A Georgia mother who believed she was “pouring out” evil into her baby while breastfeeding has been convicted of infanticide.
Chloe Driver, 24, fatally stabbed her 13-month-old daughter Hannah to death. Prosecutors accused the driver of killing Hannah because she wanted her husband, the father of the child, all to himself.
Chief Assistant District Attorney Katie Gropper told the court that Driver’s husband had two other women and that their polygamist group had “deep views” and lived an “alternative” medical lifestyle that included drinking their own urine.
The jury heard how Mutayiri suffered from a troubled childhood, a history of mental illness and was enduring a “traumatic and oppressive” marriage when she finally “snapped” and stabbed her child with him in December 2020.
Defense lawyers tried to paint a picture of a woman who was abused and coerced by her husband who she called a religious leader. They said a combination of her mental illness and extreme beliefs resulted in the child’s death.
The driver had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to charges of first degree murder, first degree child cruelty, and aggravated assault.
But after a six-day trial, and only three hours of deliberation, the jury found him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt but mentally ill on all charges – meaning they rejected Driver’s insanity plea and found him guilty of his actions. .
Chloe Driver is pictured during her arrest for murder in 2020. Her neck was bandaged from where she had stabbed herself in the throat (Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office)
The murder of baby Hannah
Police responded to a home in Canton, Georgia on December 8, 2020, to find a mother and her baby daughter with stab wounds inside the bedroom.
Driver was lying on the mattress next to the blood that covered Hannah, holding her hand. They were all rushed to the hospital where the child died from his injuries.
Police said Driver took a butcher knife from the kitchen and barricaded himself and his son in the bedroom and stabbed him repeatedly.
They were found by the child’s father, Benyamin Ben Michael, who is known as Brian Joyce or “Z” – who is said to have screamed and cried at Driver saying, “What have you done?”
Driver was married to a man who also had two other women.
Dr. Carli Blomquist, the hospital doctor who cared for Hannah, told the court during Driver’s trial that the baby had “no blood” when she was brought in.
‘She wanted only him’
A letter allegedly written by Driver was read in court during his trial which revealed his shocking confession about the murder.
“He didn’t do it. I did it,” she wrote, referring to her husband, Ben Michael. “I was going crazy and didn’t want to be with his friends anymore, but I kept coming back looking for him. I only wanted my child and my husband, but he refused.”
The prosecutor told the court, “He wanted to be with her and he would not give up his polygamous lifestyle that they adopted.”
The driver looks on from the defense table as video of his police interview is played in court (Court TV)
But the defense said the story that Driver killed the child so that Ben Michael could take everything from him “doesn’t make sense” because he could have killed other women as well.
“If he wanted her to be alone, wouldn’t she have eliminated the competition?” Defense spoke.
Before the jury was sent for sentencing, the defense urged them to find him guilty by reason of insanity, saying that Driver was delusional at the time of the child’s death and that he could not tell right from wrong. .
“Hannah’s justice in this case is getting her mother treated,” he said.
Did the cult of polygamy drive Chloe Driver to murder?
In the months leading up to the killing of baby Hannah, Driver said she was “seeing the signs” that led Ben Michael and other women to want her to kill herself and her child, according to Dr. McLendon Garrett.
Dr. Garrett, a psychologist who interviewed Driver following her murder, testified that the mother suffered from mental illness and had experienced lies before her child’s death.
The driver was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, borderline personality disorder, and cannabis use disorder. He said Driver’s mental health was caused by a traumatic childhood and a bad relationship.
“He had a troubled childhood,” Dr. Garrett said. “Their family was cold, and she left them several times—living with boys, even leaving the government to live with someone else. She quickly became suicidal and began harming herself, including cutting herself and trying to overdose on sleeping pills.”
The driver met her husband when she was only 17 and he was 38, and became part of a nomadic religious group led by her husband, which Dr. Garrett said she believed played a significant role in her mind.
“He was alone,” Dr. Garrett said. “He was forbidden to talk to others unless he was looking for a job. He couldn’t go to the shops, spend money, or have a phone without someone watching over him. His duties alone took about two weeks, and those were not necessary.”
The driver looked desperate as the prison found him guilty of murder (Court TV)
The group were strict vegans who followed unorthodox health practices that included drinking their own urine, according to testimony.
The driver also told the doctor about the control he was under and how he would face punishment, which included “dirty treatment,” where he was confined to a bed, the windows closed, denied a bathroom, and forced to urinate.
After Driver gave birth to Hana, she began to question the group’s teachings, especially about the lack of childcare, including vaccinations, and simply – a birth certificate.
“He was worried that his child would not have a good life,” Dr. Garrett said. “But I realized he wouldn’t get it with Ben Michael.”
Dr. Garrett said.
He felt as if the women had gathered around him and made him think that he and the child were “sinners.”
“She believed that she was taking her sin – all the bad parts about her – into her child through breastfeeding,” Dr. Garrett said. “He also talked about pouring out his sin in the child.”
“There was a lot of evidence that he really believed by having a child with someone who was married – by having a child in this type of relationship – that it was a sin and that he passed that sin on to his daughter,” Dr. Garrett added. “And so they shared that – that they were all signs of sin.”
When asked what Dr. Garrett believed it was the “real trigger” that pushed him over the edge, saying Driver told him he was angry when Ben Michael threw a dirty shirt at him when he said he needed something clean so he could change Hannah. .
Baby Hannah was only 13 months old when her mother stabbed her to death in December 2020 (Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office)
That incident may have been the “straw that broke the camel’s back” after months of lies, Dr. Garrett said.
He added, “He was lonely and emotionally unstable.” “His relationship with the group and its energy created the perfect storm.”
The perfect storm that eventually led to Hannah’s tragic death.
“From that moment on, I got faster,” Driver told Dr. Jacquelyn Zahm, who also examined him after the murder.
It confuses the claims of ‘dark therapy’ and drinking urine
In one shocking part of the testimony, a friend of Driver’s took the stand in an orange prison jumpsuit and told the court about Driver’s polygamous lifestyle and their unhealthy health habits.
Jason Spillars, who faced charges in a case in North Carolina, painted Ben Michael’s house as “harmonious and supportive,” but the patriarch has a man in charge because men “make better decisions, they can control their emotions in a way that women cannot, and they are simply better leaders, ” he said.
Spillars gave an inside look at the lifestyle of the polygamist group, with shocking details of how they indulged in rituals such as drinking urine and “dirty medicine” alone.
Despite this, he said that all three women married to Ben Michael were satisfied in their jobs and that Driver’s involvement was voluntary and based on their beliefs, not forced.
Jason Spillars gave an inside look at the lifestyle of a polygamist group, with shocking claims they took to rituals such as drinking urine and isolating themselves with ‘dark therapy’ (Court TV)
Spillars testified that his friend had experienced mental problems, and that in the months leading up to Hannah’s murder, his delusions and insanity increased.
He then got caught up in the spirit of standing and recounting what he saw on the day of the child’s murder. He remembered walking into the room and finding Ben Michael doing CPR on Hannah and seeing blood everywhere.
As he applied pressure to Driver’s stab wounds, he said he remembered his friend telling him, “Wait, I have to die.” Spillars started to cry, showing that Driver was a good mother who loved her daughter.
His mother asked him to come home
Mutayiri’s mother Renee said she and other family members tried with all their heart to persuade her to break up with Ben Michael, but nothing could sway her.
“I tried everything I could to stay with him but it didn’t work,” Renee told the court when she was worried.
After the birth of baby Hannah, their contact was “little,” but Renee said she knew Driver “was a good mother and loved her daughter.”
Driver wiped away tears as his mother testified.
After Hannah was born, Renee said she repeated that her daughter and granddaughter could move in, but Ben Michael was not accepted because Renee “didn’t want anything to do with him.”
Renee said in July 2020 she began to notice a change in her daughter, describing her as being in a zombie-like state rather than herself.
“Nothing has really changed with Hannah – just her,” Renee said. “He kept falling. I mean, she was just broken, but at the time, I didn’t really care because, I mean, I was with Hannah, too, and I was just so happy every time I saw Hannah. “
Judgment
Over six days, jurors listened to testimony from 21 witnesses and viewed vivid photos of the crime scene before being sent to decide Driver’s fate.
The young mother was devastated when the verdict was read out in court on Wednesday.
He was found guilty, but mentally ill, of murdering his baby girl.
A “guilty but mentally ill” verdict means the jury rejected his insanity plea and found him guilty of his actions.
Driver will be sentenced on December 12. Until then, Driver will be in custody of the Georgia Department of Corrections, which will be responsible for managing his mental health needs.