Vallow Daybell told friend she ‘could always put some pills’ in husband’s water
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Alex Brizee, Idaho Statesman
BOISE (Idaho Statesman) – The second week of Lori Vallow Daybell’s potentially eight-week jury trial is over.
Throughout the last five days, the prosecution has concentrated on the deaths of Vallow Daybell’s two children — 7-year-old Joshua Jaxon “JJ” and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan — and her fringe religious beliefs. But the focus of the prosecution’s case against the 49-year-old Rexburg mother hasn’t just involved Idaho.
Throughout the last week, the prosecution has called witnesses to speak about various accusations against Vallow Daybell in Arizona.
Det. Nathan Duncan, from the Chandler Police Department in Arizona, took the witness stand Thursday afternoon and finished his testimony Friday morning. Duncan spoke about the shooting of Vallow Daybell’s fourth husband, Charles Vallow, which occurred in July 2019. Duncan told the 18-person jury — 12 jurors and six alternates — that Charles Vallow was killed, but he didn’t mention that Vallow Daybell faces a criminal charge in Arizona for conspiring to kill him.
Typically, in criminal trials, evidence that indicates other alleged or convicted crimes aren’t talked about. According to Idaho Rules of Evidence “evidence of a crime, wrong, or other act is not admissible to prove a person’s character.”
But it can be used when trying to prove “motive, opportunity, or intent.”
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At the end of the trial, the 12 remaining jurors will decide whether Vallow Daybell is guilty of the first-degree murders of her two children. Vallow Daybell is also charged with three counts of conspiring to commit murder in her children’s deaths and the death of Tammy Daybell, the former wife of Vallow Daybell’s husband, Chad Daybell.
Chad Daybell — whose trial date has not been set — is charged with the first-degree murder of Tammy Daybell, JJ and Tylee. He is also charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the children’s deaths. The Daybells have pleaded not guilty to all charges.
3:30 P.M. — CROSS-EXAMINATION BEGINS, WILL CONTINUE TUESDAY
Defense attorney John Thomas began his cross-examination of Zulema Pastenes, the widow of Vallow Daybell’s brother, Alex Cox, around 3 p.m. but only had a little over 20 minutes before court was adjourned. Thomas is expected to finish the cross-examination Tuesday. The trial was canceled Monday.
Thomas during the cross-examination asked Pastenes whether she believed that her work “casting” out spirits had a “direct effect” on the death of Tammy Daybell, JJ and Tylee.
“Not my work,” Pastenes said, “but Chad and Lori’s work, yes.” During Vallow Daybell’s former friend Melanie Gibb’s testimony, she said that Vallow Daybell believed that if someone’s dark spirit had been removed, they would die.
“Do I believe that evil spirits can be cast out?” Pastenes asked during her testimony. “Yes,” she said, because Jesus Christ did it in the Bible.
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But she said she no longer believes the Daybells can cast people out.
2:00 P.M. — VALLOW DAYBELL SAID SHE ‘COULD ALWAYS PUT SOME PILLS’ IN HER HUSBAND’S WATER, WITNESS SAYS
“Did (Vallow Daybell) talk about other ways to deal with Charles?” prosecuting attorney Rachel Smith asked Pastenes toward the end of her over three-hour testimony.
Vallow Daybell, with the help of a group, performed castings on her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, in an attempt to rid him of the dark spirits, said Gibb, a key witness for the prosecution, during her testimony Thursday.
But if it didn’t work, Pastenes in her testimony said Vallow Daybell jokingly told her she “could always put some pills in his water.”
Pastenes also said that after Cox shot and killed Charles Vallow, she asked Cox if he was OK after having shot someone. She said Cox responded, “Zulema, he was a zombie.”
“Alex believed everything she said,” Pastenes said, in reference to Vallow Daybell.
Prosecutors ended their direct examination of Pastenes around 2:20, and the defense is expected to begin cross-examination.
1:15 P.M. — ‘I THINK I’M BEING THEIR FALL GUY,’ VALLOW DAYBELL BROTHER TELLS WIFE
Vallow Daybell told Pastenes that Tammy Daybell had been possessed by a dark spirit called “Viola,” and she needed her help to perform a casting.
Pastenes said the casting was performed on Tammy Daybell on Oct. 9, 2019 — the night that prosecutors alleged Cox attempted to shoot her — by Pastenes, Vallow Daybell and Vallow Daybell’s niece Melanie Boudreaux.
East Idaho News reported that an unknown masked man also shot at Tammy Daybell several times with a paintball gun, and the gun may have been unloaded. The incident occurred 10 days before she was killed.
According to the indictment, Cox went to a gun range in the months before the attempted shooting of Tammy Daybell, and Cox traveled from Sportsman’s Warehouse to “the vicinity” of Tammy Daybell’s home on Oct. 9, 2019.
Pastenes said Vallow Daybell got a phone call the night they performed the casting on Tammy Daybell, and that she was “very, very angry” and was calling someone derogatory words like “idiot” and “moron.” Pastenes didn’t say who called her.
“Idiot can’t do anything right by himself,” Vallow Daybell said after hanging up the phone.
Tammy Daybell died 10 days later, on Oct. 19. Fremont County prosecuting attorney said her death was ruled a homicide and that she died from asphyxiation.
Initially, authorities said they believed that Tammy Daybell died in her sleep from natural causes, but her body was later exhumed on Dec. 11, 2019.
Pastenes said when she returned home that night, Cox told her that Tammy Daybell’s body was being exhumed. Pastenes in her testimony said she didn’t understand why and kept pressuring Cox to give her an explanation.
“I think I’m being their fall guy,” Pastenes said Cox told her, referring to the Daybells.
“What have you done that you would be the fall guy for?” Pastenes recalled responding.
Pastenes said Cox told her he was either “a man of God or … not.” He died the next day, and an autopsy found that he died from natural causes.
10:30 A.M. — ‘WE NEEDED TO CAST OUT THE DEMON FROM CHARLES’
Pastenes began testifying Friday morning and gave the courtroom an inside look into the “castings” that Vallow Daybell — along with others, including Pastenes and Gibb — performed on Charles Vallow.
The Daybells, and Cox, believed that certain people had dark spirits, and that to remove the spirit, they needed to cast it out. If done successfully, the casting caused the individual to die, Gibb said during her testimony Thursday. Vallow Daybell and the group performed several castings on Charles Vallow because, Pastenes said, a new spirit would take over Charles Vallow’s body after they casted the other out.
“We needed to cast out the demon from Charles,” Pastenes said. She added that she and other members of the group — which would later include Cox — would hold hands in a circle, and that each person would be given a different task by Vallow Daybell.
Gibb told the court Thursday the Daybells and Cox believed that Charles Vallow, Tammy Daybell, Tylee, and eventually JJ were all “dark.”
Pastenes said when they casted out the first spirit from Charles Vallow, a new dark spirit, named “Ned,” appeared and he was “more powerful than the one before.”
“If someone is possessed by a demon, are those people considered dangerous?” Rachel Smith, an attorney working with the prosecution, asked Pastenes.
“Yes,” Pastenes responded.
When asked by Smith whether Pastenes believed the castings they were doing had value, Pastenes firmly replied, “yes.”
“You say that very certainly. Why?” Smith asked Pastenes.
“Lori is very convincing,” Pastenes responded. She also said Vallow Daybell had a “vivacious way of expressing things.”
Pastenes added that since Vallow Daybell claimed she’d been visited by “heavenly beings,” Pastenes didn’t think Vallow Daybell would lie about the dark spirits.
“I would never think that someone would lie about something as sacred as that,” Pastenes said about Vallow Daybell seeing the beings.
The court went to lunch at 12 p.m.
9 A.M. — ‘IT’S A SPEAR THRU MY HEART.’ VALLOW DAYBELL SAYS CHARLES VALLOW CHANGED HIS INSURANCE POLICY
On July 18, 2019 — less than a week after Charles Vallow was killed — Vallow Daybell texted Chad Daybell, informing him that Charles Vallow had changed the beneficiary for his $1 million life insurance policy. The text was one of the dozens of emails and texts located by Arizona authorities on Vallow Daybell’s iCloud account, Duncan said during his testimony Thursday.
“I just got the letter from the insurance company saying that I am not the beneficiary,” Vallow Daybell texted Chad Daybell. “It’s a spear thru my heart.”
“It will be interesting if it got changed after he got two bullets in his chest,” Chad Daybell texted in response.
Vallow Daybell added that Charles Vallow “left nothing for JJ,” and that he probably made his sister, Kay Woodcock, the beneficiary for his policy. Woodcock confirmed during her testimony Monday that Charles Vallow left the policy to her, and she promised she’d use the remaining money “to finish raising JJ because Lori didn’t want him anymore.” Charles Vallow made the change in March 2019.
But Gibb said during her testimony Thursday that Vallow Daybell knew the beneficiary had been changed before Charles Vallow was killed. John Thomas, Vallow Daybell’s defense attorney, pointed out that if Vallow Daybell knew about the policy change, then monetary incentive wouldn’t be a motive in Charles Vallow’s death.
In another text message, Vallow Daybell told Chad Daybell that it was “probably Ned before we got rid of him” who changed the life insurance policy. Vallow Daybell sometimes referred to Charles Vallow as “Ned,” claiming he was a dark spirit who had taken over his body, Gibb told the court during her testimony Thursday.
Vallow Daybell’s defense team didn’t cross-examine Duncan, noting that they felt the evidence presented in his testimony was inadmissible.
8:30 A.M. — CHARLES VALLOW ACCUSES THEN-WIFE OF HAVING AN AFFAIR, EMAILS SHOW
In the weeks leading up to Charles Vallow’s killing, he accused Vallow Daybell of cheating on him with Chad Daybell.
“You accuse me of infidelity, but it’s you who has been having an affair,” Charles Vallow told Vallow Daybell in an email, which Duncan said Arizona authorities obtained from Vallow Daybell’s iCloud account.
“The fact that you continue to go to the temple after all you’ve done shocks even me,” he continued.
Charles Vallow also informed Vallow Daybell that he was going to tell Chad Daybell’s then-wife, Tammy Daybell, about the affair. Charles Vallow emailed Tammy Daybell on June 29, 2019, and said he had some “vital and disturbing information regarding” their spouses.
In another email the next day, Charles Vallow told Tammy Daybell that their spouses were having an affair and he had “definitive proof.” Duncan said it was unclear whether Tammy Daybell ever read the emails.
On July 11, 2019, on the day Charles Vallow was killed, Charles Vallow and Adam Cox, another brother of Vallow Daybell, texted back and forth about the fact that Alex Cox was staying at Vallow Daybell’s house. Alex Cox stayed at Vallow Daybell’s Arizona home that night to protect Vallow Daybell, Gibb testified.
“They are planning something,” Adam Cox, said in text messages presented in court during Duncan’s testimony.
“Absolutely,” Charles Vallow said.
In another text message exchange between Vallow Daybell and Alex Cox in early 2019, they discussed getting rid of Charles Vallow’s dark spirit, “Ned.”
“Love you too have fun and get rid of Ned already,” Alex Cox texted Vallow Daybell.
“Ned is still alive,” Vallow Daybell responded. “Just confirmed.”
“It’s not Ned,” Alex Cox said. “It’s a new one.”
