BOISE (KSL. com) — “Two children” and “three corpses. “
Prosecutor Rob Wood told a story to the 10 men and eight women appointed as jurors in Chad Daybell’s murder trial, separating their opening statements Wednesday into chapters after telling them Daybell ran a publishing house. He said the story was genuine and about an “apparently man. “
“Two dead youths were buried in the defendant’s garden. The following month, his wife died in his bed. Seventeen days later, the defendant marries Lori Vallow,” he said.
Opening statements in the trial began Wednesday.
Chad Daybell is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Lori Vallow Daybell’s children (7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan) and the death of his ex-wife, Tammy Daybell, in late 2019. He was also charged with conspiracy to murder the victims, robbery and insurance fraud. Lori Daybell has already been convicted of the 3 deaths.
The bodies of the two young men were discovered in shallow graves in the garden of Chad Daybell, Idaho, more than six months after the government began searching for them. Tammy Daybell died at her home and her death was first believed to have been caused by natural causes, but investigators later decided that her death was murder after her body was exhumed from a cemetery in Utah County.
The trial is streamed live on Idaho Seventh District Judge Steven Boyce’s official YouTube channel. KSL. com and EastIdahoNews. com broadcast the debates every day.
Defense attorney John Prior has stated that his consumer needs a “public trial” and insisted that cameras be allowed in the courtroom.
A ‘very unhappy’ relationship
Earlier, he compared his client’s story — a religious project in New Jersey, a long marriage to Tammy Daybell, five young men, and no hitale delinquents for a dizzying price — to Lori Daybell’s story with several husbands, some of them “very short-lived. “
After meeting at a conference, Lori Vallow “pursued” Chad Daybell, “and she pursued him,” Prior said, admitting it became an “inappropriate relationship. “
Prior said testimony at trial will show that Lori Daybell is a “beautiful, vivacious woman, a very sexual and very manipulative person, who knows how to get what she wants” and that she led Chad Daybell into a “very unhappy” relationship.
He said Lori Daybell’s brother, Alex Cox, who died in 2019, would have done anything for her, adding that he assaulted her ex-husband with a Taser, for which Cox was jailed.
“Whenever there’s a challenge or risk with Lori Vallow. . . Alex Cox comes to the rescue,” Prior said.
He said Cox was the user who shot Lori Daybell’s husband, Charles Vallow, and that Chad Daybell was not involved.
Prior also said that evidence would show that DNA and fingerprints of Lori Daybell and Alex Cox were discovered in the plastic around JJ’s body, but there is no DNA from Chad Daybell. He also questioned the bodies being discovered in Daybell’s “backyard,” saying they were in “the grass. “The assets are a 4. 5-acre farm.
He also told the jury that an expert witness would testify that there was no indication that Tammy Daybell’s death was a homicide, and that 3 or 4 of Chad Daybell’s children would say she was physically disturbed but refused to go to the doctor.
Prior suggested to the jury that they pay attention to the facts and evidence.
“Don’t be distracted by speculation, don’t be distracted by guesswork, assumptions or hunches,” he said.
“No one, and no law, will stand in their way”
At Lori Daybell’s murder trial last year, prosecutors said “money, force and sex” led her to participate in the murder of her children and her husband’s ex-wife.
Wood repeated the same thing Wednesday, saying Chad Daybell called their spouses and children “obstacles” in conversations with Lori Daybell. He said his preference for pursuing “sex, money and power” led to the three deaths.
“He made it so that no one, or any law, stood in his way,” Wood said.
The prosecutor said the text messages between Lori and Chad Daybell showed a history of preference and a plan for the future. They created names of lives beyond and talked about sexual encounters. They also referred to other people who opposed them, adding the three victims. as “dark spirits” or “zombies,” Wood said.
“The evidence will show that this is a convenient narrative that dehumanized other people who stood in their way,” he said.
Wood said the couple talked about the $1 million life insurance that Lori Daybell would even get after the death of her husband Charles Vallow, and said that even if Lori Daybell is no longer a beneficiary of that plan, she would still get $4,000 a month. Social Security for their children. He said Tammy Daybell’s life insurance had risen to $400,000 shortly before her death.
A slideshow showed the jury photographs of the three young men in bankruptcy, and then photographs of Chad and Lori Daybell’s wedding in Hawaii in the next bankruptcy in Wood’s tale, just 17 days after the death of Chad’s ex-wife. He said the wedding was planned before Tammy. La death of Daybell.
Unfortunately for Chad Daybell, Wood said, the truth put an end to his plans. After a shooting in Arizona of Lori Daybell’s nephew, Brandon Boudreaux, from what appeared to be Tylee’s Jeep, authorities began searching for that vehicle in Idaho. J. J. Vallow’s grandmother also sought the help of officers and, on November 26, 2019, showed up at Lori Daybell’s door to greet the children.
Wood said a text message from Chad Daybell to Tammy Daybell on Sept. 9, 2018, the day after Tylee last noticed, is what led police to locate the children’s bodies. The text talked about shooting a “raccoon” and burying it in the puppy. cemetery in one’s backyard. Tylee’s frame was discovered in the cemetery and JJ’s frame was also discovered nearby under a tree.
Wood told jurors they would get a chance to write the final part of the story, one that “brings justice” to Tammy Daybell, JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan.
Wood said the trial would be lengthy and told jurors they would listen to authorities, review forensic evidence and location data, as well as text messages and recorded phone calls between Lori and Chad Daybell.
The test may last only 8 weeks or longer.
‘A small frame wrapped in dark plastic’
Rexburg police detective Ray Hermosillo was the first witness in Monday’s trial. He testified that he picked up Lori Daybell while searching for JJ after his grandmother, Kay Woodcock, informed him that she hadn’t heard from him in months.
He said investigators discovered Alex Cox and Chad Daybell and both claimed they didn’t have Lori Daybell’s phone number. Chad Daybell, who was known to police as her husband, said he “only saw her a few times” and “didn’t know her very well. “
Hermosillo talked about getting a search warrant and researching the homes of Lori Daybell, Alex Cox and Lori Daybell’s niece, Melanie Boudreaux, all of which were in the same urban complex. He said Cox’s space was empty and Daybell’s seemed normal, the closets had no clothes, just empty hangers. He also said they found a contract for a garage unit for a “Lori Ryan” where they found children’s bikes, clothes and a blanket with family photographs of JJ, Tylee and Lori’s oldest son. Colby Ryan.
At this point, Hermosillo said they were not looking for Tylee and had no reports of his disappearance.
Hermosillo also spoke about the execution of search warrants at Chad Daybell’s home months later, in June 2020. She said her son opened the door and led them to where Chad Daybell was sleeping. The officials woke him up and allowed him to read the search warrant and call his lawyer.
He said that while he was outside, he saw Chad Daybell, who was on the phone in his truck, “looking intently over his right shoulder” at a pond at his home.
The detective then talked about searching a small domain near the pond under the direction of the FBI’s Evidence Recovery Team. He said they got rid of a bush, dirt and a more sensitive layer of soil, and then discovered giant white rocks.
As soon as the stones were disposed of, Hermosillo said, “Perhaps we will begin to smell the smell which, according to my educational experience, is that of a decomposing body. He said that as they got rid of the wood, the smell has become more potent and they may see the dirt discoloring, like wet, damp soil.
Kay Woodcock left before Hermosillo spoke about the discovery of the plastic bag containing JJ’s body.
Hermosillo said it looked like a black circular object at first, then took the shape of “the crown of a human head. “He said officials made an indentation in the black plastic and in the white plastic they discovered underneath they can see what looked like human hair.
That’s when the detective said he learned Daybell was driving home “at top speed” and police stopped and arrested him.
After the arrest, he said they continued to search the burial site and discovered “what appeared to be a small frame wrapped in dark plastic and with duct tape around it. “
Hermosillo will continue to testify about the excavation on Thursday.
At Lori Daybell’s trial, Hermosillo said that once he was unwrapped, he met little Marco as JJ.
Lori Daybell was found guilty last year of what the sentencing then called “heinous crimes,” adding the murder of her children and conspiracy to murder Tammy Daybell. She was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences without the option of parole.
In Chad Daybell’s case, the death penalty is a possibility. If you are convicted of first-degree murder, the same jury will hear testimony in a criminal phase of the trial and determine whether you will be sentenced to death or some other punishment.
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