A Georgia polygamous cult member accused of killing her toddler daughter allegedly believed she was "pouring evil" into the girl while breastfeeding, a psychologist testified this week.
Chloe Alexis Driver, 24, is on trial in a Cherokee County Court for the fatal stabbing of her 13-month-old child, Hannah Nicole Driver, at their Canton, Georgia home in 2020.
She pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to charges of malice murder, first-degree cruelty to children, aggravated assault, and aggravated battery before the onset of court proceedings Tuesday.
On Friday, Dr. McLendon Garrett with the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, testified Driver suffered from paranoia and delusions after interviewing her following the alleged murder, during which she also brutally stabbed herself.
"She believed she was downloading her sin – all the bad parts about her – into her child through breastfeeding," Garrett explained, according to KATV-TV. "She also talked about pouring her sin into the child."
The toddler's father, Ben Michael, who also had several other wives, claimed Driver didn't call Hannah by her birth name, and instead referred to their daughter as "a sin."
"There was a lot of evidence that she really believed by having with somebody who was married – by having the child in this sort of open relationship – that it was a sin, and that she passed that sin on to her daughter," Garrett testified. "And so they shared that – that they were both embodiments of sin."
Prosecutors alleged Driver was motivated to kill because she wanted Michael all to herself, and felt distanced from him and his other wives.
The group adhered to an unconventional lifestyle, in which they drank urine, participated in "dark rituals" and rejected modern medicine, witnesses said, according to WAGA-TV.
"You are going to hear a lot of distracting evidence about this group... but what your decision is in this case is what happened to Hannah," Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney Katie Groppe told the court, according to the station.
Groppe said first responders witnessed "a beautiful baby girl who had been brutally murdered by her mother, stabbed repeatedly until every bit of life drained out of her."
Hannah had four stab wounds,"one of which was so deep that it went all the way through her tiny neck," Groppe explained, according to CourtTV.
Groppe also showed the jury a handwritten note allegedly penned by Driver.
"He didn't do it. I did," the note read. "I was going insane and no longer wanted to be with his friends but kept coming back for him. I only wanted my baby and husband, but he refused."
The trial continues.
