5.Stephanie Williams — Direct
109 linesMS. BUCKINGHAM: The Commonwealth would call Stephanie Williams as its next witness, please.
COURT CLERK: Good morning. Do you solemnly swear that the testimony and the evidence you shall give to the court in the matter now pending between the Commonwealth and the defendant shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: I do.
COURT CLERK: Thank you, ma'am. You may have a seat.
BAILIFF: Watch your step, please.
THE COURT: Good morning.
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: Morning.
THE COURT: I'm gonna ask you to speak into that microphone.
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: Okay.
THE COURT: Keep your voice up. Pull that down a little bit for you.
THE COURT: That's it. All right. Counsel.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: Thank you. Good morning.
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: Good morning.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: Could you please tell the jurors your first and last name?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: Stephanie Williams.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: And Williams, that's just common spelling?
MS. BUCKINGHAM: What city or town do you live in?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: I live in Sagamore Beach.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: And what do you do for work?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: I'm a pre-K teacher.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: And where do you work?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: At Learning Sprouts Children's Center.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: And where is that located?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: In Duxbury.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: And how long have you worked for Learning Sprouts?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: About six and a half years.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: What age group do you teach?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: I generally teach the pre-K children, the four-year-olds that are gonna be turning five and going to kindergarten.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: And at the Learning Sprouts preschool, fair to say that the different rooms are given a name?
MS. BUCKINGHAM: Okay. And what room did you work in, or do you work in?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: Currently right now I work in the Sweet Pea classroom. When I first started there, I worked in the Orange classroom.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: And I'm gonna draw your attention to the fall of 2022, September, into January of 2023. Were you in the Sweet Pea room then?
MS. BUCKINGHAM: And how many people would—teachers would be in the Sweet Pea room with you?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: I was the only teacher in that room.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: Was it a full-day program for you in the Sweet Pea room?
MS. BUCKINGHAM: And were there some kids of that age group, the four and five-year-olds, that would only be there in your Sweet Pea room in the afternoon?
MS. BUCKINGHAM: Those kids, where would they usually be in the morning?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: In the Sunflower class.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: And fair to say the Sunflower class was more academic curriculum based, and the Sweet Pea room was not? In the afternoon.
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: No. Oh, in the afternoon, yes.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: So tell us a little bit about what afternoons would be like.
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: Basically they would go outside to play. They would be playing in the room. They would take rest time, and then they would get up, have an afternoon snack. And then if there was time permitting, they would be able to play in the classroom or color, do artwork.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: And generally the afternoon kids in the Sweet Pea room, they'd go until 4:00, right?
MS. BUCKINGHAM: And that was the time for pickup for most of the kids?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: Yes. That's when we close, at 4:00.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: Okay. Did you know Cora Clancy?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: Yes, I did.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: And how did you know her?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: I was Cora's teacher when I first started at Learning Sprouts when she was three.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: Mm-hmm.
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: And then she came into my classroom in the afternoons from September till January.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: So from September of 2022, when she's still four, into January of 2023, after she had turned five—
MS. BUCKINGHAM: ... she would come three afternoons into your classroom?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: It was first three, then it switched to four afternoons.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: Now, when she would come to your classroom in the afternoon, what would she be coming into? Is it snack time, nap time, rest time?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: Usually it would be getting ready for rest.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: And would she be brought to your classroom by one of the teachers downstairs or at the Sunflower room?
MS. BUCKINGHAM: And you're familiar with Susan and Karen are, as the teachers in the Sunflower room?
MS. BUCKINGHAM: Now, how would you describe Cora?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: She was a sweet little girl who loved her little brother. She loved to draw, play with babies, play princess. She liked Princess Sofia.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: How did you know she liked Princess Sofia?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: Because she would pretend to be Princess Sofia, and she always talked about it, and I had actually bought a Princess Sofia puzzle for her.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: Now I'm gonna draw your attention to January of 2023, more specifically the 23rd. Did Cora come to your classroom that afternoon?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: Yes, she did.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: And did you observe anything different about her?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: She hadn't been feeling well, and the teachers from the Sunflower class had told me that she wasn't feeling that well.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: Did you observe that of her as well?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: Well, she did nap and then she, when all the other children were getting up and getting ready to leave, you know, for the day, she was reluctant to get up off her cot and was still there when her mother came to get her.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: Did Cora say anything to you, why she wasn't feeling well? If she just felt—
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: I think she just said her tummy hurt.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: And so you just kinda let her rest for the afternoon. And so who picked her up that day?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: Lindsay.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: And so, normally in pickup, does a parent come to the classroom to pick up the child?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: They usually come to the door, and we send the child out.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: And that would just be the door of the classroom, not the building?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: Yes, 'cause I had a door that led outside.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: Okay. So on this particular afternoon, Lindsay Clancy came to pick Cora up at the door. And so, what, if anything, did you tell Lindsay?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: I told her that Cora had napped, and she had said she wasn't feeling well, that the other teachers had told me that she hadn't been feeling well and that she was still laying on her cot.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: And what did Lindsay say or do after you told her that?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: She came into the classroom and picked her up off the cot and said, "Oh baby, come on, let's go get Dawson, and we'll go home."
MS. BUCKINGHAM: And so at that moment when she came to the classroom, she hadn't already picked Dawson up?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: No. She went upstairs to pick Dawson up.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: And when she came into the classroom and told you that and picked up Cora, did you notice anything different about her than any of the other times you had interacted with her?
MS. BUCKINGHAM: In any of the time that you had interacted with Lindsay Clancy from September of 2022 to January 23rd of 2023, did you notice anything different about her?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: No. She was just a very loving mother who cared about her children.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: And did she share anything with you about her family or about anything that was going on in her household at that time?
MS. BUCKINGHAM: And you, as a preschool teacher, are a mandated reporter, correct?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: Yes, I am.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: So if you were to observe something either on the child or from what the child said or behavior of a parent, you would be required to report that?
STEPHANIE WILLIAMS: Yes, I would.
MS. BUCKINGHAM: And as far as the Clancy family went, you didn't notice anything, and you didn't report anything, did you?
MS. BUCKINGHAM: Thank you.
THE COURT: All right. Mr. Reddington.
MR. REDDINGTON: Thank you very much.
THE COURT: All right. Thank you, ma'am. You may step down. Thank you.
BAILIFF: Watch your step.