A man who served on the jury in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial released a statement explaining why he would not join the other 11 jurors in finding Clancy not guilty by reason of insanity.
Michael Péguy Desronvil was identified as the lone holdout juror. His refusal to dismiss the charges resulted in a mistrial. Other jurors expressed disappointment that they could not reach a unanimous verdict.
“I didn’t have any doubts,” Desronvil said in a statement shared with ABC News by his attorney. “As I tried to explain different possible theories during deliberation, I kept getting cut off as if I had doubts based on the evidence presented. Based on all the physical evidence, key witnesses and what the prosecution presented, I thought it was enough proof that she (Clancy) knew exactly what she was doing and planned.”
The jury’s foreperson, Roni Carlson, previously told WBTS-TV that the jury was prepared to find Clancy not guilty by reason of insanity.
“He admitted he had reasonable doubt, and I started filling out the forms. I was so excited,” Carlson told the station. Carlson said the holdout juror then added: “But I’m still not going to say that she’s not guilty by reason of insanity.”
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Clancy was tried in the killings of her three young children. The mistrial came after the defense filed an emergency appeal with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court seeking to delay the mistrial, claiming one juror was refusing to reach a verdict because of personal bias.
Clancy originally was charged with first-degree murder after her husband, Patrick Clancy, found their children — 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan — dead in the basement of the family’s Duxbury home on Jan. 24, 2023.
Clancy and her attorneys did not deny that she killed the children. Instead, they argued she should not be held criminally responsible because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and bipolar disorder and therefore was not in her right mind.
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Eleven of the 12 jurors appeared to agree with the defense.
It is unclear whether prosecutors will seek to retry Clancy.
