Lori Vallow Daybell, proper, sits by an lawyer for a listening to on the Fremont County Courthouse in St. Anthony, Idaho, Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2022. Vallow Daybell is presently being tried in a Boise courtroom within the deaths of her two youngsters, in addition to the demise of her husband’s former spouse. Tony Blakeslee, East Idaho Information through Related Press
The primary week of arguments and witness testimony within the trial of Lori Vallow Daybell ended Friday with chilling new perception into the position of Alex Cox, Vallow Daybell’s brother who himself questioned whether or not he was his sister’s “fall man” shortly earlier than he died in December 2019.
Vallow Daybell has been charged with conspiracy, homicide and grand theft within the deaths of her two youngsters, JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan. She can be charged in connection to the demise of Tammy Daybell, the late spouse of Chad Daybell.
Weeks after Tammy Daybell’s demise, Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell had been married in Hawaii — and Cox, as he was described on Friday, was the couple’s “warrior.”
That’s in keeping with Zulema Pastenes, who was briefly married to Cox earlier than his demise, and on Friday gave prosecutors an in depth look into her late husband’s position in Vallow Daybell’s inside circle.
Pastenes first met Vallow Daybell in 2018 at a good friend’s home, throughout a non secular gathering. The 2 grew to become shut and would journey to Arizona, Utah and Idaho to observe Chad Daybell converse on his fringe beliefs. She watched Lori Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell shortly fall for one another.
The 2 introduced Pastenes into their tightly knit group, the place they might speak of previous lives, and the idea that individuals might be possessed by evil spirits. In addition they launched her to Cox, and by the summer time of 2019 the 2 started courting.
Cox, greater than “anyone else” of their circle, believed in demonic possession, and that “darkish spirits” had been harmful, Pastenes testified Friday. Finally, the complete household moved to Rexburg, Idaho, following the taking pictures demise of Lori’s husband, Charles Vallow, by the hands of Cox. Although the taking pictures was deemed self-defense on the time, a grand jury in Arizona’s Maricopa County has indicted Vallow Daybell of conspiracy to commit first-degree homicide.
Pastenes mentioned when she requested Cox if he was OK following the taking pictures, he responded: “Zulema, he was a zombie.”
Pastenes traveled to Rexburg to go to the household in September. Although she remembers seeing 7-year-old JJ, when Pastenes requested Vallow Daybell the place Tylee was, she advised her “she needed to be free.”
“After I tried to ask her what she meant by that, she lifted her hand and put it as much as my face and mentioned, ‘Don’t ask,’” Pastenes mentioned.
Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow Daybell each urged Pastenes to maneuver to Rexburg — the small group could be a “place of refuge” in the course of the finish occasions, Daybell mentioned. In addition they pushed Cox and Pastenes to get married, which they did on Dec. 1, 2019.
Shortly after Pastenes’ September go to, on Oct. 9, Tammy Daybell was shot at in her driveway by a masked man. That very same night time, Pastenes was with Vallow Daybell and her niece, Melanie Boudreaux, when somebody referred to as Boudreaux.
“She was very, very offended, scary offended,” Pastenes mentioned, describing what she may hear of Boudreaux’s finish of the decision.
As soon as Boudreaux hung up, she mentioned, “Fool can’t do something proper by himself.” It was unclear within the testimony who Boudreaux was referring to. Prosecutors on Monday mentioned Cox’s cellphone was within the neighborhood of Tammy Daybell’s house the day she was shot at.
Ten days later, Tammy Daybell died in her sleep. Prosecutors on Monday mentioned she died by asphyxiation, by the hands of one other particular person. The day after the funeral, Pastenes mentioned Chad Daybell moved into Lori Vallow Daybell’s condominium.
“Isn’t that just a little too quick, when there must be a while for grieving?” she advised Vallow Daybell, in keeping with her testimony. Vallow Daybell didn't reply.
Pastenes additionally defined how the group slowly unraveled, beginning with Vallow Daybell and her new husband transferring to Hawaii, simply weeks after making an attempt to persuade her, and everybody else, to maneuver to Rexburg. The couple stopped speaking with Cox, which Pastenes mentioned upset him.
“Are you able to imagine they’re being such jerks after how a lot I helped them? Now they don’t even wish to speak to me,” Cox mentioned round Thanksgiving, in keeping with Pastenes.
Then Pastenes acquired a name from Melanie Gibb, Vallow Daybell’s former greatest good friend, who advised her concerning the lacking youngsters.
“She felt that we had been deceived by Chad and Lori,” Pastenes mentioned, telling prosecutors she grew to become “distraught.”
“I didn’t know what to assume or how one can course of that data. To listen to my good friend saying that each one this was occurring, after which on the similar time understanding how a lot belief I had put into these two folks, it was very, very complicated.”
When she confronted Cox about it, “he was very quiet, not his common self ... he simply didn’t reply me,” Pastenes mentioned.
Cox died on Dec. 12, 2019, the day after Tammy Daybell’s physique was exhumed. Pastenes on Friday detailed the night main as much as his demise.
After an extended day at work, she got here into her bed room to seek out Cox, who at this level had moved to Arizona, on the cellphone with Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow Daybell, who had been telling him concerning the exhumation.
“I used to be very confused on the purpose why they might be exhuming Tammy’s physique,” she mentioned. “... And I requested him if he was concerned in something that might do with Tammy’s demise. ... He mentioned no.”
Pastenes continued to press Cox. She advised prosecutors it was a “bizarre and so weird” dialog.
“He was very quiet and unresponsive, after which he mentioned, ‘I feel I’m being their fall man,’” Pastenes recalled. “I mentioned, ‘Fall man for what? What's it that you've achieved? What have you ever achieved that you'd be the autumn man for?’”
Pastenes mentioned Cox wouldn’t give her a straight reply. As she walked away, he advised her: “Zulema, both I'm a person of God, or I'm not.”
The subsequent day, he was useless.
Testimony within the case will resume Tuesday.