Day 12: In death of Lori Daybell’s 4th husband, 911 call came at least 40 minutes after shooting

An 18-person jury — 12 jurors and six alternates — in the Lori Vallow Daybell trial has started to get a look into the spending habits of the 49-year-old Rexburg mother and her husband, Chad Daybell.

Rexburg Police Detective Chuck Kunsaitis, who reviewed the financial records, began testifying Tuesday afternoon. He also reviewed Alex Cox’s financial records and said that Cox made 46 gun-related purchases in the months surrounding the disappearance of Vallow Daybell’s children. Cox was Lori Daybell’s brother.

Aside from Kunsaitis’ testimony, the prosecution sped through nearly four witnesses Tuesday, wrapping up Zulema Pastenes, the widow of Vallow Daybell’s brother, and calling Daybell’s eldest and only living son, Colby Ryan, to the stand.

Ryan’s testimony was brief but emotional as the jurors listened to a recording of an August 2019 video visit between the then-24-year-old and his mother, who was incarcerated at the Madison County Jail.

He accused his mother of killing his siblings — 7-year-old Joshua Jaxon “JJ” Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan — in the recording, which garnered audible gasps from both the courtroom and the downstairs overflow room.

“I prayed for you in my worst moments,” Ryan told Daybell. “I prayed for my siblings — who you swore to me were OK.” The confrontation came less than two months after the children’s remains were found on Chad Daybell’s property in Salem, Idaho.

The Daybells — who had a months-long affair before getting married — were charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Tylee and JJ, along with three counts of conspiracy to commit murder.

The 49-year-old Rexburg mother is accused of conspiring to kill Chad Daybell’s then-wife, Tammy Daybell. Lori Daybell faces a felony charge in Arizona as well for allegedly conspiring to kill her fourth husband, Charles Vallow.

Chad Daybell — whose trial date hasn’t been set — also faces a first-degree murder charge in Tammy Daybell’s death. Chad and Lori got married on a Hawaii beach two weeks after Tammy Daybell’s body was buried in a Utah cemetery.

Authorities believe Cox — who died from natural causes — conspired to kill JJ, Tylee and Tammy Daybell, according to the indictment filed by prosecution teams from Madison and Fremont counties.

The trial was set to resume at 8:30 a.m., with the prosecution expected to continue its direct examination of Kunsaitis.

READ MORE: Vallow Daybell’s son accuses her of murdering his siblings in jail recording

2 p.m. — Defense cross-examines witness

The prosecution and defense went back and forth Wednesday afternoon as Lori Daybell’s attorney, Jim Archibald, attempted to ask Chandler, Arizona, Police Detective Cassandra Ynclan a few questions about any criminal charges stemming from the shooting of Charles Vallow.

Authorities believe that Cox and Vallow Daybell conspired to kill Charles Vallow, the Arizona Republic reported.

Archibald initially asked Ynclan whether police initially considered the shooting of Charles Vallow justified, to which Ynclan responded no.

“Did you arrest Alex Cox in July 2019?” Archibald then asked Ynclan after the attorneys and 7th District Judge Steven Boyce met for a quick sidebar.

“I did not,” Ynclan responded. The jury is not aware of the charges against Vallow Daybell in Arizona and hasn’t been told whether anyone was ever charged with a crime in his death.

The prosecution then attempted to ask Ynclan whether Cox would face charges now if he was still alive, but the defense objected.

“This is information related to Arizona which the defendant is not on trial for,” Boyce ruled regarding the prosecution’s question.

Lori Daybell’s former friend April Raymond also briefly testified Wednesday afternoon. Raymond, who lives in Hawaii, knew both Charles and Lori, and during her testimony recalled that Vallow Daybell believed Charles Vallow was a demon.

“Charles was already dead and that there was a demon living inside him,” Raymond said, recalling what Lori Daybell allegedly told her.

1:30 p.m. — Arizona detectives outline Lori’s ‘unemotional’ movements around shooting of Charles Vallow

At 7:55 a.m. on July 11, 2019, Vallow Daybell went to an Arizona Burger King and took JJ to school. This was minutes after Cox had gotten into a “physical altercation” with Charles Vallow and fired a gunshot at him, according to testimony from two Arizona detectives.

Ynclan said she interviewed Vallow Daybell following the shooting, and testified that Lori told her that Charles Vallow had come to Vallow Daybell’s house to pick up JJ and take him to school, and in the process left his cellphone inside the home. (The Vallows were separated at the time and living apart, but were still married.)

Lori said — according to Ynclan’s testimony — that Charles Vallow became very upset when he saw that Vallow Daybell had been going through his phone.

This prompted an altercation, and Lori told Ynclan that she left the room as the pair began fighting. Ynclan said that Vallow Daybell told her she’d heard a single gunshot but didn’t witness it, and then saw Charles Vallow on the floor.

This is when Lori “made a decision to go to her children,” Ynclan said on the stand, and left the house with JJ and Tylee. She then drove 8 miles — stopping at Burger King — and dropped JJ off at school.

Sometime after 7:55 a.m. and before 8:36 a.m. — when the 911 call was made — Lori told her brother over the phone that she was taking JJ to school and that he needed to call 911.

Chandler Police Detective Ariel Werther also testified Wednesday and provided a timeline of Vallow Daybell’s location in the minutes surrounding Charles Vallow’s death. The timeline was based on cellphone records, which police said they obtained from the physical phone, along with surveillance footage and receipts.

Werther said Charles Vallow’s cellphone showed him arriving at the area of Vallow Daybell’s home at 7:32 a.m. The cellphone records also showed the phone at Burger King, Walgreens and then JJ’s school, before returning to the scene of the shooting at 8:47 a.m.

A minute later police body camera footage showed her arriving at the scene, Werther said. Police eventually confiscated Charles Vallow’s phone from Lori in Charles Vallow’s rental car.

Ynclan said that as a part of her job, she has to provide an official death notification to the next of kin. She said during her testimony Wednesday that when she notified Lori of Charles Vallow’s death, there wasn’t “much of a reaction.”

Lori also told Ynclan, according to the detective’s testimony, that she already knew Charles Vallow was dead and that she was present when it happened. This is when police first learned that she was home during the shooting.

During cross-examination, the defense asked Ynclan whether there was a correct or incorrect way for Vallow Daybell to act when her estranged husband was shot.

Ynclan said there wasn’t, but also said that Lori’s reaction “left an impression” on her given “how unemotional she was.”

1:00 p.m. — Chandler firefighter takes witness stand

If CPR is performed correctly on somebody, the pressure would likely leave an impression on the individual’s body, said Scott Cowden, a firefighter in Chandler, Arizona. But when he arrived at Vallow Daybell’s Arizona home in July 2019 after Charles Vallow had been shot, he didn’t notice any impressions.

Alex Cox — who shot and killed Charles Vallow — told police that he had performed CPR on his brother-in-law. Cowden said during his testimony Wednesday that once he began performing CPR on Charles Vallow, he noticed the impression.

Cowden said during his brief testimony that when he began performing CPR on Charles Vallow he felt a “crunch” or “crack,” which he said is common because the force of CPR can break an individual’s sternum or ribs. Cowden noted that if someone had been performing CPR on Charles Vallow previously, he wouldn’t have felt the crack because it would have already happened.

Jim Archibald, Vallow Daybell’s defense attorney, objected to Cowden’s testimony and said Vallow Daybell isn’t on trial for anything that happened in Arizona.

The defense didn’t cross-examine Cowden.

“Since we’ve previously objected to the entirety of this testimony we don’t have any questions,” Archibald said.

10:30 a.m. — Chad Daybell transferred money to kids as police were searching his home

Hours after the Rexburg Police Department knocked on Chad Daybell’s property in Salem, Idaho, and handed him a search warrant, Chad Daybell transferred a large sum of money to his children.

Mike Douglass, a forensic accountant with the Federal Bureau of Investigations, said during his testimony that Chad Daybell transferred a total of $24,000 — $8,000 each — to his three oldest children between 9:50 a.m. and 10 a.m.

The police would have already been on Chad Daybell’s property as he made the transaction, Douglass said, and JJ and Tylee’s remains would be located later that day.

Those bank statements were just one of roughly 80 accounts reviewed by Douglass throughout the investigation into the Daybells.

Another record showed that Chad Daybell emailed a realtor in November 2019 and said they were were looking at a property in Hawaii, and that they had “no pets and no kids,” according to Kunsaitis and Douglass’ testimony.

8:30 a.m. — Vallow Daybell attempted to buy wedding rings in August

Vallow Daybell attempted to buy wedding rings roughly two months before Tammy Daybell was killed.

An Etsy receipt that was presented to the courtroom Wednesday morning, which Kunsaitis reviewed, showed that Vallow Daybell attempted to purchase two malachite rings on Aug. 15, 2019. The order was for roughly $260.

Kunsaitis said Vallow Daybell’s credit card was declined. He also noted that the rings appeared to be wedding rings, but that statement was struck from the record based on speculation.

But East Idaho News previously reported that the Daybells got married on a beach in Hawaii, and that Vallow Daybell was seen wearing a malachite wedding ring. Vallow Daybell purchased a $35 Malachite ring on Amazon on Oct. 2, 2019 — roughly two weeks before Tammy Daybell died, the news outlet reported.

Charles Vallow’s sister Kay Woodcock said during her testimony last week that she noticed searches on Charles Vallow’s Amazon account — after he had died — for items including a beach wedding dress, bathing suit and malachite wedding rings.

Vallow Daybell’s defense team did not cross-examine Kunsaitis, but the prosecution is expected to recall Kunsaitis as a witness.