MANCHESTER, NH – Carrie Drake, accused in the March 3, 2024 stabbing death of her on-again, off-again boyfriend, is under indictment on two counts of second-degree murder.
A Hillsborough County grand jury issued the indictments against Drake, 54, charging her with alternative counts of second-degree murder. One of the charges alleges she knowingly caused Vernon Hayford’s death by stabbing him with a knife, while the second, accuses her of recklessly causing his death under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to the value of human life.
Drake is being held without bail. An arraignment is set for 10 a.m. on June 18, 2024 in Hillsborough County Superior Court – Northern District.
The charges against Drake are only allegations, and she is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Drake allegedly stabbed Hayford, 75, inside the O’Malley Apartments, 259 Chestnut St., where he lived. The Manchester Housing and Redevelopment Authority building is home to senior citizens and the disabled.
According to court documents, Drake has struggled with mental illness for decades. On Oct. 24, 2020, Drake stabbed Hayford four times – in the wrist, abdomen, and twice in the back left shoulder – in the same apartment building where she allegedly killed him in March.
That night in 2020, Hayford told police Drake had a history of mental illness, that she was “schizophrenic,” had schizoaffective disorder as well as Attention Deficit Disorder.
At the time, Drake was living at 12 East Side Drive, Building 1, Apt. 3, Concord.
Nearly three years later, Judge David A. Anderson sentenced Drake on April 10, 2023 on two counts of first-degree assault: On one charge, she was given a 5 to 10-year suspended sentence, and on the other, a 1 ½ to 3 year suspended sentence, with all but 351 days suspended. (She was detained in the Valley Street jail for 351 days before being sentenced.) The sentence was conditionally suspended for 15 years.
Eleven months later, she allegedly stabbed him to death.
Court records show Drake has a criminal history going back 17 years.
In 2007, Drake was charged with attempted murder. She was order to undergo a competency evaluation. The attempted murder charge later was dropped and she was found guilty of second-degree assault and reckless conduct. She served about nine months.
Fifteen years later, in July of 2022, Drake was arrested in Concord for threatening a woman with a knife at the Regency Hill Estates complex. Drake told the woman, “I’m not going to hurt you that bad.”
When police arrived, they heard another woman yelling, “She needs to be locked up.”
Drake was given a suspended sentence of 2 to 4 years on that charge.
The court record shows Drake has suffered from mental illness for many years. Her mother, Carol Broadbent, told her defense attorney Julian Jefferson when he was preparing for Drake’s sentencing in the 2020 stabbing of Hayford, that Drake began experiencing significant mental health issues in her early 20s and has battled them ever since.
Drake has been hospitalized at the New Hampshire State Hospital 8 – 10 times since 1992, Broadbent said.
Drake, she said, earned her bachelor’s degree and worked as a counselor for several years at Riverbend behavioral health center.
In arguing for a suspended sentence for Drake in the 2020 stabbing of Hayford, Jefferson said it was undisputed that the incident was the “direct result of an acute and severe mental health crisis.”
Drake received treatment for her mental illness while detained in the jail. She remained jailed for a little over two months before being released on personal recognizance bail with stringent conditions including engaging in mental health treatment, substance abuse treatment, and remaining under house arrest unless employed. She successfully did that for 18 months before Judge Anderson gave her a suspended sentence.