CANTON, Ga. – The trial of Chloe Driver, a Cherokee County mother who is accused of stabbing her youngest daughter to deathHannah Nicole Driver in December 2020 started on Tuesday.

The incident happened on December 8, 2020 at home in Mountain View Subdivision located along Bd. Mountain View. When officers arrived, they said they found both the child and the then-20-year-old mother in an upstairs bedroom. The child was rushed to hospital, where he later died.

According to court documents, she pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

She faces charges of malicious murder, two counts of felony murder, aggravated assault and cruelty to children.

Chloe Driver murder trial opening statements: mother was in ‘polyamorous relationship’

In opening statements, the prosecution said Driver was involved in a polyamorous relationship with Brian Joyce, who also went by the name Benyamin Ben Michael, and two other women. The group apparently adhered to extreme views, rejecting modern medicine and following strict dietary and lifestyle rules. “You’re going to hear a lot of distracting evidence about this group … but your decision in this case is what happened to Hannah,” said the prosecutor, Chief Deputy District Attorney Katie Groppe.

Groppe emphasized the brutality of the crime. “She is Hannah Nicole Driver on December 8, 2020. She was 13 months old,” the prosecutor said as she held up a photo of the child. “That’s not how you’re going to see it in this trial. Instead, you will see her as the first responding officers saw her…a beautiful little girl who had been brutally murdered by her mother, stabbed repeatedly until the life drained from her.”

The prosecution warned the jury they would hear about Driver’s involvement in a controversial group with unorthodox beliefs, including strict veganism, sensory deprivation practices and unconventional healing rituals.

The driver faces multiple charges, including criminal mischief. The state’s case focuses on proving that Driver intended to kill his daughter.

Defense attorney Angela Trethaway, however, claims that Driver was mentally unwell at the time of the incident, citing severe psychological stress factors that would have been exacerbated by her involvement in the group. The defense’s position emphasizes the driver’s mental state, suggesting she was influenced by the manipulation by Joyce and his associates, which they claim led to the deterioration of her mental health. “There is no dispute as to the facts as to the events that took place … Miss Driver does not dispute that she killed her 13-month-old daughter,” the defense lawyer said. “The only issue in this case that you have to decide is the mental state and mental state of the lady driver at the time of the crime.”

Chloe Driver murder trial: Haunting 911 calls, evidence presented

Eight prosecution witnesses testified Tuesday in the murder trial of Chloe Driver, who is accused of fatally stabbing her 13-month-old daughter, Hannah. The court heard harrowing accounts from law enforcement and emergency workers, as well as details of the events surrounding the child’s death.

A Canton police dispatcher was the first witness, recounting the 911 calls that reported Hannah’s stabbing. Audio of the calls was played in court, with the dispatcher confirming that none of the callers indicated that Chloe was also injured.

Following the dispatch, the owner of the building on Mountain Vista Boulevard testified. He described his relationship with Brian Joyce, a man he called “Z,” whom he met through a third party after seeing a video about spiritualism online. The landlord said Joyce and his girlfriend had been staying at his home on and off since 2015, describing Joyce as “kind of a crazy hippie”. Although he was aware of Joyce’s polyamorous relationship, he stated that he did not observe the behavior in question.

Canton Police Officer Gary Pruitt, who was the first to arrive on the scene, testified that he responded to the dispatch call around 2:27 p.m. “The call came in, it was a mother who killed her child with a knife,” he said. Pruitt said. . He said he found the toddler bleeding on a mattress, and jurors were shown body camera footage of him arriving at the home. The driver appeared emotional as the film played. Pruitt added that Hannah was taken to the hospital by medics. During cross-examination, he confirmed that he found Chloe lying on the floor, holding hands with her baby on the bed.

Cpl. canton police. Adam Yurkovsky testified that he began the initial investigation by separating the parties involved to prevent them from coordinating their accounts.

Paramedic Brooke Ice, an eight-year veteran of Cherokee County Fire and EMS, described feeling in danger as she tended to the child, nearly kneeling on the knife believed to be the murder weapon. Another paramedic moved the knife, which had been on the floor next to her. She confessed that she was unaware of the identities of those present, adding to her sense of fear.

Canton Police Detective Tom Priest testified further, telling the jury: “I was led upstairs to the room where the incident took place and saw large amounts of blood on the bed and floor. And I also noticed a knife on the floor.” Priest shared photos from the scene, including an image of Joyce, who he said appeared shocked and emotional when he learned of Hannah’s death.

Cherokee County Sheriff’s Investigator Christopher Shaw testified that he was called by Canton police to assist in the investigation. Shaw first went to the hospital, where he documented the child’s injuries. He described seeing significant blood loss and knife cuts on the child’s neck. The driver became visibly upset as Shaw detailed the injuries, including the condition of the child’s sock, as jurors viewed related photographs. Shaw described the crime scene as “a clear scene”, contained in a single bedroom, and noted that the knife suspected to be the murder weapon appeared to belong to a set taken from the kitchen.

Finally, Commander Lindsay Harris, a digital forensics specialist with the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, testified about her role in unlocking Chloe Driver’s cell phone and extracting the data. Harris said her division generated a report with more than 800,000 pages of data from the device.

Medical witnesses are scheduled to testify Wednesday as the trial continues in Fulton County Superior Court, presided over by Judge Ellen McElyea.