Six witnesses across a full day, moving from the police handling of physical evidence to the treatment record and then, for the last ninety minutes, to the autopsies of the two older children. Court opened at about 09:19 with Judge Sullivan calling counsel to sidebar before the jury came in. The Commonwealth called Sgt. Daniel Lawlor of the State Police, East Idaho News's witness 63, who had been sent to South Shore Hospital on the night of January 24, 2023, served a preservation order for the defendant's biological samples and took her clothing — a black tank top, jeans and a bra, all stained — which was held up for the jury at about 09:36 to 09:41; the Boston Globe adds her wedding rings. As evidence officer for the January 25 search of the Duxbury house he documented what was seized: prescription bottles of trazodone, diazepam and amitriptyline, a baby monitor and a Google Nest camera in the master bedroom, a phone and a laptop. He recalled blood on the floor, a mirror and a window, and did not recall shoes, a nightstand search or an Apple Watch. He was then sent to Brigham and Women's Hospital, where he stood outside the defendant's room while she was in the district attorney's custody and watched a psychiatrist go in and close the door; he heard nothing of what was said. Cross-examination turned into the day's one contested legal question. Reddington established that no visitors were permitted and that he had himself obtained a court order to let Dr. Paul Zeizel, a Newton psychologist he had arranged for the defendant to see, into the room, and then asked Lawlor whether it was fair to say the district attorney's contention was that Zeizel had told her to call her husband and tell him she heard voices. The Commonwealth objected before the question could be answered, the judge called a sidebar and at about 10:15 excused the jury for a voir dire of the witness. Out of the jury's presence the prosecutor drew from Lawlor that he had not known the government's theory at the time he was at the hospital, that he knew of no evidence that the doctor had prompted the call, and that nothing in his conversation with the investigator affected his testimony; Boston 25 and East Idaho News record the voir dire also establishing that the defendant used the psychologist's cell phone to call Patrick Clancy and told him she heard voices, that Lawlor was in the hallway and could not hear it, and that he learned afterward from the lead investigator that Patrick Clancy had told the State Police and the grand jury about the call. Judge Sullivan took a short break to rule on the line of questioning, but no outlet read records him announcing a ruling: the Boston Globe notes at about 10:37 that he had not, and when the jury returned the questioning resumed in a narrowed form, aimed at Trooper Joshua McKelligan rather than at the prosecutors. Lawlor told the jury McKelligan had told him of the theory that Zeizel planted the idea of hearing voices, agreed with Reddington that it was speculation, and said there was no investigative basis for it. On redirect the Commonwealth had him say that investigators routinely discuss theories and that theories change as evidence comes in. He stepped down at about 10:45. The Commonwealth then called Latiesha Dukes, a mental health counselor at South Shore Health's perinatal clinic, whose direct ran to the 11:29 morning recess and whose cross ran from about 11:55 to about 12:47. She had four contacts with the defendant — in person on December 2 and by telehealth or virtually on December 5, 12 and 19, 2022 — plus a call on December 27, and none at all in January. Her account on direct was of a patient with postpartum anxiety who reported frequent passive suicidal ideation but never a plan, who worried about becoming addicted to Ativan while not misusing it, and who by the last visit was sleeping better, exercising, spending time with family and able to smile and laugh; she saw no mania, no delusions, no paranoia and no psychosis at any contact, and never reached the point of a safety plan or a Section 12. On cross Reddington established that she never read the notes of Julie Paul or Rebecca Jollotta, clinicians in her own program, because she wanted to come to the patient with fresh eyes; that she did not know why Women and Infants Hospital in Rhode Island had declined the defendant after the December 20 interview, and that it would surprise her to hear the reason was over-medication; that she did not know Women and Infants had tried to reach Jollotta about the medications and had not heard back; and that the defendant met almost every symptom on the standard list for postpartum depression, scored 23 on the Edinburgh scale where anything over 12 calls for a thorough review, and was sincere, hurting and turning in every direction she could for help. Dukes agreed to all of that. She also agreed that her December 19 note recorded low mood and numbness alongside the laughing, and said that a note is a summary of a visit and does not capture everything. Cameron Daley, a Duxbury patrolman who guarded the defendant's intensive care room at Brigham and Women's on January 25, 2023 from 10am to 7pm, testified for under five minutes before the lunch recess. The afternoon opened at about 02:13 with counsel at sidebar and, at about 02:24, a warning from the bench that disruptive statements from the gallery would be dealt with summarily; when the jurors came back at about 02:27 the judge thanked them for their patience and joked that they had been given a few extra minutes to look at the solar eclipse, which drew the day's only laughter. Nicole Bradley of the Plymouth County Sheriff's Office testified in a couple of minutes to the hospital watch kept on the defendant from January 25 to February 3, 2023, the records going in over a defense objection that they were not necessary. Dr. Renee Stonebridge, director of cardiac and neuropathology at the state chief medical examiner's office, then testified for under ten minutes: hemorrhages around the tissues and nerves of Cora's eyes consistent with an asphyxial death, similar hemorrhaging in Dawson's eyes, and hypoxic-ischemic change in Callan's brain showing it had not been getting enough blood and oxygen, with brain swelling; asked how long a brain survives without oxygen she gave six to eight minutes, after which it does not come back. Reddington did not cross-examine. The defendant, who had been crying quietly since before the witness was called, began sobbing and the judge recessed. When the jury returned at about 03:10 to 03:14 he instructed them that the law requires them to separate their emotional reaction from the informational value and weight of the evidence, and that the verdict must rest on the evidence alone and not on sympathy, anger, passion or prejudice. Dr. Barbara Olson, who performed both autopsies, was called at about 03:12 to 03:21 and her direct was interrupted almost immediately when the defendant slumped to the defense table sobbing and said she could not do this; the judge recessed again, two nurses attended her while she hyperventilated, and she was wheeled out. Sullivan said he would speak to counsel about scheduling afterward, noting that the defendant has a right to be present for all of the testimony and can also waive it. Testimony resumed at about 03:36 to 03:38 and ran to the end of the day: ligature furrows encircling both children's necks, petechial hemorrhages around Cora's eyes and face and inside her lips, fresh bruising to the arms and legs that Olson attributed to first-responder intervention, about four pounds of pressure to compress the veins of the neck and about ten for the arteries, loss of consciousness possible in as little as ten to thirty seconds, brain damage from about a minute and irreversible damage within about five, and pain until consciousness is lost. She testified that the hemorrhaging on Dawson's face was more prominent than on Cora's, which she attributed to blood reaching his head at points and to his struggling or to fluctuating pressure. Reddington objected repeatedly — CBS Boston describes him visibly frustrated — including an objection that the witness was repeating herself on increasingly graphic ground, which the Commonwealth answered by saying it was addressing inconsistencies; the judge took it at sidebar. Olson gave Cora's cause of death as asphyxia by ligature strangulation and Dawson's as asphyxia, the autopsy photographs went into evidence over defense objection at about 03:57, and Reddington did not cross-examine. The jury was sent home just after 4pm to return Thursday at 9am; CBS Boston reports Judge Sullivan telling them counsel considered the trial well on schedule and somewhat ahead of it.
