BOISE, Idaho — Testimony was heard yesterday, Wednesday, May 8 in the Chad Daybell trial. Chad Daybell is on trial for the deaths of his first wife, Tammy Daybell, and his second wife's two children, JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan.
A forensic pathologist testified about the autopsies of JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan. Another forensic scientist also testified, about fingerprints. They found a fingerprint on the plastic around JJ Vallow's body, matching Alex Cox - who was Lori Vallow's brother.
A detective with the Chandler, Arizona police department also took the stand, to show cell phone data for Charles Vallow, Lori Vallow's fourth husband, who was killed by Alex Cox in what Cox claimed was self defense. The cell phone data showed where Charles' phone was in the hours after his death, as Lori Vallow had taken it. There were several hours between when Charles died and when his death was reported. There was a series of call logs also shown in court, showing that Lori Vallow was calling Chad Daybell the day Charles Vallow died.
In court on Tuesday, May 7, the testimony of Zulema Pastenes took most of the day. In the afternoon, a medical examiner took the stand to testify about the autopsies of Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow.
Pastenes talked a great deal about the religious views that Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow held. It differed greatly from traditional teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Pastenes was in a relationship with Alex Cox, Lori Vallow's brother. Pastenes did marry Alex Cox, shortly before his untimely death in Dec. of 2019.
After Pastenes' testimony, prosecution brought a forensic pathologist to the stand. Garth Warren testified about the autopsies performed on JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan.
On the 17th day of Chad Daybell's trial, the court heard testimony from several of Lori Vallow's family members. Her niece, Melani Pawlowski, testified about the beliefs held by Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell. Ian Pawlowski, Melani's current husband, also testified.
Their testimony came after testimony from FBI agent Steve Daniels, who testified a great deal about the evidence recovery plans that took place on June 9, 2020 - the day the children's bodies were found on Chad Daybell's property.
The trial is expected to last another two to four weeks.
Live Updates:
1:48 p.m.: There's a matter taken up outside the juror's presence. It pertains to some evidence saying "Daybell/Vallow case." Some exhibits were entered without removing the "Vallow" aspect from the evidence. There's no objection of allowing this from either party. The state also releases Melani Pawlowski from her subpoena. Court concludes, and will readjourn tomorrow at 8:30 a.m.
1:36 p.m.: Another coworker of Tammy Daybell testifies. Pamela Peebles testifies about their relationship at work, and how active Tammy Daybell was. Peebles becomes emotional talking about Tammy, "it was a joy to watch her," she said. Peebles perceived Tammy to be quite healthy. There is no cross examination or redirect of the witness. The last several witnesses have gone quickly, most likely to fill time to get to the 2:00 p.m. mark that Judge Boyce warned about yesterday. Counsel asks for a sidebar. They discussed scheduling, and they are concluding for the day due to courthouse maintenance. Tomorrow's schedule will be normal.
1:30 p.m.: A new witness is called, Tammy Gee. She worked alongside Tammy Daybell at Central Elementary in Sugar City, Idaho. They worked together for about three years. The last time they spoke to each other, Tammy Daybell was in good spirits, which was the day before Tammy Daybell passed away. Quickly, they get through cross examination as well, and there is no redirect. The witness is excused within five minutes.
1:25 p.m.: Cross examination begins, and Prior asks about a police report that Andersen filled out shortly after Tammy's death. In the report, Andersen said that Tammy kept to herself, which Prior asks about. Despite just testifying a great deal to how great Tammy was, Prior argues that the two women weren't that close and Andersen didn't know much about Tammy's health. Cross wraps up shortly after, with no redirect. This witness will not be recalled.
1:16 p.m.: Ben Dean's testimony concludes, and he is excused from the stand, likely not being recalled. Janet Andersen is the next witness from the state. She lives in St. Charles, Idaho. In 2019, she lived in Rexburg. She worked with Tammy Daybell from 2017 to 2019, as Andersen was the secretary at the school. Andersen was in the library where Tammy worked multiple times a day when they worked together. Andersen remembers Tammy as someone who was easy to get along with, efficient, organized, easy to talk to, etc. All positive accolades. Andersen also remembers Tammy as very healthy, never needing a substitute at work.
1:04 p.m.: Dean noticed that the first text was out of the usual for communications between Chad and Tammy. Normally, their texts were short and about household things, so to send a long text about burning limbs and killing a racoon seemed unusual. It was also unusual because the shooting of the racoon and fire happened the day after Tylee Ryan was last seen alive. Direct examination ends. Prior begins cross examination. Prior asks who was living at the Daybell property on Sept. 9, 2019 and about the devices they used. Prior asks if the length of the first text was unusual, when the FBI didn't look at the entire length of the marriage to see if that's an accurate statement. Cross concludes.
12:51 p.m.: The jurors are brought back into the courtroom after lunch break. Dean is on the stand, and it appears that the technology issue from earlier in the day has been resolved, it was the reason lunch took place a few minutes early. Direct examination continues. The texts from Sept. 9, 2019 between Tammy and Chad are shown in court. The witness testifies about warrants he got to search phones. Now talking about the first message, it was sent from Chad to Tammy, and it was sent Sept. 9 at 10:53 a.m. It's a text about needing to burn some limbs, and killing a raccoon, putting it in the pet cemetery. Immediately following, he sent another text about taking a shower then going to BYU to write. She responded with "good for you" and hours later, he responded with "I'm home now."
11:54 a.m.: The court is at a stopping point, and will be taking lunch. Readjourning at 12:45 p.m.
11:45 a.m.: On the Blu-Ray discs, cell phone data from an LG phone was found. The phone belonged to Tammy Daybell, and it was evident that Tammy was close with her family. All outgoing communication ceased on October 18, 2019 - the day before Tammy's death. On September 9, 2019, there were some texts sent to Tammy Daybell that concerned Dean. The text thread was saved as Chad Daybell in the phone, and the FBI was able to conclude that it was in fact Chad. It was just one of many phone numbers used by Chad Daybell. Texts between Chad and Tammy Daybell are shown in court, from Sept. 9, 2019.
11:35 a.m.: The state calls their next witness, an FBI agent by the name of Ben Dean. He talks about his qualifications and work history with the FBI. He now works as an intelligence analyst. Dean began working this case in March of 2020. He now talks about devices taken from the Daybell property. He looked into a hard drive and a thumb drive, and completed the review of those devices in May of 2020. Other items were reviewed, such as two Blu-Ray discs.
11:25 a.m.: Redirect takes place. Nesbitt talks about how and why Rexburg PD had initially reached out to Kawaii Police. It was due to Vallow not being responsive in Idaho. Redirect ends quickly, and the witness is excused. Rob Wood, prosecutor, forgot a file and needs to go retrieve it, so there is a very brief recess.
11:12 a.m.: A letter from Chad Daybell to Alex Cox was also found in the car in Hawaii. Laptops were also recovered. Det. Nesbitt also served a search warrant for the condo complex in Hawaii that Daybell and Vallow were staying at. Nestbitt found some evidence there, about three items, but there were no signs of children ever being there. With that, direct examination concludes as Prior asks for some exhibits. He begins to cross examine the witness. Prior asks about the order that Det. Nesbitt gave to Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell. The order stated that Vallow had to produce Tylee Ryan to the State of Idaho, as a custody debate. After a few more questions, cross examination concludes.
10:57 a.m.: Nesbitt talks further about his interactions with Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow while they were in Hawaii. He made contact with them in Jan. of 2020, and the police performed a search warrant of the vehicle they were in. Photographs of the search warrant are shown in court. More images are shown, this time it's images that were taken during the search warrant. In the purse of Lori Vallow, there was a cell phone and debit card belonging to Tylee Ryan found. A photo of the debit card is shown. There were two adult bicycles in the car as well, no sign of the children. Prosecution shows many images taken from that search warrant. Also with Daybell and Vallow in the car was a print out of Charles Vallow's death certificate. A birth certificate for Tylee Ryan was also found in the vehicle in Hawaii. JJ's birth certificate was also found in the car.
10:49 a.m.: Cross examination wraps up, and a brief redirect takes place. After that, Dace is excused from the witness stand however, she is still under subpoena so she may be recalled at a later date. The state calls their next witness. They call law enforcement officer Colin Nesbitt, who was a detective in 2020 in Kawaii, Hawaii. He was the detective that worked with Rexburg Police Department to serve Lori Vallow a document, demanding the whereabouts of Tylee Ryan.
10:33 a.m.: Court is back in session, and the jury is brought back in. Chad seems somber today, looking straight ahead or down at his desk. Prior continues cross examination of the witness. Dace clarifies her testimony. There were an unknown number of pieces of tape, but there was 28 initial hairs taken into evidence. There were also an additional 14 hairs taken at a later date. For the type of hair testing that Dace does, she needs the root of the hair to extract DNA. From the latent prints taken by Tara Martinez, who testified yesterday, DNA was extracted but it only matched JJ Vallow. Prior asks if one of the friends of Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell, David Warwick, got DNA tested for this case, he was not. Prior now asks about the soil around the bodies, and if DNA evidence can be absorbed into the soil.
10:05 a.m.: A mid-morning recess takes place, with court returning at 10:25 a.m.
9:55 a.m.: John Prior puts something up on the projector, it's an image of the Daybell garage, with the tools that Dace processed in the image. Now images of the shovel are being shown, with Prior asking about some evidence on the shovel and if Dace tested it. Prior asks about the hairs, and how they got onto the tape. Dace agrees that there are many ways the hair could have gotten there. There were roughly 28 pieces of tape, with hairs on just about each one. All those hairs were collected, at different times throughout the process of investigation but a majority were taken early on in the investigation.
9:39 a.m.: Prosecution asks for a sidebar, which Judge Boyce allows. Counsel steps away, while Chad Daybell sits at the defense table. He stares blankly ahead. Direct examination concludes, and John Prior takes the podium to examine the witness. Prior tries to admit some evidence to the court, with some delays, and then a quick conversation with prosecution takes place. Prior begins to ask questions of the witness. Of the 18 tools taken from the Daybell property, several of them had possible DNA. The office Dace works for received the tools in late July of 2020, nearly a month after the bodies were found.
9:21 a.m.: A pick axe from Chad's property is shown in court. There was dirt and blood present on it. Under the dirt, there were ashes and possible human remains. Dace photographed everything, then tested for DNA. Images of the pick axe are shown in court, with Dace describing what she sees in the images. She points out some dirt, darker material, and other things found on the axe. Dace was able to get a partial DNA sample off the axe, and tied it to Tylee Ryan. Testimony changes into talking about hair samples. Some hair samples were sent to independent labs. A document is shown in court from Bode Technology, an independent lab that can do hair samples.
9:11 a.m.: Prosecution asks for physical exhibits to be brought in for the jury to see. They are tools from Chad Daybell's property. There is a table in front of the jury, in which the evidence is dropped off. The witness walks to the table, to elaborate on the evidence. One of the pieces of evidence, a shovel, had ashes present on it. It was stained and dirty, but had no sign of blood. On the blade of the shovel, there was some stuff on the shovel that Dace believed to be human remains. She removed the matter from the shovel and took images of it. During Dace's testimony, Daybell and his attorney John Prior whisper amongst themselves. Dace later testifies that the matter taken off the shovel was DNA tested, and matched Tylee Ryan.
9:00 a.m.: Dace tested the duct tape that was found on JJ Vallow's ankles, wrists, hands and mouth. Dace tested the tape's edges to see if the tape was ripped with teeth. From the tape, they were able to get some DNA off of it, but it was JJ's DNA. There was blood in the plastic bags JJ was found in. They did not test that blood, due to presuming it was JJ's. Dace's office also tested the tools found in the Daybell property for blood and DNA. On some tools, human remains were found and then DNA testing was done on it. Then, Dace testifies about the process of which DNA testing takes place in her office.
8:52 a.m.: Dace testifies about what evidence she processed. She processed all of the autopsy evidence for JJ Vallow, including DNA reports. A report made by the team Dace works for is presented in court. It shows the family lineage of Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow, compared to Lori Vallow and JJ's biological father. Based on the evidence, the report tells us that Lori Vallow was related to the remains found for Tylee Ryan. The report also shows that the evidence from JJ Vallow's body shows that the Dennis Trahan is the biological father of JJ Vallow, which was already known.
8:45 a.m.: Court is called to session for the 20th day of the Chad Daybell trial. All 17 of the jurors have been brought into the courtroom. The state is calling their next witness, Katherine Dace. She is a forensic biologist with the Idaho State Police. She's worked there since 2016, but has previously held the same position in several different areas.
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