Trial day 14 of 28 · Monday · Commonwealth rests; defense opens

August 17, 2026

The Commonwealth rests after its Cellebrite forensic examiner, the motion for a required finding of not guilty and the alternative request to reduce the charge are both denied, and the defense opens with a former colleague, the defendant's sister and mother, and its first expert.

Coverage: reported. Multiple outlets described this day's proceedings. This is a summary of press reporting, not a transcript and not a record of what anyone said. All trial days · This day at clancytrial.org

What mattered

Key points 16

THE MOTION FOR A REQUIRED FINDING OF NOT GUILTY WAS DENIED, AND SO WAS THE ALTERNATIVE REQUEST TO REDUCE THE CHARGE TO SECOND-DEGREE MURDER. The case goes to the jury on criminal responsibility. The Commonwealth's stated ground for denial was that the motion was premature because it intends to call rebuttal experts — the first time in the reporting read that the rebuttal case was previewed on the record.
THE COMMONWEALTH'S OWN FORENSIC WITNESS GAVE THE DEFENSE ITS BEST ANSWER TO THE TIMELINE. Whiffin agreed that nothing was recorded after 5:38 p.m., that the phone or watch could have been put down, powered off or drained, that a person can move without carrying either, and that he did not know whether there were further steps at 5:39 or 5:45. The Commonwealth's minute-by-minute reconstruction of the killings ends where the device data ends.
THE APPLE WATCH WAS NEVER EXAMINED, AND THE WITNESS HAD NEVER SEEN IT. Reddington produced a watch in court; Whiffin said he had never seen it and would not have analyzed it in any case, because Cellebrite reads watch data off the paired phone rather than the watch itself. East Idaho News identifies the watch as the one found in the drawer days after the killings — the same drawer the State Police did not search, which is a running defense theme.
THE REPORT CONTAINED MOVEMENT DATA FROM A MORNING THE DEFENDANT SPENT IN A COMA. Health data for about 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. on January 25, 2023 showed distance and steps. Whiffin said it would have come from the phone; on redirect the Commonwealth suggested police carrying the phone. It is the clearest illustration on the record of how far Apple Health data is from being a record of a particular person's movements.
WHIFFIN'S FIGURES CORROBORATE THIS PROJECT'S JANUARY 24 TIMELINE — WITH ONE EXCEPTION. Last unlock about 5:13 p.m., stairs at 5:33 and 5:38 p.m., calls at 5:33, 5:34 (14 seconds) and 6:09 p.m., last heart rate 57 bpm at 5:23 p.m.: all as recorded. But Boston 25 reports him giving the Kids Miralax search at 4:02 p.m., not the 14:02 in the case reference, which weakens the working explanation of the Chiappini disagreement rather than settling it.
THE 14-SECOND CALL SITS BETWEEN THE TWO STAIR CLIMBS. This is the Commonwealth's structural point and it was made by every outlet read: she climbed one flight, called her husband back and spoke for fourteen seconds sounding, on his account, busy but otherwise normal, and then climbed a second flight. The defense answer is that the device stops there and proves nothing about what followed.
THE FIRST EXPERT OF THE TRIAL WAS BARRED FROM THE OPINION HE WAS CALLED TO GIVE. Dr. Vulfovich could describe a Glasgow Coma Scale of 10, hypothermia, full-thickness cuts to both wrists and both sides of the neck, cervical and thoracic fractures, cardiac arrest and a massive transfusion — but not whether any of it indicated a genuine suicide attempt. Every attempt drew a sustained objection. The defense's answer to the staged-suicide theory has to come from somewhere else.
AND THE COMMONWEALTH DID NOT CROSS-EXAMINE HIM AT ALL. Having won the rulings, it left the medical description standing and asked nothing. The severity of the injuries is therefore uncontested; their meaning is untouched.
THE SISTER IS A MANDATED REPORTER WHO DID NOT REPORT — AND THE OUTLETS DISAGREE ABOUT WHAT SHE TOLD POLICE. Ozga confirmed she is a licensed social worker and a mandated reporter and that she never had concern enough to file a report. On what she said to investigators the day after the killings, the Patriot Ledger has her agreeing she told them her sister seemed OK, while East Idaho News has her not recalling.
THE MOTHER'S CROSS-EXAMINATION WAS THE COMMONWEALTH'S REAL WORK OF THE AFTERNOON. It did not attack her. It used her: daily check-in texts through January in which her daughter answered good and a little bit better; the birthday party, the science museum, the gymnastics club; and her own text after the last weekend saying it was nice to see her doing better. This is the same trajectory argument the Commonwealth has run since opening — that the defendant was improving, not decompensating, in the fortnight before January 24.
AND THE ANSWER THAT BLUNTS IT CAME FROM THE SAME WITNESS. Musgrove said the encouraging text was written to push her daughter back toward normal activity and was not necessarily a representation of what she had actually seen that weekend. Whether a jury reads the January texts as observation or as encouragement is close to the whole of the Commonwealth's late-stage timeline argument.
A DEFENSE WITNESS DELIVERED THE COMMONWEALTH'S BEST LINE ON THE DECEMBER DISCLOSURE. Musgrove testified that Patrick asked her daughter whether she felt she could not be alone with the children, and that she said no; that Musgrove herself was not concerned for the children's safety because she was present; and that no one considered commitment, a 911 call, or taking her to Connecticut away from the children. The disclosure of thoughts of harming the children is now in evidence from both people who heard it.
MARGARET HAMP'S CROSS-EXAMINATION WAS TWO QUESTIONS LONG, and only East Idaho News reports it: that Zoloft is considered safe in pregnancy, and that she could not speak to the defendant's state of mind outside work. The Commonwealth's approach to the character witnesses was containment, not confrontation.
THE ANDREA YATES CONVERSATION IS DOUBLE-EDGED AND BOTH SIDES KNOW IT. For the defense it shows a nurse who wept at the idea a mother could hurt her children. For the Commonwealth it establishes that the defendant knew, years before, exactly what a postpartum psychosis defense looks like. East Idaho News places the exchange on redirect, which suggests the defense went back for it after the cross.
THE DAY ENDED ON AN UNEXPLAINED SIDEBAR ABOUT PATRICK CLANCY. His own lawyer, David Meier, appeared for the first time since his client testified, handed the judge documents, and a document was marked for identification with no explanation given in open court. The Boston Globe could not say what it was or whether the defense wants to recall him; East Idaho News describes the same sidebar as routine scheduling. Worth watching in later days.
THE WITNESS COUNT IS NOT SETTLED. The Boston Globe says the Commonwealth called 70 witnesses over 13 days of testimony, Boston 25 nearly 70, CNN more than 70, WBUR dozens over 14 days of testimony, and East Idaho News numbers Whiffin the 71st. No figure was announced from the bench in any account read.

On the stand

Witnesses 5

Ian Whiffin

Commonwealth

Role: Customer engagement manager, Cellebrite (digital forensics). East Idaho News numbers him Commonwealth witness 71 and reports he has extracted more than 1,000 phones and testified in court more than 20 times, and that he wrote custom tools to read the raw data. Boston 25, NBC Boston and UPI all note he was an expert witness in both Karen Read trials; the Boston Globe adds that he testified there about the timestamp on a Google search.
Direct: Sprague
Cross: Reddington
Time: 09:36

Testimony, as reported:

THE COMMONWEALTH'S FINAL WITNESS, AND THE ONLY ONE IT CALLED ALL DAY. Direct ran from about 09:36 to 10:17, a recess followed, and cross ran from about 10:49 to 11:19. Boston 25 and CBS Boston put the direct at about 45 minutes; the Boston Globe at just under an hour.
What he extracted. The defendant's iPhone 13, concentrating on January 24, 2023 with some early-January material. The phone carried Apple Health data for a paired Apple Watch, which measures steps, flights climbed and heart rate; East Idaho News reports the heart rate is taken by the watch's sensors and passed to the phone over Bluetooth, and that a program was run to strip duplicate readings arriving from both devices.
Heart rate on January 24. The last reading was 57 beats per minute at 5:23 p.m. The Boston Globe and Boston 25 give the day's average as the high 80s to low 90s. THE OUTLETS DISAGREE ON THE DAY'S PEAK: Boston 25 reports a high of 152, East Idaho News a highest reading of 123. The Apple Watch stops recording if it is removed, powered down or its battery dies.
How a flight of stairs is counted. boston.com reports him defining a flight as a 3-meter or 10-foot rise over 16 steps, measured by the device barometer; East Idaho News gives 10 feet over 16 steps.
The stair climbs. The device registered a flight climb at 5:33 p.m. and a second at 5:38 p.m. The Boston Globe reports his caution that the times do not mean the climb took five minutes — the grouping means the user began one flight at the start of the window and finished a second at the end of it. East Idaho News reports he allowed the record could represent two flights the device did not separate. Nothing was recorded after 5:38 p.m.
The calls. Boston 25 gives the log precisely: an incoming call from Patrick Clancy at 5:33 p.m. of zero seconds, an outgoing call to him at 5:34 p.m. lasting 14 seconds, and an incoming call from him at 6:09 p.m. of zero seconds. boston.com and East Idaho News agree the 5:33 and 6:09 calls went unanswered and that the 5:34 call was hers. The Boston Globe describes the 5:34 call plainly as her speaking with him while he was at the pharmacy, without noting it was a callback.
THE POINT THE COMMONWEALTH WAS MAKING WITH IT. Boston 25, ABC News and East Idaho News all report the calls falling between the two stair climbs. The Boston Globe spells out the inference: she went up one flight, spoke to her husband — who has testified she sounded busy but otherwise normal — and then went up a second flight, and those were among the last recorded actions before she went out the second-story window.
The last unlock. boston.com reports the phone was unlocked for the last time at about 5:13 p.m., when she searched for children's laxatives and texted Patrick which brand to buy; East Idaho News reports Safari and messaging use shortly after 5 p.m. and the phone locked at 5:16 p.m. and never unlocked again. Both are consistent with the 17:13 unlock and 17:15 lock in this project's case reference.
Searches on January 24. Boston 25 reports him giving a search for Kids Miralax at 4:02 p.m., a takeout search for 3V at 4:13 p.m. and a CVS search at 4:47 p.m. CBS Boston reports the phone was used to plan a route from Duxbury to the Plymouth restaurant ThreeV, which the Commonwealth says was one of the errands that emptied the house; the Patriot Ledger reports the same route search. THE MIRALAX TIME IS A PROBLEM: 4:02 p.m. does not match the 14:02 in the Whiffin report as recorded in the case reference, and it sits closer to Det. Chiappini's 4:46 p.m. from August 13. Recorded, not resolved.
Searches in the preceding weeks. January 18, ketamine for suicidal ideation. January 19, symptoms of postpartum psychosis, and — the Boston Globe alone adds — psychosis symptoms. CBS Boston and East Idaho News add a January 12 search timed by CBS at 7:48 p.m. for how Wellbutrin works, or how quickly it treats depression, along with other searches on how well drugs work; ABC News renders it as how long some medications take to treat depression. CBS also reports a search for how to tell if you are sleep deprived or depressed.
Other material on the phone. East Idaho News reports an Apple note created December 22 and last modified January 23, with no way to tell what was changed; messages on January 24 between the defendant, her mother and Patrick; and metadata showing three photographs taken from the phone at South Shore Hospital.
ON CROSS, THE ABSENCE OF DATA PROVES NOTHING. Reddington established that nothing was recorded after 5:38 p.m. and that the phone could have been put down, the battery could have died, the watch could have been taken off, and a person can move without carrying either. Boston 25 quotes the exchange: you do not know if there were more steps at 5:39 or 5:45 — correct. East Idaho News reports he also drew out that Whiffin's own research has shown Apple Health data can be inaccurate.
ON CROSS, THE WATCH WAS NEVER EXAMINED. The Boston Globe reports Reddington walking to the stand holding an Apple Watch and asking whether Whiffin had ever seen it. He had not, and said he would not have analyzed the watch in any event: Cellebrite does not extract the memory from the watch itself, it reads the watch's data from the paired phone. East Idaho News reports the watch shown was the one found in a drawer days after the killings, which connects the answer to the nightstand the State Police did not search.
ON CROSS, THE DAY-AFTER DATA. Reddington put in health data from about 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. on January 25, 2023 showing distance and steps — East Idaho News gives the figure as 134 — and pointed out that the defendant was then in a coma with tubes coming out of her and certainly not wearing the watch. Whiffin answered that on the report alone he would suggest it came from the phone. On redirect Sprague raised the possibility that police carrying the phone around that day generated it; East Idaho News reports Whiffin agreeing that if the watch was off in a drawer the phone would be the source, and calling that an assumption.
ON CROSS, DEFENSE MATERIAL THROUGH A COMMONWEALTH WITNESS. boston.com reports Reddington briefly displaying the phone note in which she wrote that her prescriptions stole her motherhood and her life and stole her from her own body, and having Whiffin confirm searches about trazodone drug interactions and other antidepressants; East Idaho News dates the trazodone searches to January 10 and adds that Reddington put in a map of the home and device data placing her at a doctor's office. East Idaho News also reports him going through family photographs and messages exchanged that month — the children, a snowman, a Cheerios box, a boy getting dressed, a girl in a mask — and a January 24 message from Patrick about Cora's doctor visit in which he told her she was a good mama.
The Commonwealth entered several hospital records and rested at about 11:19 to 11:23.

Margaret Hamp

Defense

Role: Labor and delivery nurse, Massachusetts General Hospital, since 2012; a former colleague of the defendant, who worked alongside her from the start of her career on the labor floor until her maternity leave in 2022. Boston 25 and the Globe give the working relationship as about seven years.
Direct: Reddington
Cross: Commonwealth; the outlets read do not name which prosecutor
Time: 12:16

Testimony, as reported:

THE FIRST DEFENSE WITNESS OF THE TRIAL, called at about 12:16 to 12:23.
The nurse. She described the defendant as kind, compassionate and caring — the kind of nurse you would want looking after your own family — who was often emotional during and after the births of complete strangers, crying and saying it was beautiful. boston.com adds that she asked colleagues constantly for parenting and childcare advice, from sleep habits to daycare providers to monogrammed lunchboxes.
The welfare check. Working an overnight shift, the defendant saw her infant daughter Cora crying on the home monitor, could not reach Patrick, and called police to check on her. boston.com puts Cora at about six months old and quotes Hamp saying the defendant never let Cora cry — she was not at that point in parenting, and was open about it.
The Andrea Yates conversation. Early in the defendant's career a pregnant patient came onto the unit saying she planned to harm herself. Hamp and the defendant talked about mental health in pregnancy and the postpartum period, and Hamp asked whether she had heard of Andrea Yates. She had not. Hamp explained the case and the defendant cried and asked how a mother could hurt her children. EAST IDAHO NEWS PLACES THIS ON REDIRECT, after the Commonwealth's cross, rather than on direct; no other outlet read gives its position in the examination. East Idaho News reports the defendant crying at the defense table as it was told.
ON CROSS, TWO QUESTIONS AND OUT. East Idaho News is the only outlet read that reports the cross-examination at all, and reports it as very short: she agreed she is familiar with mental health problems in pregnant women, agreed that Zoloft is considered safe in pregnancy, and confirmed that she did not see the defendant socially and could not speak to her state of mind outside work.
East Idaho News adds that she did not see the defendant after Callan was born but stayed in touch and sent a gift.

Allison Ozga

Defense

Role: Sister of the defendant; a licensed social worker and a mandated reporter. She lives out of state — the Boston Globe and CBS Boston report she has not lived in the same state as the defendant for about ten years — and described the two of them as very close.
Direct: Reddington
Cross: Sprague
Time: 12:27

Testimony, as reported:

Called at about 12:27 to 12:33 and off the stand by about 12:44.
Thanksgiving 2022. Seeing her sister for the first time in a while, her mood did not look good and her energy was low — definitely off from how she had seen her in the past.
Early December. Her sister told her she was in a really tough spot. Ozga had a gut feeling something was wrong and that she was really struggling, and asked her directly whether she was safe. She said yes. East Idaho News adds that the defendant described a terrible reaction to Zoloft, and that Ozga began communicating separately with Patrick as the holidays approached.
End of December. Her mood was down, she was feeling numb and hopeless, seeing doctors, and struggling with insomnia and suicidal thoughts. At the very end of the month, Ozga testified, her sister told her she had had suicidal ideation every day for a month.
After McLean. Once discharged, her sister felt there was a good plan in place and was starting to feel better; East Idaho News reports Ozga saying they discussed how hopeful she was about coming off Seroquel.
The birthday party. About two weeks before the killings she saw her sister at Cora's birthday party. She looked like she was going through the motions of putting the party together, but she looked tired and looked like she was still struggling.
January 24. Her parents called to tell her the children had been strangled and her sister was injured. She packed a bag and drove to South Shore Hospital; boston.com reports she was not able to see her sister for about two weeks, by which time she was at Brigham and Women's.
ON CROSS, THE MANDATED REPORTER WHO DID NOT REPORT. Sprague had her confirm that she is a licensed social worker and a mandated reporter, and then that at no point was she concerned enough about her sister's safety or the children's to make a report. She answered no. Every outlet read carries this exchange.
ON CROSS, WHAT SHE TOLD POLICE. THE ACCOUNTS DIFFER. The Patriot Ledger reports Sprague asking whether she recalled telling police the day after the killings that her sister had seemed OK, and Ozga answering yes, adding that her sister's texts had seemed to indicate she was better. East Idaho News reports her answering that she did not recall and had been in complete shock. CBS Boston and boston.com report the point being put to her without giving her answer.
ON CROSS, McLEAN. boston.com reports Sprague asking about the early-January admission, and Ozga saying she did not recall whether her sister had mentioned asking to be discharged early so she could attend her daughter's birthday party.

Paula Musgrove

Defense

Role: Mother of the defendant. Lives in Connecticut; East Idaho News reports she confirmed she has been present every day of the trial.
Direct: Reddington
Cross: Sprague
Time: 12:39

Testimony, as reported:

The longest examination of the day. Called at about 12:39 to 12:46, broken by the lunch recess at about 12:58 to 1:08, cross-examined from about 2:25 to 2:43, and finished at about 2:50 to 2:51.
Her daughter and her grandchildren. A very good kid and an excellent student who was never in any trouble; a loving, dedicated, fun mother who always wanted many children and for whom motherhood was the best thing that ever happened. She was audibly emotional describing the grandchildren — the Patriot Ledger quotes her saying you never know what it is to love a grandchild until you have one — and Boston 25 reports the defendant becoming emotional while her mother was on the stand.
When it changed. East Idaho News reports her dating the change in mood to around September and her awareness of a mental health problem to October, by text. Boston 25 reports her saying the defendant and Patrick were happy in the summer of 2022 and that things changed in October, that the defendant was anxious about Callan not taking a bottle, and that she applied for an extension of her maternity leave. CNN reports the same anxiety about returning to work.
The October 20, 2022 text, read to the jury and displayed as an exhibit: asking her mother to come and stay a while because she was really sick and something was wrong, that she had had horrible insomnia all night and did not know how she would get through the day, that the medicine her doctor had prescribed for anxiety seemed to have made things worse, that it was scary and she did not want to be alone. Musgrove drove up from Connecticut the same day and stayed about a week; her husband followed. Boston 25 reports her adding that when she arrived her daughter had just come out of an emergency room and was anxious and afraid.
The months that followed. She and her husband went back and forth from Connecticut and stayed often, including over the holidays; in November and December it was not getting better. Her daughter was losing weight and becoming paranoid — CNN reports paranoid about things that really were not logical. She had stopped driving, so her mother drove her to collect the children from daycare, and she worried the school would work out that something was wrong and think her a bad mother because she was not driving her own car.
Asking to sleep in her mother's bed. Musgrove described this as disturbing. She said her daughter did not want to be alone. The outlets place it differently: boston.com puts it in late November or early December, East Idaho News in late December on direct and in November on cross.
Christmas. East Idaho News reports she was there for most of December, left on Christmas Eve, and that her daughter came to her parents' house on Christmas Day and was just going through the motions. She was also there when her daughter checked herself in for inpatient treatment, and stayed at the house during the admission.
The medication. Her daughter said she could not remember anything, that the medication was pretty much just destroying her mind and that it was not her — this is not me, I have never been like this before, I just want to feel better and enjoy my kids again. Musgrove told the jury she agreed: this was a different Lindsay.
THE KITCHEN CONVERSATION, AND REDDINGTON'S LAST QUESTION ON DIRECT. In late December 2022 the defendant came to her mother and to Patrick, visibly nervous, and said she had to tell them something — and then told them she had thoughts of harming the children. The Boston Globe notes the jury has already heard this from Patrick Clancy in the Commonwealth's case, where he said she made the statement only once, was disturbed by it, and told him she had no plan to hurt them; and that Reddington is placing it inside a broader decompensation. Court broke for lunch on that answer.
ON CROSS, THE INACTION. Asked whether she was concerned for the children's safety at that point, she answered that she was not, because she was there. She had not considered having her daughter committed, had not called 911 or sought immediate help, and — Boston 25 and the Patriot Ledger both report the question — had not moved to bring her to Connecticut away from the children. She testified that Patrick asked her daughter whether she felt she could not be alone with the children and that her daughter said no.
ON CROSS, THE TEXT RECORD. Musgrove agreed she checked in every day, often several times a day. Sprague walked her through January: a January 4 text about an arranged early discharge from the hospital; Cora's January 7 birthday party, which Musgrove missed because she stayed home with the baby; a January 8 science museum trip; the Kingsbury Club and gymnastics keeping the children and her daughter busy; check-ins on January 18 and 19 about medication and sleep, in which her daughter said she knew the medicine took weeks to work and could not wait to feel like herself; and a weekend visit from about January 20 to 22. Again and again the answers were good, and a little bit better. Musgrove said repeatedly that she could not recall individual messages given how many there were, but accepted them as accurate if that is what they said.
ON CROSS, THE ANSWER THE DEFENSE WILL USE. Put to her that she texted after that last weekend that it was nice to see her doing better, Musgrove said the message was meant to encourage her daughter to do things with the children and get back to normal, and was not necessarily a representation of what she had actually observed that weekend.
ON CROSS, THE POLICE INTERVIEW. Asked whether she remembered telling investigators on January 25, 2023 that her daughter had seemed brighter lately, or seemed to be improving after the McLean stay, she said she did not recall. CBS Boston reports her saying she remembered only two things she told police and had been pretty much in shock; anything else in their notes she must have said, but she could not recall it.
ON REDIRECT, AN OBJECTION SUSTAINED. East Idaho News reports Reddington verifying October text messages with her and then seeking to introduce a further October text; the Commonwealth objected, the objection was sustained, and the judge called a sidebar. The outlet's two accounts of which dates were in issue do not line up, so the specific message is not recorded here.

Michael Vulfovich

Defense

Role: Emergency medicine physician, Newton-Wellesley Hospital. A retained defense expert who did not treat the defendant and reviewed her records at Reddington's request. THE FIRST EXPERT WITNESS OF THE TRIAL — Judge Sullivan gave the jury its instruction on expert evidence immediately before he took the stand.
Direct: Reddington
Cross: not cross-examined
Time: 14:53

Testimony, as reported:

On the stand about 20 minutes, from about 2:53 to 3:07.
On arrival at South Shore Hospital. Unresponsive and not speaking intelligibly. East Idaho News reports him giving a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 10 and explaining the 15-point scale, and describing a low body temperature and blood pressure below normal. boston.com reports the doctors were concerned about her ability to breathe on her own and intubated her, and that she was severely hypothermic.
The wounds. Lacerations to both wrists and both sides of the neck, some superficial and some full-thickness — through the skin and into the fatty tissue beneath. He testified he has treated multiple patients who have killed themselves or tried to by cutting the throat.
The fall. Multiple fractures of the cervical and thoracic spine. East Idaho News reports him saying the injuries were consistent with a fall from a second-story window onto the ground, and that they were severe enough to require immediate transfer to a larger facility. The Patriot Ledger reports she was airlifted to Brigham and Women's; boston.com says only that she was transferred.
At Brigham and Women's. Admitted to the surgical intensive care unit; blood pressure and pulse became faint; a complete cardiac arrest requiring two rounds of CPR; East Idaho News adds a hemorrhage around the spine and a massive blood transfusion.
THE OPINION HE WAS NOT ALLOWED TO GIVE. Reddington tried several ways to get him to say whether the wounds indicated a genuine suicide attempt rather than the faked or half-hearted one the Commonwealth alleges. The Commonwealth objected each time and Judge Sullivan sustained each time, forbidding a medical opinion on her intent. East Idaho News reports that on the last attempt Reddington withdrew the question himself after the objection.
WHAT HE DID SAY. The injuries were consistent with self-injurious behavior. The intent, he could not gauge.
THE COMMONWEALTH ASKED HIM NOTHING. No cross-examination. Every outlet read notes it. The jury was sent home immediately afterward.
WJAR/turnto10 alone renders his evidence as testimony that the injuries were consistent with someone who had the intent of harming themselves. That is not what the other outlets report him being permitted to say, and it is not adopted here.

From the bench

Rulings 4

12:10MOTION FOR A REQUIRED FINDING OF NOT GUILTY DENIED, AND THE ALTERNATIVE REQUEST TO REDUCE THE CHARGE DENIED WITH IT. ARGUED FOR THE DEFENSE: Reddington said the evidence was overwhelming that the defendant was clearly and unequivocally suffering from a mental disease or defect, in the statutory language of the insanity defense; that it occupied her waking hours and her life; that she considered every avenue and went to health care provider after health care provider, a term he used loosely; that she was given medication after medication after medication; and that witnesses had observed her in that state. He said the burden is on the Commonwealth to prove she was of sound enough mind. East Idaho News and the Patriot Ledger both report him relying on a May 2026 decision in which a charge was dismissed where a person who assaulted a police officer was suffering from a mental defect; East Idaho News names it Commonwealth v. Brunette-Silveira. He asked for a finding of not guilty or, failing that, for the charges to be reduced from first-degree to second-degree murder. ARGUED FOR THE COMMONWEALTH: Sprague said the request was premature, because the Commonwealth intends to call its own experts in rebuttal to the defense witnesses on the defendant's state of mind, and that a motion of this kind in a case of this kind can succeed only once all the evidence is in. RULED: denied. boston.com reports Judge Sullivan disagreeing with the defense assessment that the Commonwealth had put forward no evidence to rebut the insanity defense. No outlet read reports him ruling separately on the request to reduce the charge; CBS Boston and Boston 25 report the single denial as covering both.
14:47OBJECTION SUSTAINED ON REDIRECT OF PAULA MUSGROVE. East Idaho News reports that after verifying October text messages with the witness, Reddington sought to introduce a further October message; the Commonwealth objected, the objection was sustained, and Judge Sullivan called a sidebar. The outlet's account does not identify the message consistently and no other outlet read reports the exchange.
15:00OBJECTIONS REPEATEDLY SUSTAINED, BARRING DR. VULFOVICH FROM OPINING ON WHETHER THE SUICIDE ATTEMPT WAS GENUINE. The Boston Globe and boston.com both report Reddington trying several formulations of the question — whether the wounds were consistent with a real suicide attempt rather than a phony or half-hearted one — and the Commonwealth objecting to each and Judge Sullivan sustaining, forbidding a medical opinion on the defendant's intent from the wounds. East Idaho News reports the last attempt withdrawn by Reddington after the objection. No outlet read reports the reasoning given.
12:15VOIR DIRE OF A FURTHER WITNESS PUT OFF. East Idaho News alone reports that immediately after the motion was denied the defense asked whether the Commonwealth was ready for a voir dire of another witness; the Commonwealth said it was not, that it needed to review records, and asked whether it could be done the following day. Judge Sullivan said he would wait and see whether the material arrived that afternoon. The witness is not named and the reporting does not say whether the voir dire ever happened.

In sequence

Procedural 25

09:14Boston 25's reporter is in Plymouth Superior Court. The Boston Globe reports at 09:18 that the Commonwealth is expected to call one more witness and then rest, that Judge Sullivan has taken the bench, and that he began the day as usual by calling the lawyers to sidebar.
09:28Jury in. East Idaho News reports Judge Sullivan greeting the jurors and reminding them not to seek outside information, and telling them the Commonwealth was expected to close its case and the defense to begin.
09:32Ian Whiffin called — Boston 25 notes he is listed as a Commonwealth expert witness; East Idaho News numbers him the Commonwealth's 71st witness. The Boston Globe reports Judge Sullivan warning the jury that the day might be a little bit stop and start, because the Commonwealth expected to rest.
10:17Direct examination of Whiffin ends; recess before cross-examination. The Boston Globe timestamps the recess announcement at 10:28 and Boston 25 at 10:19.
10:49Court resumes, jury back in, Reddington begins cross-examination of Whiffin.
11:19Redirect and re-cross of Whiffin complete; the Commonwealth enters several hospital records and RESTS ITS CASE. Boston 25 timestamps the rest at 11:19, CBS Boston at about 11:15, East Idaho News at 11:20, the Boston Globe at about 11:20 with the announcement at 11:23.
11:21Jury excused. East Idaho News reports Judge Sullivan telling them he needed to take care of some matters with the defense; the Patriot Ledger reports Reddington asking for a morning recess before the motion was argued.
12:07Court resumes for argument on the motion for a required finding of not guilty, without the jury.
12:10Motion denied. See rulings.
12:15East Idaho News reports the defense asking whether the Commonwealth was ready to voir dire another witness; the Commonwealth was not and asked to do it the following day.
12:16Jury returns; the defense opens its case-in-chief and calls Margaret Hamp.
12:27Allison Ozga called.
12:39Paula Musgrove called.
12:58Lunch recess, taken immediately after Musgrove's account of the kitchen conversation. Boston 25 timestamps it 12:58, East Idaho News 13:01, the Boston Globe's entry is timed 13:08, boston.com says around 1 p.m. East Idaho News reports the judge asking counsel to sidebar as the jury left.
14:16Court back in session after lunch; East Idaho News reports another sidebar before the jury returned.
14:25Jury back; Sprague begins cross-examination of Musgrove.
14:47Redirect of Musgrove; objection to a further October text sustained; sidebar.
14:51Musgrove finishes testifying. Boston 25 timestamps it 14:51, CBS Boston about 14:50.
14:53JUDGE SULLIVAN INSTRUCTS THE JURY ON EXPERT TESTIMONY before the first expert of the trial takes the stand: that both sides will call people who can speak with authority on technical matters in science, medicine or mental health that an ordinary person would not know; that the jurors should assess each one's expertise and credentials using their own common sense; and, in the line the Boston Globe quotes, that experts do not decide cases, juries do. The Globe timestamps this entry 15:10, East Idaho News 14:53.
14:53Dr. Michael Vulfovich called as the defense's fourth witness and first expert.
15:05Vulfovich excused with no cross-examination. Judge Sullivan calls counsel to sidebar. Boston 25 timestamps the end of his testimony at 15:07.
15:09Jury sent home for the day. East Idaho News reports Judge Sullivan telling the jurors he needed to talk with the attorneys about the next day's logistics and to return at 9 a.m.
15:12SIDEBAR AFTER THE JURY LEFT — THE ACCOUNTS DIVERGE. The Boston Globe, timestamping this entry 15:27, reports that attorney David Meier, who represents Patrick Clancy and had not been present since his client testified, was called to the bench; that the prosecutors, Reddington and Meier huddled with the judge; and that Meier handed the judge documents. East Idaho News describes the same sidebar as being about the following day's logistics.
15:31Sidebar ends. East Idaho News reports Judge Sullivan saying there was nothing further to discuss that day. The Boston Globe, in an entry timed 15:48, reports the session ending with no public explanation of what was discussed about Patrick Clancy, and the judge ordering a document MARKED FOR IDENTIFICATION without specifying what it was. The Globe adds that Patrick Clancy has been targeted by people spreading conspiracy theories online, and that it is unclear what the issue was or whether the defense wants to recall him.
15:35Court in recess. Trial resumes at 9 a.m. Tuesday, August 18.

In evidence

Exhibits 13

Apple Health heart rate data from the defendant's iPhone and paired Apple Watch for January 24, 2023, displayed to the jury; photographed by the pool as a chart on the courtroom screen. No exhibit number reported.
A composite timeline of iPhone activity on January 24, 2023, built by Whiffin from unlocks, application use, calls, texts and health data — the case reference records the underlying Whiffin report as Exhibit 1566, but no outlet read gives an exhibit number for what was shown.
The call log for January 24, 2023 — incoming 5:33 p.m., outgoing 5:34 p.m. of 14 seconds, incoming 6:09 p.m.
Google and Safari search history from January 10 to January 24, 2023.
Text messages between the defendant and her mother, displayed on direct and read at length on cross: October 19, October 20 and October 24, 2022, and January 4, 8, 18, 19 and 22, 2023. The Boston Globe pool caption records a copy of the October text being shown to the jury.
The phone note in which the defendant wrote that medication stole her motherhood and her life and stole her from her own body, displayed briefly by Reddington on cross-examination of Whiffin.
An Apple note created December 22, 2022 and last modified January 23, 2023, per East Idaho News.
A map of the Clancy home, admitted during Reddington's cross-examination of Whiffin, per East Idaho News.
Family photographs and messages exchanged in January 2023 — the children, a snowman, a Cheerios box — put in on cross-examination of Whiffin, per East Idaho News.
An Apple Watch produced in the courtroom by Reddington and shown to Whiffin, which East Idaho News identifies as the one found in a drawer days after the killings. Not reported to have been admitted.
Several hospital records entered by the Commonwealth immediately before it rested, per East Idaho News. Not itemized in the reporting.
Medical records from South Shore Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital, the basis of Dr. Vulfovich's testimony.
NO EXHIBIT NUMBERS were reported by any outlet read for this day.

As reported

Account

The day the Commonwealth's case ended and the defense's began, and the only day so far on which both sides put witnesses before the same jury. Judge William Sullivan took the bench at about 9:14 to 9:18 and, as on most mornings, called the lawyers to sidebar before the jury came in at about 9:28. He told the jurors the schedule might be a little stop and start, because the Commonwealth expected to rest. It did, at about 11:19 to 11:23 — after fourteen days of testimony by WBUR's count and roughly seventy witnesses. The Boston Globe put the count at seventy over thirteen days of testimony, Boston 25 at nearly seventy, CNN at more than seventy, and East Idaho News numbered the day's forensic witness as the Commonwealth's seventy-first. No outlet read reports a formal tally from the bench.

IAN WHIFFIN, a customer engagement manager at Cellebrite, was the Commonwealth's last witness, on direct from about 9:36 to 10:17 and on cross from about 10:49 to 11:19. He is the same digital forensics examiner who testified in the Karen Read prosecutions — Boston 25 and NBC Boston note he appeared in both — and the Globe used that to frame the day, observing that digital forensics is a field still shaped by court challenges and that its validity has become the latest frontier of the battle of experts. He extracted the defendant's iPhone 13 and worked from the Apple Health data it held for the paired Apple Watch. His figures for January 24, 2023 match the reconstruction in this project's case reference almost exactly: a final heart rate of 57 beats per minute at 5:23 p.m. against a daily average in the high 80s to low 90s; a flight climb registered at 5:33 p.m. and a second at 5:38 p.m., with nothing recorded afterward; an unanswered incoming call from Patrick Clancy at 5:33 p.m., a 14-second outgoing call back to him at 5:34 p.m., and a second unanswered incoming call at 6:09 p.m.; and a last unlock of the phone at about 5:13 p.m., when a children's laxative was searched and a text sent to Patrick telling him which brand to buy. The point the Commonwealth pressed was the sequence: the callback sits between the two stair climbs, so the conversation in which Patrick Clancy said his wife sounded busy but otherwise normal happened between her going up one flight and going up the next.

Reddington's cross-examination did not attack the data so much as its edges. He established that nothing at all was recorded after 5:38 p.m. — that the phone or watch could have been set down, the battery could have died, the watch could have been taken off, and that a person can move without carrying either — and Whiffin agreed he simply did not know whether there were more steps at 5:39 or 5:45. He then produced an Apple Watch in the courtroom and asked whether Whiffin had ever seen it; Whiffin had not, and explained that Cellebrite does not extract memory from a watch at all but reads the watch's data off the phone it syncs to. And he put the Commonwealth's own exhibit against itself: the report showed distance and step data on the morning of January 25, 2023, when the defendant was in a coma at the hospital with tubes coming out of her. Whiffin said it must have come from the phone rather than the watch. On redirect the Commonwealth suggested the explanation was police carrying the phone that morning. Reddington also used the Commonwealth's forensic witness to put defense material in front of the jury: the phone note reading that medication stole her motherhood and her life and stole her from her own body, and searches from January 10 and 12 about trazodone interactions, how quickly Wellbutrin treats depression and how to tell whether you are sleep deprived or depressed. The Commonwealth entered several hospital records and rested.

With the jury out, Reddington moved for a required finding of not guilty and, in the alternative, for the charges to be reduced from first-degree to second-degree murder. He argued the evidence was overwhelming that the defendant was clearly and unequivocally suffering from a mental disease or defect that occupied her waking hours, that she had gone from provider to provider and been given medication after medication after medication, and — East Idaho News and the Patriot Ledger both report — leaned on a May 2026 decision, which East Idaho News names as Commonwealth v. Brunette-Silveira, in which a charge was thrown out where a person who assaulted a police officer was found to have been suffering from a mental defect. Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague answered that the motion was premature: the Commonwealth intends to call its own experts in rebuttal on the defendant's mental state, and a motion of this kind in a case of this kind can only be decided once all the evidence is in. Judge Sullivan denied it at about 12:10 to 12:16, and the jury came back.

The defense then called four witnesses in a single afternoon. MARGARET HAMP, a labor and delivery nurse who worked alongside the defendant at Massachusetts General, described a nurse who cried at the births of strangers because they were beautiful, who asked colleagues about sleep habits and daycare and monogrammed lunchboxes, and who once called police for a welfare check because she saw her infant daughter crying on the home monitor during a night shift and could not reach her husband — Lindsay never let Cora cry, Hamp said. The Andrea Yates conversation came out of that world: a pregnant patient arrived on the unit saying she meant to harm herself, Hamp asked the new nurse whether she had heard of the Houston mother who drowned her five children, and the defendant cried and asked how a mother could hurt her children. ALLISON OZGA, the defendant's sister, testified to a decline she watched from another state — a mood that did not look good and low energy at Thanksgiving 2022, a sister who said in December that she was in a really tough spot, a gut feeling that made her ask whether she was safe, a report of suicidal ideation every day for a month at the end of December, a hopeful stretch after the McLean discharge, and then a daughter's birthday party about two weeks before the killings at which she was going through the motions and still looked tired. PAULA MUSGROVE, the defendant's mother, gave the day's most-quoted testimony: the October 20, 2022 text asking her to come and stay because something was wrong and she did not want to be alone; the drive up from Connecticut that same day to find her daughter just out of an emergency room, anxious and afraid; months of staying on and off; a daughter who lost weight, grew paranoid, stopped driving so her mother had to collect the children from school, and worried the school would think her a bad mother; Christmas Day going through the motions; and the kitchen conversation in late December when the defendant said she had to tell them something and then told her mother and Patrick that she had thoughts of harming the children. She also gave the line the wires led with — that the medication was pretty much just destroying her mind, that it was not her, and that she just wanted to feel better and enjoy her kids again.

Sprague's cross-examination of Musgrove was the Commonwealth's real work of the afternoon and ran from about 2:25 to 2:43. It had two movements. The first was inaction: after that disclosure, neither she nor anyone else sought to have her daughter committed, called 911, or took her back to Connecticut away from the children; and asked whether she was concerned for the children's safety, Musgrove answered that she was not, because she was there. Patrick, she said, had asked her daughter whether she felt she could not be alone with the children, and she had said no. The second was the text record. Musgrove agreed she checked in every day, sometimes several times a day, and Sprague walked her through January message by message — a January 4 text about arranging an early discharge from McLean, Cora's January 7 birthday party, a January 8 science museum trip, the Kingsbury Club and gymnastics, check-ins on January 18 and 19 about medication and sleep, a weekend visit on January 20 to 22 — with the defendant answering, over and over, good, and a little bit better. Confronted with her own text after that last weekend saying it was nice to see her doing better, Musgrove gave the answer the defense will lean on: it was written to encourage her daughter, not to describe what she had seen. Asked whether she had told investigators the day after the killings that her daughter seemed brighter or seemed to be improving after McLean, she said she did not recall — she remembered only two things from that interview, and had been in shock. On redirect Reddington moved to put further October text messages in; the Commonwealth objected, the objection was sustained, and Judge Sullivan took a sidebar.

The last witness was DR. MICHAEL VULFOVICH, an emergency physician at Newton-Wellesley Hospital and the first expert either side has called. He did not treat the defendant; he read the records. Before he began, Judge Sullivan gave the jury its first instruction on expert evidence — that they should weigh each expert's credentials with their own common sense, and that experts do not decide cases, juries do. Vulfovich described a patient who arrived at South Shore Hospital unresponsive and not speaking intelligibly, with a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 10, a low body temperature and blood pressure below normal, whom the doctors intubated because they were worried she could not breathe on her own; superficial and full-thickness lacerations to both wrists and both sides of the neck; multiple fractures of the cervical and thoracic spine; injuries consistent with a fall from a second-story window onto the ground; a transfer to Brigham and Women's, which the Patriot Ledger reports was by air; and then, in the surgical intensive care unit there, a complete cardiac arrest requiring two rounds of CPR, a hemorrhage around the spine and a massive transfusion. What Reddington could not get from him was the conclusion he wanted. Several times he tried to ask whether the wounds were consistent with a genuine suicide attempt rather than the staged one the Commonwealth alleges, and each time the objection was sustained; on the last attempt he withdrew the question himself. All Vulfovich could say was that the injuries were consistent with self-injurious behavior and that the intent he could not gauge. The Commonwealth asked him nothing.

The jury went home at about 3:09 to 3:10. What followed is the day's loose end. Judge Sullivan called counsel to sidebar, and the Boston Globe reports that attorney David Meier — who represents Patrick Clancy and had not been in the courtroom since his client testified — was called to the bench and handed documents to the judge. Sullivan ordered a document marked for identification without saying what it was, and ended the session at about 3:31 to 3:48 with no public explanation. The Globe notes only that Patrick Clancy has been the target of online conspiracy theories, and says it is unclear whether the defense wants to recall him. East Idaho News, which timed the same sidebar at 3:12 to 3:31, describes it as concerning the logistics of the following day and reports the judge saying afterward there was nothing further to discuss. Trial resumed at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

Index terms

Topics 22

Commonwealth rests
required finding of not guilty
reduction to second-degree murder
Apple Health
Apple Watch
digital forensics
Cellebrite
January 24 timeline
stair climbs
call log
search history
defense case opens
expert testimony instruction
suicidal ideation
self-inflicted injuries
Glasgow Coma Scale
mandated reporter
Andrea Yates
postpartum psychosis
text messages
McLean Hospital
sidebar

Reporting relied on

Sources 12

Sources: globe-day-14, cbs-day-14, boston-0817, b25-day-14, eastidaho-day-14, ledger-day-14, wbur, cnn-rests, abc-day-14, turnto10-day-14, upi-day-14, nbc-boston

Identifiers are the archive's own source keys; each links to the report it names where the archive gives a web address.

Mirror of the public trial reference at clancytrial.org, reproduced with its cautions intact. Nothing here is a conclusion about guilt or responsibility; the defendant is presumed innocent. Corrections: [email protected].