The lone juror who blocked a not-guilty-by-reason-of-insanity verdict for Lindsay Clancy is now disputing claims made by fellow jurors about what happened inside the deliberation room.
Michael P. Desronvil, whose refusal to join the other 11 jurors led Judge William Sullivan to declare a mistrial, said in a statement to NewsNation that he never had doubts about the prosecution’s case.
“I didn’t have any doubts. As I tried to explain different possible theories during deliberation, I kept getting cut off as if I had doubts based on the evidence present,” Desronvil said.
“Based on all the physical evidence, key witnesses and what the prosecution presents, I thought it was enough proof that she knew exactly what she was doing and planned.”
His account pushes back directly against statements from other jurors, who said after the mistrial that Desronvil appeared to acknowledge reasonable doubt during deliberations but still would not join them in finding Clancy not guilty by reason of insanity.
The jury ultimately deadlocked 11-1, with Desronvil the sole holdout favoring conviction over accepting Clancy’s insanity defense.
Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse, admitted to killing her three children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months — in January 2023, strangling them at the family’s home. Her defense argued she was not criminally responsible because she was suffering from severe mental illness at the time. Prosecutors countered that she planned the killings and understood they were wrong.
Plymouth County prosecutors are now weighing whether to retry Clancy, whose attorneys have also raised the possibility of resolving the case without another jury trial.
Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley said prosecutors face a difficult decision after the first jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict.
“The question is whether they could ever get a jury, particularly in Massachusetts, that would unanimously vote against this defendant,” Turley said. “For prosecutors, they have to weigh that, but they may find the alternative equally unappealing — to simply walk away and say, ‘There are three dead children here, but we just don’t think we could ever win this case.'”
Judge Sullivan has ordered jurors’ identities and questionnaires sealed, citing safety concerns stemming from the high-profile mistrial.
Clancy is due back in Plymouth County court on Sept. 29 as prosecutors decide whether to pursue a retrial.
