Jurors in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial allegedly violated court rules by using their phones to research the case during deliberations, according to a spokesperson for the lone juror who refused to support an acquittal.
A spokesperson for sole dissenting juror Michael P. Desronvil has accused several other members of the jury of violating court orders by using their cellphones, according to NewsNation reporter Brian Entin.
Jury members are required to decide a defendant’s guilt or innocence exclusively from the evidence and testimony presented in court.
Outside research is prohibited because exposure to information that was not admitted as evidence could influence a juror’s judgment and compromise the proceedings.
Ray Marcel, a spokesperson for holdout juror Michael P. Desronvil, told Entin that “everybody had their phones on them” and that some jurors allegedly posted on social media while deliberations were underway.
“I don’t know if they were allowed their phones, but they weren’t taken away,” Marcel said.
The allegation follows a motion filed by Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, seeking an examination of Desronvil’s phone metadata. Desronvil was the only juror to reject an acquittal earlier this month.
Eleven of the 12 jurors were prepared last Friday to find Clancy not criminally responsible. Their inability to reach a unanimous decision led the judge to declare a mistrial, leaving the case unresolved.
Jurors in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial allegedly used their phones to research the case during deliberations, despite a strict court ban on outside information
Michael P. Desronvil, 48, the jury’s lone holdout, has accused several fellow jurors of allegedly breaking court rules by using their phones to investigate the case
Neither the defense nor the prosecution disputed that Clancy strangled her children—five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson and eight-month-old Callan Clancy—at the family’s Massachusetts home on January 24, 2023, before attempting to take her own life.
Reddington portrayed Clancy as a loving mother suffering from the rare psychiatric condition postpartum psychosis. Prosecutors, however, argued that she understood what she was doing and should be held responsible.
Desronvil, 48, sided with prosecutors and said he had no doubt Clancy was guilty, putting him at odds with the other 11 jurors.
Reddington has now asked Judge William Sullivan to review Desronvil’s mobile phone metadata from the period when the jury was deliberating, according to a motion seen by the New York Times.
The filing also seeks to question Desronvil about whether he was truthful during jury selection and whether he used his phone or accessed outside information during deliberations.
Reddington wants the questioning conducted on the record with attorneys for both sides present.
“The inquiry will not touch the substance of deliberations,” the motion states.
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It remains uncertain whether the jury’s decision, or the outcome of the mistrial, could ultimately be changed.
Clancy did not deny killing her three children, but argued she should be found not guilty by reason of insanity because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis
Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse, acknowledged that she killed her three children but maintained that she should be found not guilty by reason of insanity. Her defense argued that postpartum psychosis impaired her mental state at the time.
Although 11 jurors accepted that explanation, Desronvil rejected the defense’s account.
Since a mistrial was declared, several jurors have publicly accused him of refusing to meaningfully engage with their arguments, with some describing him as ‘arrogant’.
Fellow juror Paula Devlin, 65, told the Daily Mail that the holdout juror made ‘no sense’ when pressed on his reasons for his vote and was ‘quiet’ for most of the week-long deliberations.
He was more focused on policing the tenor of the group’s discussions than offering explanations for his conviction that Clancy was guilty, she said.
‘The main thing he focused on is sometimes we would all want to talk at once, and that was very upsetting to him.
‘He would get upset and say, ”Listen to what she’s saying, listen to what he’s saying, be respectful’.”
‘We were trying to say to him, that sometimes somebody says something and they get lost in their thought or they can’t find the right word, and somebody else puts that word in there for them or finishes their thought, that’s how normal conversation works.
‘But when that would happen, he would get upset and just take all this time lecturing us about not being respectful.’
Cora, five; Dawson, three; and Callan, eight months, were found strangled to death at their home in Duxbury, Massachusetts on January 24, 2023
Juror Paula Devlin, 65, told the Daily Mail that the holdout made ‘no sense’ when pressed on his reasons for his vote and was ‘quiet’ for most of the week-long deliberations
Devlin also claimed the holdout rarely fraternized with the group during the trial, instead preferring to speak to his wife or watch videos on his phone.
She said the 11 jurors who decided Clancy was not guilty of murder or manslaughter in the deaths of her kids felt ‘defeat’ and ‘anger’ when the mistrial was declared.
Meanwhile, the father of the three slain children, Patrick Clancy, revealed on Sunday that he suffered a panic attack and ended up needing medical treatment while giving grueling testimony at his ex-wife’s trial.
The grieving father sat down with 60 Minutes to share his heartbreak over the deaths of his three children Cora, five, Dawson, three and Callan, eight months old, as well as the toll that their mother’s trial took on him.