This courtroom sketch, from left, depicts Madison County prosecutor Rob Wooden, Lori Vallow Daybell and protection lawyer Jim Archibald throughout opening statements of Vallow Daybell’s homicide trial in Boise, Idaho, Monday, April 10, 2023. Prosecutors have charged Vallow Daybell and her husband, Chad Daybell, with a number of counts of conspiracy, homicide and grand theft in reference to the deaths of Vallow Daybell’s two kids: Joshua “JJ” Vallow and Tylee Ryan. Each are additionally charged in reference to the loss of life of Chad Daybell’s earlier spouse, Tammy Daybell. Lisa C. Cheney through Related Press
A memorial to Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow is about up on a neighbor’s fence simply throughout the road from Chad Daybell’s property in Salem, Idaho, on Wednesday, March 29, 2023. Spenser Heaps, Deseret Information
Within the first week of testimony within the much-anticipated trial of Lori Vallow Daybell, prosecutors laid out what they consider the motive was behind a collection of alleged killings.
Cash, energy and intercourse.
Vallow Daybell has made headlines worldwide because the mom with doomsday beliefs who's now charged with homicide, conspiracy and grand theft in connection to the deaths of her two kids and Tammy Daybell, the partner of her fifth husband, Chad Daybell.
Chad Daybell, who can also be charged within the three deaths, has pleaded not responsible and can face a separate trial.
To this point, jurors on the Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho, have heard from police detectives and household and associates of the couple who described Vallow Daybell’s spiral and the chilling circumstances main as much as the youngsters’s homicide.
The Deseret Information and KSL spent the week within the courtroom overlaying the trial, the place video and audio recordings have been banned. From Tammy Daybell’s reason behind loss of life, to Vallow Daybell’s weird beliefs, listed below are 5 key takeaways within the homicide case that shocked the nation.
Tammy Daybell’s reason behind loss of life
Tammy Daybell died from asphyxiation by the hands of one other individual, prosecutors revealed Monday.
Daybell died on Oct. 19, reportedly in her sleep, and authorities initially didn't suspect foul play. However virtually two months later, her physique was exhumed, and the outcomes of her post-mortem weren't public till Monday.
Joe Powell with the Fremont County Sheriff’s Workplace described on Tuesday why the circumstances round Daybell’s loss of life raised eyebrows — “She was wholesome, her age, there was no signal of coronary heart or blood stress (issues). Together with her husband being with one other girl so quickly after.”
Prosecutors additionally alleged that Tammy Daybell’s “chilly and stiff” physique had been moved by Chad Daybell by the point regulation enforcement responded — and that he appeared to indicate no regret.
Witnesses mentioned Tammy Daybell was “suspicious” about her husband’s relationship with Vallow Daybell.
Texts between Lori Vallow Daybell and her now deceased husband, Charles Vallow, have been additionally proven in courtroom, the place Charles tells Lori that he is aware of she is having an affair with Chad Daybell. “Your husband and my spouse ... they’re having an affair,” he emailed Tammy Daybell.
JJ and Tylee’s remaining days
Two of Vallow Daybell’s former associates — Melanie Gibb and Zulema Pastenes — took the stand to explain the final situations Tylee and JJ have been seen alive. Each ladies have been a part of Vallow Daybell’s inside circle, and on separate events visited her in Rexburg across the time the youngsters went lacking.
Pastenes — who was briefly married to Alex Cox, Vallow Daybell’s brother, earlier than his loss of life — described Vallow Daybell’s troubling perception that JJ “was going to have a really quick life” and that Tylee was possessed by a “darkish” spirit. She visited the household in September 2019, and when she requested Vallow Daybell the place Tylee was, the mom responded “she needed to be free.”
And Gibb was in Rexburg on Sept. 22, which coincides with the final identified time JJ was seen alive. Throughout that journey, she mentioned, Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow Daybell would kiss, hug, and dance, regardless of Daybell’s spouse nonetheless being alive.
Vallow Daybell instructed Gibb that JJ “had an evil spirit in him.”
“She would inform me he would say issues like ‘I like Devil.’ She instructed me he would climb up on the fridge and go on high of the cupboards. He was performing simply extra aggressive,” she mentioned.
On the night of Sept. 22, Chad Daybell carried JJ upstairs and put him to mattress.
“He quietly got here down and I requested him why his neck was so purple and he mentioned that JJ had scratched his neck,” she mentioned.
On June 9, 2020, police found the our bodies of Tylee and JJ, buried in shallow graves in Daybell’s yard. Tylee appeared to have been burned, in line with Rexburg Police Detective Ray Hermosillo. JJ was discovered sure by duct tape.
A descent into excessive beliefs
Central to the case is Vallow Daybell’s fringe non secular teachings — which included a perception she had lived previous lives, a score system of sunshine and darkish used to find out whether or not somebody’s physique had been taken over by an evil spirit, and that she and Daybell would lead a gaggle of 144,000 individuals who would see the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Chad Daybell instructed Lori Vallow Daybell once they first met that they'd been married many instances in earlier lives.
Her and Daybell’s beliefs developed to incorporate “zombies,” a label the couple used to consult with people who find themselves possessed, to the purpose of no return. They described particular methods to cope with zombies, as detailed by a journal entry from Pastenes that was submitted as proof.
For zombies, loss of life was freedom, and the physique needed to be destroyed to keep away from one other darkish spirit from taking it over. That meant “placing water and hearth and destroying the physique ... so there can be no manner for one more demon to come back in.”
Each Gibb and Pastenes described an analogous theme — individuals who questioned, challenged, or have been an inconvenience to Vallow Daybell, have been labeled “darkish” spirits. That included Charles Vallow, Tammy Daybell and JJ and Tylee, all of whom have been killed.
Alex Cox’s function within the case
Alex Cox, who died of blood clots the day after information broke that Tammy Daybell’s physique can be exhumed, was described in courtroom testimony because the group’s “warrior.”
Cox shot and killed Charles Vallow in what was initially deemed a self-defense taking pictures. His mobile phone was additionally within the neighborhood of Tammy Daybell the day a masked man reportedly shot at her in her driveway, and within the Daybells’ yard across the final time Tylee was seen, close to the spot the place her physique was later found.
And Vallow Daybell’s protection attorneys have filed an alibi that claims she was in her personal Rexburg condo with her associates when the youngsters have been killed in an condo belonging to Cox.
Prosecutors mentioned that a witness reported seeing Cox carrying JJ in his arms. “It was peaceable,” Lindsey A. Blake mentioned, however JJ was by no means seen once more.
Prosecutors additionally performed a recording of Daybell reciting what he mentioned was a blessing for Cox, given shortly earlier than Cox’s loss of life. “You might have already assisted us in methods that may by no means be repaid,” Daybell tells him, as he, Cox, and Vallow Daybell all weep, “and you'll proceed to take action as you progress ahead on this life.”
“I believe I’m being their fall man,” Cox mentioned on the night time earlier than his loss of life, in line with Pastenes. “I mentioned, ‘Fall man for what? What's it that you've got achieved? What have you ever achieved that you'd be the autumn man for?’”
Pastenes testified Cox by no means gave her a straight reply.
Vallow Daybell’s protection
“Being a protection lawyer will not be at all times a well-liked job,” R. James Archibald instructed jurors throughout his opening assertion final Monday. Archibald, together with John Thomas, have been assigned to defend Vallow Daybell.
Archibald reminded the jury that they're to solely contemplate the allegations towards Vallow Daybell — “your focus can be on the actions of Lori. Not on Chad, not on Alex,” he mentioned, whereas emphasizing that the publicity in regards to the case that has “tainted” so many individuals will not be proof.
Vallow Daybell’s alibi, Archibald mentioned, is that she was in a special condo when JJ and Tylee have been killed, and in Hawaii when Tammy Daybell was killed.
“You’re right here to find out if there even was a conspiracy,” he instructed the jury.
Greg Skordas, an lawyer of greater than 38 years who's serving as a KSL authorized analyst, mentioned that alibi may assist the protection with the homicide costs, however not conspiracy.
“They’re saying she wasn’t even round — she wasn’t even in the identical state when all of this occurred. That type of performs into the murder itself, however perhaps not the conspiracy as a result of you may nonetheless help and abet while you’re in a special state,” he mentioned.
Skordas famous that Vallow Daybell may nonetheless face a life sentence, even when she is barely discovered responsible of conspiracy. “Even when they get her on two or three, the decide can nonetheless put her away for a really very long time,” he mentioned.
In his cross examination this week, Thomas centered on what appeared like small particulars and discrepancies in timelines offered by the witnesses. When he questioned Gibb and Pastenes, he zeroed in on their involvement within the group, and whether or not they too believed in ideas like zombies, vibrations and previous lives.
It’s nonetheless not clear whether or not Vallow Daybell will take the stand within the trial, which is anticipated to final practically eight weeks.
A memorial to Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow is about up on a neighbor’s fence simply throughout the road from Chad Daybell’s property in Salem, Idaho, on Wednesday, March 29, 2023.
Spenser Heaps, Deseret Information