Lindsay Clancy, Nolan Wells: One Thing Each Prosecutor Skipped

**Tony Brueski** (0:01)
This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Brueski and Robin Dreak.

**Tony Brueski** (0:09)
Here we go.

**Robin Drake** (0:12)
That's all you can say. Here we go.

**Tony Brueski** (0:14)
Here we go.

**Tony Brueski** (0:15)
I've been talking about this since Friday afternoon when I emailed everybody.
Texted Jen, I said, I'm coming at you Monday. And she said, bring it. So here we go. Robin Dreak is with me as well, Chief of the Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program, retired FBI and retired FBI Jennifer Coffindaffer in the left corner of the ring.
Or, I don't know, it's like round one fight. We're talking about the Lindsay Clancy case and we will do it civilly. And we always do. And I love that. Definitely.
And I think it's important because so many people who have been watching this case in depth, closely, like, you know, we have a lot of people watching it passively. But it's created a rift in a lot of relationships and a lot of conversations. And it's okay. It's okay that other people look at things differently and understand things differently. What's not okay is just being like, screw you, I don't want to hear you. Like, let's try to understand a little bit where everyone is coming from. And at the end of the day, you can still disagree. And then you can say, screw you, I don't want to know. But no, that's not ever a good thing. But to actually to get there, to understand how one person is going from point A to point B, that's what we're going to try and do today as we break down the Lindsay Clancy case. Your thoughts are welcome in the comment section, sub stack in YouTube, wherever you're watching us. The links are in the description. OK, let's get into this. The defense of the Lindsay Clancy trial has rested. Their final witness was Dr. Philip Resnick, the psychiatrist who helped acquit Andrea Yates. And he told this jury Clancy was psychotic the day she killed her children. The prosecution answered with rebuttal experts of their own, starting with Dr. Avram Mack, who says she retained responsibility. Jennifer Coffindaffer, like I said, she is here with us to help break it down on her perspective. The guilt argument says she never told a doctor about the voice. And that's true. Her own expert admitted it on cross. But nobody in that courtroom is arguing that she was well. The prosecution's official position is mentally ill but responsible. And Dr. Zeisel testified that a month before the killings, she went to a clinic paranoid saying her brain was damaged and that she should end herself. Everyone agrees she was sick, as much as the prosecution said it won't be a referendum about mental health. How sick does someone have to be before you say, not responsible? It seems to be an issue here of where is the bars? Where is the goal post on this?
Jan, I'm just going to throw it over to you. Where is the bars on this? I mean, where are you on this too? I think we all can agree somewhat that she was sick. Maybe not. I don't know.

**Jennifer Coffindaffer** (3:07)
Oh, I agree she was sick. Look, anybody who can take exercise ban and strangled the life out of their kids five and below is sick.
This is the issue for me and the bar is very simple. I see the goalpost. It's in bright neon.
Did she, was she in her mind understanding right from wrong and could she have stopped herself? It's so simple. In other words, were there bats flying around in her brain and she didn't know where she was, and she didn't know what she was doing, and she wasn't making any sense. She was incoherent. She was a hot mess up here. No, that's not the answer, but that's my bar.

**Tony Brueski** (3:53)
But that's not what psychosis looks like. What you're describing is not psychosis.

**Jennifer Coffindaffer** (3:59)
It depends on who you talk to, right? You have half of the people saying that are quote unquote experts say she was able to determine that. You have Resnick saying no. But listen, this is-

**Tony Brueski** (4:14)
John, I'm saying psychosis isn't like sitting in the corner with bats flying around your brain. Oh, okay. Like psychosis can look very normal. It's more about where true north is for you, basically at that moment in time. What I would say, the way I try to understand it, a state of psychosis would be like this, and I'm curious to get your thoughts, a compass. Remember back in the day, compasses, most of us remember compasses.