Woman charged with two counts of second-degree murder in March stabbing

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire – Carrie Drake, charged in the March 3, 2024, stabbing death of her on-again, off-again boyfriend, is charged with two counts of second-degree murder.

A Hillsborough County grand jury issued the indictments against Drake, 54, charging him with alternative counts of second-degree murder. One of the charges alleges that she knowingly caused the death of Vernon Hayford by stabbing him with a knife, while the second accuses her of recklessly causing his death in circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life.

Drake is being held without bail. An arraignment is scheduled for June 18, 2024 at 10 a.m. in Hillsborough County Superior Court – Northern District.

The charges against Drake are merely allegations, and she is presumed innocent 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 houses elderly people and people with disabilities.

According to court documents, Drake has suffered from mental illness for decades. On October 24, 2020, Drake stabbed Hayford four times – in the wrist, abdomen and twice in the rear left shoulder – in the same building where she allegedly killed him in March.

That night in 2020, Hayford told police that Drake had a history of mental illness, was “schizophrenic,” suffered from schizoaffective disorder as well as attention deficit disorder. .

At the time, Drake lived 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: for one count, she was sentenced to 5 to 10 years suspended and, on the other, to a sentence of one and a half years. to 3 years in prison, all but 351 days suspended. (She was held at Valley Street Prison for 351 days before being sentenced.) The sentence was suspended, suspended for 15 years.

Eleven months later, she allegedly stabbed him to death.

Court records show Drake has a criminal history dating back 17 years.

In 2007, Drake was charged with attempted murder. She was ordered to undergo a skills assessment. The attempted murder charge was later dropped and she was convicted of second-degree assault and reckless driving. She served about nine months.

Fifteen years later, in July 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 much.” »

When police arrived, they heard another woman screaming, “She needs to be locked up.” »

Drake received a suspended sentence of 2 to 4 years for this charge.

Court records show Drake has suffered from mental illness for many years. His mother, Carol Broadbent, told her defense attorney Julian Jefferson, as he prepared for Drake's sentencing for Hayford's 2020 killing, that Drake began having significant mental health issues in her early twenties and had been fighting them ever since.

Drake has been hospitalized at New Hampshire State Hospital 8 to 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 Hayford killing, Jefferson said it was indisputable that the incident was the “direct result of an acute and serious mental health crisis.”

Drake received treatment for his mental illness while in prison. She remained imprisoned for just over two months before being released on personal recognizance bail and subject to strict conditions, including undergoing mental health treatment, substance abuse treatment and remaining under house arrest unless employee. She managed to do this for 18 months before Judge Anderson gave her a suspended sentence.