GA v. Chloe Driver: Cult Baby Murder Trial (2024)

CANTON, Ga. (Court TV) — A Tennessee woman is standing trial in Georgia for the stabbing death of her 13-month-old daughter.

Chloe Driver, 24, is facing multiple charges, including malice murder, in the Dec. 2020 death of her daughter, Hannah. While responding to a 911 call, police discovered Chloe and Hannah in a bedroom, both suffering from stab wounds, reported the Cherokee Tribune & Ledger-News. An indictment accuses Chloe of stabbing Hannah in the neck multiple times with a knife.

Chloe has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, stating in court documents, “the defendant was in the midst of a psychotic episode that included paranoia, delusional beliefs, hallucinations and disordered thinking.” According to her defense, Chloe was “living a nomadic lifestyle.” The defense said several witnesses could account for her “mental health issues and subsequent deterioration” in the weeks leading up to Hannah’s death.

In opening statements, prosecutors said Driver was one of three women married to Benyamin Ben-Michaeil (AKA Brian Joyce), who lived a nomadic and religious, polygamist lifestyle. Driver’s defense said those beliefs, coupled with mental illness, led Driver to psychosis that resulted in the death of her daughter.

Chloe is standing trial on charges of murder, cruelty to children in the first degree, aggravated battery and aggravated assault.

If you or someone you know is in a mental health emergency, text HOME to 741741 to contact the National Crisis Text Line. If you or someone you know is having a maternal mental health crisis, know you are not alone, and you can get help by visiting Postpartum Support International.

DAILY TRIAL HIGHLIGHTS

DAY 5 – 11/18/24

• Chloe Driver informs the court that she does not wish to testify in her murder trial.
• Chloe Driver’s mother, Renee Driver, told jurors that she tried multiple times to convince her daughter to stay home and not return to Benyamin Ben-Michael.
  • WATCH: Chloe Driver’s Mother Says Daughter was ‘Drained and Dead Inside’
• Jurors heard from a second psychologist who diagnosed Chloe Driver with Schizo-Effect Bi-Polar Type and Borderline Personality Disorder.
  • WATCH: Psychologist Testifies Chloe Driver Had Severe Psychotic Delusions
• Benyamin Ben-Michael’s former partner, Gabriella Kuykendall, testified that she too met Ben-Michael when she was 17 years old. He was 33 years old at the time. She suffered mental and physical abuse before she decided to leave Ben-Michael for good.
• WATCH: Cult Baby Murder Trial: Key Witnesses Testify for the Defense
• WATCH: Witness Describes Getting Punched While Trying to Help Chloe Driver

DAY 4 – 11/15/24

• Chloe Driver stopped taking her medication two to three months before the incident involving her daughter, Hannah.
  • WATCH: Dr.: Driver was a Paranoid, Delusional Polygamist Who Rejected Medicine
• Forensic psychologist Dr. McLendon Garrett testified for the defense and diagnosed Driver with schizophrenia, delusions and borderline personality disorder.
  • Garrett said Driver became “concerned” with having a normal life for her daughter and described how she tried to obtain a birth certificate for Hannah.
  • Driver told Dr. Garrett that Beyamin Ben-Michael would not allow her to speak to anyone and monitored her phone calls with her parents.
  • WATCH: Dr.: Driver Killed Her Baby After Someone Threw a Dirty Shirt at Her
• WATCH: Day 4 Livestream

Day 3 – 11/14/24

• Jurors see videos of Chloe Driver’s interviews with police while in the hospital. While recovering from her injuries, she could only write her response to the investigator’s questions.
• Chloe Driver asked Detective Taina Cruz, through a written note the day after her daughter’s death, “How long will my prison sentence be for killing her?” In another note, she wrote, “I’m sorry I killed her. I should have stayed,” referencing her parents driving to North Carolina to take her home.
  • • WATCH: Chloe Driver: ‘How Long Will My Prison Sentence Be for Killing Her?’
  • Detective Cruz said there was no evidence that someone else stabbed her daughter, Hannah Nicole Driver.
• Driver’s mother emailed a video to Detective Cruz of Chloe Driver begging for help getting her daughter back from her child’s father, Benyamin Ben-Michael, aka Brian Joyce. Driver’s mother thought it would be helpful to the case.
• From November 30 to December 2, 2020, Chloe Driver searched “how to snap a neck?” two weeks before the incident. She also searched for “how to obtain a birth certificate for a baby” and “traveling with a baby.”
  • WATCH: Chloe Driver’s Web Searches Include ‘How to Snap a Neck’
• Chloe Driver made 617 jailhouse phone calls to Benyamin Ben-Michael, Hannah’s father, from February 5, 2021, to May 5, 2023.
• WATCH: Day 3 Livestream

Day 2 – 11/13/24

• A pediatric forensic pathologist told jurors that Hannah Nicole Driver succumbed to her injuries within minutes of being stabbed by her mother, Chloe Alexis Driver. Hannah suffered four stab wounds, three to her neck and one to her upper back.
• Jurors heard testimony from Jason Spillars, someone who knows and traveled with Chloe Driver. He described Driver as a sweet and loving mother but would transition into “delusional and psychotic” episodes and struggled with mental illness often.
  • WATCH: Jason Spillars, Chloe Driver’s Friend, Testifies About her Lifestyle
  • WATCH: ‘Blood Everywhere’: Witness Recalls Fatal Stabbing of Hannah Driver
  • WATCH: Cult Baby Murder Trial: Witness Recalls ‘Episode’ Defendant Experienced
• Chloe Driver was in the hospital ten days following the incident before she told medical professionals she suffered from delusions. Before then, Driver asked questions about “How long will she serve in prison?” and refused to go to physical therapy to learn how to walk again because “she will be sitting in a jail cell.”
• WATCH: Day 2 Livestream

Day 1 – 11/12/24

• Katie Gropper, Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney delivers the State’s opening statements.
  • Gropper said that “[Chloe Driver] is not a weak-minded person….and does not meet the standard of criminal insanity.”
  • Prosecutors told jurors that Chloe Driver was not mentally ill when she decided to murder her 13-month-old daughter, Hannah Nicole Driver.
    • WATCH: Prosecutor: Chloe Driver ‘Understood the Wrongfulness of Her Actions’
• Defense attorney Angela Trethaway delivers the opening statements on behalf of Chloe Driver.
  • Driver’s defense attorney say that she was indoctrinated in a polygamist ideology by her 38-year-old boyfriend, Brian Joyce who also goes by the name Benyamin Ben-Michael, and suffered years of abuse.
    • WATCH: Defense Attorney Details Chloe Driver’s Alleged Mental Health Crisis
• Driver took a paring knife from a butcher block in the kitchen of the home, grabbed her daughter, locked themselves in an upstairs bedroom where she committed the heinous act of murdering her daughter.
• Chloe Driver has entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity during the time of the incident.
• WATCH: Day 1 Livestream