A juror in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial says the lone holdout who deadlocked the panel used an exercise band and an empty water bottle to demonstrate how the defendant’s three children were strangled, according to an account given to ABC News.
Clancy, 36, was tried on three counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of her children — Cora, Dawson and Callan, all under age 6 — who were found strangled at the family’s home in Plymouth in January 2023. Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial after jurors reported they could not reach a unanimous verdict, with the panel split 11-1.
Nick Dargie, 25, one of the jurors, told ABC News that the holdout juror pulled the exercise band and water bottle from a bag during deliberations and mimicked the killings.
“He took the exercise band out of the bag, grabbed an empty water bottle and tied the band around the water bottle and pulled it,” Dargie said. “I was just so shocked that he did that.”
“I was shocked, it didn’t make any sense to me. Like, we’re not in here to play detective or it’s not a game of Clue. Like, this is serious. I asked him why,” he added.
Dargie said the holdout refused to point to any evidence or witness testimony supporting his position.
“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 said. “There wasn’t a single piece of evidence or witness testimony that he used to prove why he was thinking the way he was, which is why we ultimately sent in that note.”
That note, sent by the jury foreperson, informed the court that one juror was declining to follow instructions on the standard of reasonable doubt.
Following the accounts from jurors, Clancy’s defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, told “CBS Mornings” on Wednesday that he intends to file a new motion to dismiss the case on double jeopardy grounds.
“I would defend that person’s right to be a holdout for a month,” Reddington said. “That’s what the system is based on, but when the forelady indicated clearly and unequivocally in the jury question that this person had doubt, reasonable doubt as we know now, and just refused to listen to the judge’s instruction on the law, that’s when I was upset.”
Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz has not said whether prosecutors will retry the case. Sullivan has scheduled a status hearing for September 29.
