Prosecutor Jennifer Sprague said she didn’t ask Heilbrun any questions to elicit talk of religion and didn’t “think it was intentional on the part of the witness either.”

“I don’t think he was intentionally trying to inflame the jury,” Sprague said.

Judge William Sullivan denied the request for a mistrial but warned prosecutors that Heilbrun couldn’t raise the topic again and he told the jury to disregard that part of the testimony.

“The religion that the defendant was raised from is an inappropriate area of testimony,” Sullivan told the jury. “It is to be stricken. It cannot be considered. The witness’s understanding of Catholic teaching is immaterial, is irrelevant, it is to be disregarded.”

Judge William Sullivan suddenly ordered jurors to return to the jury room so they could take a “short recess,” after Lindsay Clancy’s lawyer objected during the testimony of a psychologist for the prosecution.

The moment came when psychologist Dr. Kirk Heilbrun mentioned that he asked Clancy — a Catholic — about the fact that suicide is a “mortal sin.”

Reddington quickly objected, prompting a sidebar and then the break.

Heilburn is expected to continue his testimony when they come back.

Forensic psychologist Dr. Kirk Heilbrun told the jury he believed that Lindsay Clancy strangled her three kids for altruistic reasons.

“When she decided she was going to put a stop to [her suffering] then the question was what to do about the kids,” Heilbrun — a prosecution witness — told the jury. “She didn’t want to leave them and she was convinced they would suffer [without her].”

Clancy told Heilbrun she told the children “Go to God, baby. Go to God,” as she killed them one by one in the basement.

“That was part of her expectation, that she and her children would be together in Heaven with God,” the psychologist said.

This portion of Heilbrun’s opinion mirrors what defense witness Dr. Phillip Resnick said last week — that he believed Clancy carried out an “altruistic filicide.”

But Heilbrun said he didn’t believe Clancy actually heard an auditory hallucination commanding her to carry out the killings and the suicide attempt — as she’s claimed.

Forensic psychologist Dr. Kirk Heilbrun said it was “so out of character” that Lindsay Clancy killed her three kids, he had to come up with possible motives.

He said the only two explanations he could come up with were: acute psychosis with command hallucinations or that she believed by killing the kids she was preventing them from suffering.

He disregarded the psychosis explanation because she only heard the voice once at the time of the slayings.

“She heard a voice that she never heard before and she never experienced it since but she only experienced it for the 18 minutes or so that it took to kill the children,” Heilbrun said. “That would be a very very unusual pattern or manifestation of how this kind of thing comes about.”

“It provides a convenient way of lessening your culpability,” the doctor added.

He also said her accounts of what the voice told her were “inconsistent.”

As for the second explanation, Heilbrun said, “One might harm one’s own children if you thought that would prevent them from suffering.”

“This was a serious suicide attempt and she didn’t want the children to be separated from her and so they wouldn’t have to suffer after she was gone.”

Two mothers who had their own experiences with postpartum flew from Georgia to Mᴀssachusetts to support Lindsay Clancy at trial Monday.

Rachel Arthur and Katie Raub showed up outside the Plymouth courthouse wearing pink corsets as they said they hoped Clancy would be found not guilty and hoped her case would raise awareness about postpartum.

“I hope that she gets found not guilty,” Raub said. “I feel like postpartum psychosis is to blame here.”

“I hope that she gets the opportunity to have her story out,” Arthur said, noting she believes the disorder Clancy claims she suffered from “exists.”

The two women were returning home after just 24 hours of being in the Bay State.

Clancy wants a jury to find her not criminally responsible on the grounds she was experiencing postpartum psychosis and hearing voices when she strangled her three kids.

Court is back in session with forensic psychologist Dr. Kirk Heilburn back on the stand.

The prosecution has resumed questioning Heilburn about Lindsay Clancy’s mental health condition at the time she murdered her three children.

Clancy was seen wearing a beige knit cardigan on top of her pink blouse as court resumed.

Judge William Sullivan let the jury go for a lunch just before 1 p.m. and said Dr. Kirk Heilburn’s testimony would continue after the break around 2 p.m.

Lindsay Clancy’s lawyer will have the opportunity to question the doctor after the prosecution wraps up its inquiry.

Forensic psychologist Dr. Kirk Heilbrun just told the jury that Lindsay Clancy has post traumatic stress disorder from killing her kids.

Heibrun also said he believes Clancy has bipolar II disorder, a diagnosis that was difficult to come to because of all the various diagnoses that other doctors and providers had previously diagnosed her with.

He said the medical records showed Clancy had depressive episodes but he had a hard time finding manic episodes — with both depression and mania required to diagnose someone with bipolar.

He ultimately landed on bipolar II which is a less severe form of bipolar disorder. He said the records from the hospital she has been at for the last three years showed she responded positively to drugs meant to treat the condition, a factor that helped him come to his conclusion.

Psychologist Dr. Kirk Heilbrun detailed some of Lindsay Clancy’s “horrible intrusive thoughts,” including about killing herself and harming her kids.

Heilbrun — who interviewed Clancy in April 2026 — said her dark inner voice began telling her things like “your brain is damaged and you need to kill yourself,” in late November into early December 2022, months before she strangled her kids. The inner voice also occasionally told her to harm her kids, he explained.

But Heilbrun said the important distinction was that the thoughts were an internal voice of her own rather than an external voice that would have been a hallucination and a sign of psychosis.

He noted she only ever described hearing a male’s voice on Jan. 24, 2023, the day of the killings.

Clancy’s lawyer claims she shouldn’t be found criminally responsible because she was experiencing severe postpartum psychosis and hearing a voice.

Forensic psychologist Kirk Heilbrun has been called as the second reʙuттal witness for the prosecution at Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial.

He is expected to testify about whether he believes Clancy was aware the killing of her three kids was wrong.

Clancy’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, previously called his own expert witnesses who told jurors they believed the 36-year-old mother was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis and hearing voices at the time. They said she shouldn’t be found criminally responsible.

Roughly 60 people were lined up outside the courtroom in hopes of getting a spot inside the room for the high-profile trial.

The group, made up of mostly women who donned pink clothing, sat packed in five rows of seating inside the courtroom gallery.

Several jurors shook their heads and rolled their eyes as psychiatrist Dr. Avram Mack repeatedly said he couldn’t answer questions about Lindsay Clancy’s mental state.

During blistering cross-examination by Clancy’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, Mack — who evaluated Clancy two times in April of this year — said “I can’t answer your question,” and “I’m not sure I understand your question.”

Roughly four jurors could be seen shaking their heads and rolling their eyes as Mack refused the answer the inquiry.

One male juror put his hand up to his head and closed his eyes as Mack said “I’m not sure how I can answer.”

Reddington has been pressing Mack about whether he thinks Clancy showed signs of postpartum psychosis when she strangled her three kids.

Reddington closed out his questioning by saying “I don’t care,” to Mack’s final answer. The moment drew light laughter from people in the courtroom gallery.

Psychiatrist Dr. Avram Mack admitted Lindsay Clancy was in a “serious psychiatric state,” as he maintained she should be held criminally responsible for strangling three kids.

“She was in a serious psychiatric state and she was suffering,” Mack said.

Still, Mack has maintained that Clancy knew what she was doing was wrong when she carried out the slayings.

Clancy’s defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, wants a jury to find her not guilty by reason of insanity on the grounds she was in the throes of severe postpartum psychosis and hearing voices.

“I didn’t find any evidence of psychosis in her record,” Mack said. “She did not display psycH๏τic features.”

“I didn’t see any evidence of any psycH๏τic features throughout the medical record,” he said, as Reddington repeatedly grilled him about it.

Supporters of Lindsay Clancy and protesters against her both showed up outside of the Plymouth, Mᴀssachusetts, courthouse Monday morning as the fifth week of trial got underway.

Roughly ten women wearing pink shirts came to support Clancy as she is seeking to be found not criminally responsible for strangling her kids on the grounds she was in the throes of severe postpartum psychosis and hearing voices when she carried out the heinous acts.

But another group of around the same amount of people was also outside of the courthouse protesting Clancy, holding signs that championed justice for her three kids.

“Justice for Cora, Dawson and Callan,” one sign said. Other signs said: “The Only Innocents: Cora Dawson Callan.”