A young mother who lives in a polygamous sect with her husband and two other wives, accused of stabbing her baby to death, laughed in the courtroom as her friend testified about her alternative lifestyle.
Chloe Driver, 24, is on trial in Georgia accused of murdering 13-month-old Hannah in December 2020.
She does not deny killing the boy and writing disturbing letters confessing to the crime, but has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
As his friend Jason Spillars, who is being held on unrelated charges, detailed in court the group’s strange beliefs, Driver buried his head in his hand in an effort to hide his laughter.
The corners of her lips twitched when he made reference to a “nasty” and “dirty” home. He quickly covered his mouth and looked away to regain his composure.
Driver was “one of three wives” who had “radical views” and “alternative religious names they assigned to each other.”
In a harrowing letter revealed to the court, Driver wrote: “He didn’t do it, I did it.” ‘I was going crazy and didn’t want to be with his friends anymore, but I kept coming back for him. I only wanted my baby and my husband but he refused’
He was barely 20 years old when he killed his daughter. She met her husband, Brian Joyce, when she was 17 and he was 38, the court heard.
He was known as ‘Z’ or ‘Benyamin’, created contracts for each of his young wives and ‘indoctrinated’ Driver in his ‘crazy beliefs’.
The polygamous group did not believe in modern medicine and little Hannah had no birth certificate nor had she ever been to the doctor.
The three wives and their husband “engaged in alternative healing practices such as drinking their own urine and sensory deprivation”, the court heard.
Spillars was asked about the strange practices on the stand Wednesday. He was inside the house with Driver’s husband and two other wives when she killed Hannah.
The group did not seem strange to him and he was interested in knowing the dynamics of plural marriage. He had also been drinking her urine for its “health benefits.”
“I’ve been drinking my urine daily for four years,” he said. ‘It was (traditional) in the past when people knew their own body. We have now become so deranged and deluded and essentially live in a psychotic society of mental illness and addiction to alcohol and toxic foods that we have become so far removed from what it means to be healthy.’
Spillars was asked about the strange practices on the stand Wednesday. He was inside the house with Driver’s husband and two other wives when she killed Hannah. The group did not seem strange to him and he was interested in knowing the dynamics of plural marriage. He had also been drinking her urine for the “health benefits.”
As his friend Jason Spillars, who is being held on unrelated charges, detailed in court the group’s strange beliefs, Driver buried his head in his hand in an effort to hide his laughter.
He described the practice as “urine therapy” and urged those in the courtroom to look further into the benefits.
While Spillars often discussed his alternative lifestyle with Joyce, whom he refers to as Z, he said these matters were never discussed with the wives.
“These are women,” he said. ‘They want to run, laugh and do silly things on the beach.
‘Z and I are sitting here discussing quantum physics on a medical level, but these women aren’t having these conversations. They play with the baby and do what women do: they are silly, they smile and laugh.
‘I’m not going to have these conversations with these women. I don’t even know if they’re capable of that. It’s not an insult, it’s a fact. Anyway, that’s not his role.
Prior to his arrest, Spillars was the subject of a “nationwide extradition warrant” in which police warned the public that he was likely “dangerous and armed.”
He is jailed on charges unrelated to baby Hannah’s death.
Spillars said Driver had begun to suffer from mental health problems during the time he knew her and would lash out at her husband and the other wives, but insisted she never hurt their baby.
Spillars said Driver had begun to suffer from mental health problems during the time he knew her and would lash out at her husband and the other wives, but insisted she never hurt their baby.
‘She would lose it. She was starting to shake, attacking Z, the other girls and me. But never the baby. Never. I wouldn’t have tolerated it and I don’t think Z would have tolerated it either.
‘She had this look like she was absent, and she started screaming. You would ask her later and she would tell you that she doesn’t even remember these things.
Spillars described the relationship between the group as “very beautiful” and “healthy.”
“He treated them the way a wife should be treated: patience, kindness and love.”
Driver’s defense is that she went insane during her time in the cult and therefore cannot be held criminally responsible for her actions.
One of the frantic 911 calls in court was made by Jessica, the second wife of the group.
The polygamous group did not believe in modern medicine and little Hannah had no birth certificate nor had she ever been to the doctor.
The driver was barely 20 years old when she killed her daughter. She met her husband, Brian Joyce (pictured on the day of their daughter’s death, his shirt splattered with blood), when she was 17 and he was 38.
He provided Driver’s name and told the dispatch officer, “I think a baby just died and I think a woman is responsible for it.”
After several minutes on the line, dispatch officer Caylee McNealy said, “I don’t know what’s going on, I need to know what’s going on.” You’re not giving me any information, can you tell me how the baby is?
Jessica responded, “I don’t think he’s breathing…I think they cut his throat.”
She told authorities that Driver was still with her baby, as was Joyce. In a separate 911 call, anguished screams and sobs could be heard in the background as an officer was told “she just killed a baby.”
‘She is 13 months old. She looks dead.
The crime occurred inside the house of a friend of Driver’s husband
The driver kept her head down and seemed on the verge of tears as certain details were heard in court.
Police allege Hannah suffered multiple stab wounds to the neck. The driver then stabbed herself in the neck.
She had taken the knife from the kitchen while her sisters were taking a nap and her husband was distracted.
Driver proceeded to lock herself and Hannah inside an upstairs room, where she committed the crime.
In a harrowing letter revealed to the court, Driver wrote: “He didn’t do it, I did it.”
‘I was going crazy and didn’t want to be with his friends anymore, but I kept coming back for him. I only wanted my baby and my husband, but he refused.’
She had taken the knife from the kitchen while her sisters were taking a nap and her husband was distracted.
The driver proceeded to lock herself and Hannah inside an upstairs room, where she committed the crime.
Police allege Hannah suffered multiple stab wounds to the neck. The driver then stabbed herself in the neck.
Katie Gropper, for the state, said: “She loved him, she wanted to be with him.” She was the first of this group of three wives and the other two came after her. The evidence will be clear that she wanted to be with him and he was never going to give up this polygamous cult lifestyle that he wanted.
In the weeks before Hannah’s death, Driver searched the Internet for information on “how to break a neck” and researched the phrase “killing someone to save them.”
Prosecutors maintain that she was not mentally ill when she decided to kill her baby, but was motivated by her desire to be alone with her husband and Hannah.
“That wasn’t an option, so he chose another one,” Gropper said.
Driver kept his head down and appeared on the verge of tears as certain details were heard in court.
But at other times, he stared coldly ahead, unresponsive as chilling details of Hannah’s death were shared.