A small pink sticker unexpectedly became a focus of attention during Lindsay Clancy’s closely watched trial in Massachusetts. Observers noticed it attached to a drink holder on her wheelchair beside a bottle of Diet Coke. Printed across the sticker was the unusual phrase “#sidebah,” which quickly prompted questions online. Clancy, 36, appeared in Plymouth Superior Court as jurors considered charges connected to the January 2023 deaths of her three children, Cora, Dawson, and Callan. After a five-week trial and six days of deliberations, the jury still had not reached a unanimous decision. No financial damages or dollar amount is at issue because the proceedings involve criminal charges rather than a civil lawsuit.
The defense has not disputed that Clancy caused the children’s deaths, but attorney Kevin Reddington argues that severe mental illness and postpartum psychosis left her unable to understand or control her actions at the time. Prosecutors maintain that she planned what happened and could distinguish right from wrong. Jurors heard weeks of testimony from relatives, medical professionals, friends, investigators, and former coworkers describing her behavior in the months before the tragedy. Yet as deliberations stalled, one disagreement inside the jury room threatened to change the entire outcome.
Clancy’s former husband, Patrick, testified that her mental health declined sharply after the birth of their third child and that she had expressed troubling thoughts. Her mother, Paula Musgrove, and sister, Allison Ozga, described severe insomnia, anxiety, weight loss, and repeated attempts to seek support. Former nanny Elaine Rossi remembered Clancy as an attentive mother and said she never considered her a danger, while psychiatrist Jennifer Tufts discussed numerous online treatment sessions. State investigators presented evidence recovered from Clancy’s phone, and other witnesses recalled conversations about medication and emotional distress. In court, these accounts became a major investment of time for both sides as they argued over criminal responsibility—not questions involving insurance, a mortgage, or an estate. Judge William Sullivan eventually issued a Tuey-Rodriguez instruction, sometimes called a “dynamite charge,” encouraging the divided jurors to continue working toward agreement without abandoning their honest beliefs.
The tension rose again when Reddington claimed one juror was refusing to follow the law concerning reasonable doubt. Prosecuting attorney Jennifer Sprague opposed his request to remove that juror, and Sullivan instead questioned the panel privately before sending everyone back to deliberate. That courtroom exchange also explained the mysterious sticker: “sidebah” appears to imitate how Reddington pronounces “sidebar” in his Boston accent, a detail that has become an online meme. It remains unknown whether Clancy placed or approved the sticker herself, but some social-media users criticized its lighthearted tone given the seriousness of the case. By the end of Thursday’s session, however, the sticker was no longer the biggest development. The jury remained deadlocked and was scheduled to return at 9 a.m. Friday, with the possibility of a mistrial still hanging over the courtroom
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