Fundraiser For Lindsay Clancy Holdout Juror Michael Desronvil Passes $300k - Newsweek
A fundraiser for Michael Desronvil, the lone juror who favored convicting Lindsay Clancy in her closely watched Massachusetts murder trial, has passed $300,000 on crowdfunding platform GiveSendGo.
The 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse was charged with three counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of her children—Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old Callan—at the family's Duxbury, Massachusetts, home in January 2023. She pleaded not guilty.
Her defense attorney argued that postpartum psychosis had left her not criminally responsible for their deaths. The 12 jurors deliberated for seven days but failed to reach a unanimous verdict, leading Judge William Sullivan to declare a mistrial.
"I didn’t have any doubts. As I tried to explain different possible theories during deliberation, I kept getting cut off as if I had doubts based on the evidence present," Desronvil said in a statement previously provided to Newsweek via his lawyer. "Based on all the physical evidence, key witnesses, and what the prosecution presents, I thought it was enough proof that she knew exactly what she was doing and planned."
In a statement on Friday on X, GiveSendGo co-founder Jacob Wells said he had spoken with Desronvil and his attorney Edward Paltzik.
“The Lone Juror is being added to the campaign as the recipient. His identity has been verified,” Wells wrote. “Thank you all for your generosity to this campaign.”
In a written statement on X, Paltzik thanked Wells and the fundraiser’s organizers for ensuring that all proceeds would go directly to his client to help pay for necessities after what he described as “death threats, doxxing and harassment.”
He wrote that “Stand With the Juror” would continue as the official and authorized fundraising page, with further updates to be posted there. Paltzik also thanked Wells for his leadership of the fundraising platform and acknowledged others who helped establish and support the campaign.
As of early Saturday, the fundraiser had raised a little over $330,000 of a stated goal of $350,000.
Newsweek reached out to Clancy’s attorney for comment via email on Saturday.
Desronvil, 48, from Massachusetts was the only juror who favored finding Clancy criminally responsible at her murder trial.
His attorney described him in a statement on social media on Thursday as an “American Hero and Champion of Justice [who] loves the United States of America as the greatest country in the world.”
Paltzik added Desronvil was “presently safe and sound at an undisclosed secure location in a rural area of Northern New England.”
Newsweek previously reported that court records showed Desronvil faced a criminal charge in 2021 for allegedly assaulting his then-wife to which he pleaded not guilty, and the charges were later dismissed, meaning he was not convicted.
Following the mistrial, the case remains unresolved and the murder charges against her are still pending.
The next confirmed court proceeding is a September 29 status hearing in Plymouth Superior Court before Sullivan. Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, has filed a renewed motion asking the judge to enter a required finding of not guilty. He argued that the prosecution failed to present sufficient evidence to establish criminal responsibility for the killings beyond a reasonable doubt.
Reddington has also said he intends to argue that another prosecution should be barred on double-jeopardy grounds, challenging whether there was sufficient necessity to declare the mistrial.
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.
Contact Newsweek editor on this story: Tobias Meyjes, Edward Pearcey and Anthony Murray.
