to herself or her children.

Clancy told one friend in January 2023 that a medication caused her to have “some dark thoughts,” the friend testified. The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks. Clancy faces life in prison if convicted of murder. She is being held at the public Tewksbury Hospital in Massachusetts, which specializes in treating those with mental illness.

Original reporting: El Paso News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.