---

MANSFIELD - Troubled and with a history of mental illness, 35-year-old Kristopher Griffin's life took a dark turn two weeks ago when the relationship with his girlfriend and mother of his 6-year-old daughter broke apart.Griffin, who police said was disabled and had told others he suffered from bipolar disorder, moved temporarily to a camper owned by friends a short distance across town.

Sometime after that, something snapped.

Griffin was charged with murder and home invasion Friday after allegedly entering the girl's Chilson Avenue home and slashing her to death with a filet knife.

In a particularly bizarre twist, Griffin told investigators God told him to kill the child.

The body of Kaitlynn Griffin was found shortly after 4 a.m. with her throat cut in the basement of the 93 Chilson Ave. home she shared with her mother. "Yes, she's gone," a prosecutor said Griffin told police. "I had to save her. I killed my little girl."

Griffin stood silently, wearing a hospital johnny, and bowed his head while an innocent plea was entered on his behalf in Taunton District Court.

Judge John Canavan ordered Griffin held without bail and sent to Bridgewater State Hospital for evaluation prior to his next scheduled appearance Aug. 12 in Attleboro District Court.

Mansfield Police Chief Arthur O'Neill said Griffin apparently jimmied open a screen in a side door at his girlfriend's home, apparently as both she and the girl slept.

Other children of "varying ages" also stayed at the home, O'Neill said, but only the girl and her mother were home at the time. The other youngsters, O'Neill said, have "been accounted for" and are safe.

Griffin previously lived at the Chilson Avenue address, but had been estranged from the little girl and her mother for about two weeks, Bristol County Assistant District Attorney Cynthia Brackett said.

He had recently been staying in a camper owned by friends at 85 Ware St., about a mile away.

Mansfield police initially received a 911 call about 4 a.m. from a resident at the Ware Street address, reporting that Griffin had left a note indicating he might harm himself.

Officer Joshua Ellender drove to the address, took a report, and asked Mansfield patrol units to be on the lookout for Griffin.

Shortly thereafter, Ellender located Griffin about a half-mile from 85 Ware Street and began talking to him. Griffin was not wearing shoes and claimed he was walking to CVS to obtain medication. About 15 minutes after making the initial call, the residents of 85 Ware St. again called 911, reporting a second note allegedly left by Griffin asking "forgiveness for sending Katie to heaven."

Griffin was asked whether he had harmed the child, and allegedly he said: "She's gone."

While being questioned by police, he allegedly made suicidal comments, asked police to shoot him and banged his head repeatedly on the roof of the police cruiser.

Griffin had traces of blood on his hands and clothing, according to information presented by a prosecutor at the arraignment.

At the same time, police were dispatched to 93 Chilson Ave., and after a short search found Kaitlynn's body covered by a blanket in the basement.

Brackett said during the arraignment that Griffin has been hospitalized at least twice in the past.

He was most recently hospitalized at Sturdy Memorial Hospital in Attleboro about two weeks ago, about the time he broke up with his girlfriend, Deborah Mons. Mons is Kaitlynn's mother, according to a 2003 Sun Chronicle birth announcement.

Griffin was hospitalized after Kaitlynn's mother said she planned to move down South with her two children, including a boy, prosecutors said. O'Neill said the second child was not Griffin's.

Brackett said Griffin was previously subject to a lengthy hospitalization, beginning in October 2006. She did not say where that hospitalization occurred or anything else about its circumstances.

O'Neill said Griffin had a police record that included "15 or 16" entries, mostly motor vehicle offenses. He said Griffin did not have a history of being in trouble with police and there was no indication he might turn violent.

Griffin, a native of Homestead, Fla., had been living in New England for seven to eight years, the chief said.

O'Neill said he did not have any information on whether Griffin was employed but believed he was "on disability."

The yellow two-family home on Chilson, which is across the street from a Lance Buick and Pontiac dealership, was roped off with crime scene tape Friday.

The investigation into the child's death by Mansfield police, the Bristol County District Attorney's Office and investigators in the Bristol County Crime Prevention and Control unit is continuing.

The last murder in Mansfield was July 7, 2008, when Mark Hayden allegedly shot Andrew Colwell in an apartment complex parking lot in what authorities called a soured drug deal.

That murder was the first in Mansfield in 17 years.