Day 20: Chad Daybell lived off former wife’s life insurance policies, detective says
The criminal trial of Lori Vallow Daybell — a 49-year-old mother charged with the first-degree murder of her two children — is into its fifth week.
Vallow Daybell, and her husband, Chad Daybell, are accused of the first-degree murder of her two children: 7-year-old Joshua Jaxon “JJ” Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan.
To be convicted of the first-degree murder charges, the jury will need to conclude that they killed, encouraged or commanded someone else to kill Vallow Daybell’s children.
They’re also accused of conspiring to murder the two children as well as Tammy Daybell, Chad Daybell’s former wife.
Chad and Lori Daybell — who had a months-long affair — got married on a Hawaii beach two weeks after Tammy Daybell’s body was buried in a Utah cemetery, according to witnesses throughout the trial.
READ MORE: Lori Vallow Daybell’s case spans 3 states, 4 deaths. Here are all the key people involved.
Lori Vallow Daybell’s trial began early April and could last another three weeks. Chad Daybell — who is also charged with first-degree murder in Tammy Daybell’s death — has a hearing scheduled Thursday.
Authorities said they believe Vallow Daybell’s brother Alex Cox also conspired to kill JJ, Tylee and Tammy Daybell, according to the indictment filed by prosecution teams from Madison and Fremont counties.
Cox died of natural causes in 2019. Vallow Daybell also faces a felony charge for allegedly conspiring to kill her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, with her brother.
The prosecution has called over four dozen witnesses, including a DNA analyst who examined a hair sample found with JJ’s body that matched Vallow Daybell.
Utah’s Chief Medical Examiner Erik Christensen, who performed the autopsy on Tammy Daybell, is expected to continue testifying Tuesday morning.
3:20 p.m. — ‘Wake up the women warriors.’ Vallow Daybell speaks on podcast
A podcast between Vallow Daybell, her former friend Melaine Gibb, and others describing their religious beliefs was admitted in court.
Only 40 minutes of a roughly 100-minute-long podcast was admitted in court, and Vallow Daybell only speaks for about eight minutes of it.
In the 2018 podcast, Vallow Daybell mentions the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and said things will start to change in the next two years.
“My job according to Jesus Christ is to wake up the women warriors,” Vallow Daybell said, adding that Gibb was one of the women that the Lord sent to her.
Todd Gilbert, a neighbor of Chad and Tammy Daybell who also attended Latter-day Saints services with the Daybells, said during his testimony Tuesday that he’d listened to the religious podcast episode.
He was on the witness stand as the recording was played in court.
“Would that be considered mainstream LDS beliefs?” Vallow Daybell’s attorney Jim Archibald asked Gilbert.
“Most of it, but not all of it,” Gilbert responded, adding that he believed some of the beliefs mentioned in the podcast were starting to stray.
Gilbert said that Chad Daybell was starting to stray away from the church’s mainstream beliefs as well.
Gilbert was dismissed, and court was adjourned a little after 3:30 p.m.
1:30 p.m. — Religious podcast admitted in court
Seventh District Judge Steven Boyce allowed Vallow Daybell’s attorney Jim Archibald to admit a 40-minute portion of a podcast episode.
Chad and Lori Vallow Daybell were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and believed that the world was going to end in July 2020. They also had fringe beliefs that people could be possessed by dark spirits, witnesses said in testimony, and that the spirits would need to be cast out.
Todd Gilbert during his testimony said he was aware of Chad Daybell’s beliefs.
He said that Chad Daybell’s books — which were about the end-times and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ — were “real life” for Chad Daybell, despite the fact that they were marketed as fiction.
The prosecution objected to the recording, but Boyce allowed it and said religious ideologies have been “central to the case.”
The podcast, which was recorded in late 2018, began with Gibb, who previously testified about the Daybells’ beliefs and her own.
“I am His and He has changed me,” Gibb said in the recording, referring to Jesus Christ.
10:30 a.m. — A week after Tammy Daybell’s death, Chad Daybell said he’s getting married
A week after Tammy Daybell died, Chad Daybell told his neighbors he was “doing really good,” and he’d found the woman he was going to marry, Alice and Todd Gilbert said during their separate testimonies Tuesday.
“We were shocked,” Alice Gilbert said. The Gilberts said Chad Daybell told them he was dating Lori Vallow Daybell and met her in October 2019 at a conference in St. George, Utah.
The Gilberts said they eventually met Vallow Daybell, and roughly two weeks after Tammy Daybell died, they invited Chad and Lori Vallow Daybell over to their home. The Gilberts said they were extremely affectionate and acted “like a couple of teenagers.”
When the Gilberts asked Vallow Daybell whether she had any children, she said she had many, but then Chad interrupted and said Vallow Daybell’s daughter had recently died. Alice Gilbert said she assumed Tylee died from an illness, but she didn’t question her further.
“I had the impression that she had no other children,” Alice Gilbert said, adding that she thought Vallow Daybell was an empty nester.
Chad and Lori Vallow Daybell also visited the Gilberts in November after they’d gotten married in Hawaii and showed them wedding photos. The Gilberts said they wouldn’t see Chad Daybell again until after Vallow Daybell was arrested in Hawaii in early 2020.
Alice Gilbert said Chad Daybell approached her and asked whether he could live at their home. She told him that her daughter was planning to stay with them. Chad Daybell then asked the Gilberts whether they’d be willing to put their property up as collateral for Vallow Daybell’s bond.
During this exchange, Alice Gilbert said she asked Chad Daybell about Tylee.
“You told me when we met that she had just lost a daughter,” Alice Gilbert said, recalling her question to Chad Daybell. She said he denied that he’d told her that.
Alice Gilbert also testified about the days following Tammy Daybell’s death. Gilbert visited the Daybell residence the morning of Tammy Daybell’s death, she said and noted that Chad Daybell’s five children and their spouses were at the house.
“The children were stunned,” Gilbert said, adding that “Chad was not stunned.”
Throughout her testimony, Alice Gilbert mentioned how quickly she felt Chad Daybell was moving on. She said that within hours of Tammy Daybell’s death, Chad had already begun planning her funeral and memorial service.
Alice Gilbert attended Tammy Daybell’s funeral, she said, which was in Springville, Utah.
“I had to go see her,” Alice Gilbert said as she started to cry. “I had to tell her goodbye.”
Chad Daybell also told Alice Gilbert he was planning to move out of his home in Salem, Idaho, she said, and move into a friend’s condo on Pioneer Road in Rexburg. Vallow Daybell’s Rexburg apartment was on Pioneer Road.
The court adjourned for lunch around noon.
9:30 a.m. — Chad Daybell received $430,000 in life insurance money from Tammy Daybell’s death
Rexburg Police Det. Bruce Mattingly during his testimony Tuesday said he reviewed Tammy Daybell’s medical records, which he obtained through his investigation.
He said the records showed that Tammy Daybell didn’t have a history of seizures or low blood pressure.
When asked whether Chad Daybell’s statements to investigators regarding Tammy Daybell’s medical history were consistent with her medical records, Mattingly said, “No, they were completely the opposite.”
Mattingly also said Tammy was active up until the time of her death, according to data he reviewed from her Fitbit.
Chad Daybell was also the beneficiary of Tammy Daybell’s two life insurance policies, which totaled $430,000.
The defense asked Mattingly whether the insurance company was requesting their money back, to which he responded that he wasn’t sure.
Mattingly then said he wasn’t sure whether Chad Daybell faces charges for insurance fraud, but Mattingly knew Chad Daybell was living off of the insurance payments after Tammy Daybell died.
Chad Daybell has been charged with two counts of insurance fraud, according to the indictment.
8:45 a.m. — Medical examiner says it’s ‘possible’ Tammy Daybell died from a seizure
Vallow Daybell’s attorney John Thomas spent roughly 20 minutes questioning Christensen about Tammy Daybell’s autopsy results.
Tammy Daybell’s death was ruled a homicide by asphyxiation, Christensen said Monday. He said that her autopsy was a “negative autopsy” because nothing else could explain her death, and examiners ruled out other factors such as seizures, heart disease, poison or drugs.
But when questioned by Thomas, he said that he couldn’t 100% rule out a seizure, but that it was “very unlikely” Tammy Daybell died from one.
“I can’t absolutely exclude that she had a seizure activity,” Christensen said.
Christensen said there aren’t any tests you can do to document seizures once someone has died. But he added that one of his colleagues performed a neurological pathology test on Tammy Daybell’s brain — where they examined her brain for abnormalities that are common for seizures.
Christensen said her brain was normal.
When asked by the prosecution, Christensen added individuals who have had seizures can have normal brains, but he said in Tammy Daybell’s case, they ruled out a seizure because of other factors, including her age and the lack of documented medical history regarding seizures.
