BOISE, Idaho — A total of 6 rebuttal witnesses were called by the State of Idaho in the case against Chad Daybell. Daybell's trial nears its end as closing arguments will be delivered today in court.
In court on Tuesday, jurors heard testimony from Dr. Erik Christensen, a retired medical examiner from Utah who performed Tammy Daybell's autopsy back when this investigation was active. The court also heard testimony from retired police detective David Stubbs, who testified about phone records and how a user of Chad Daybell's account turned off all his location services.
Court wrapped up early, as the morning testimony was all that needed to be heard by the jury. Later in the day, around 3 p.m., court came back on the record to discuss jury instructions and evidence management.
On Wednesday, May 29, court will begin around 10 a.m. for the closing arguments, followed by jury instructions. From there, the jury will deliberate for as long as they need to.
Because this is a death penalty case, if the jury finds Chad Daybell guilty of certain counts, the jury will go directly into sentencing after the verdict is delivered. Due to the way that the death penalty laws are written, the jury that finds someone guilty must also sentence that person.
He may face only life in prison, or even less, if the jury finds him not guilty.
Daybell is facing eight different counts - three counts of murder in the first degree, two counts of conspiracy to murder, conspiracy to commit grant theft by deception and two counts of insurance fraud.
The defense rested its case last week, before a long weekend for Memorial Day.
The trial period will end on Wednesday, and it is unclear how long jury deliberation will last. The jury in Lori Vallow's case deliberated for around two days before returning guilty verdicts on all of her charges.
Live Updates:
6:50 p.m. (approx.): Courtroom feed ends. Jurors appear to have been sent home for the day.
4:33 p.m.: Jurors are dismissed from the courtroom to begin deliberating.
4:27 p.m.: The state has rested their case, and Judge Boyce begins to randomly select which of the 17 jurors will be alternates or not. Judge Boyce's clerk draws numbers out of a box at random, selecting five people will be alternates. Jury sequestration gets brought up, as they will have to do that throughout deliberations. Bailiffs are sworn in to serve the jury throughout sequestration. Three additional bailiffs were sworn in yesterday. Court is now in recess as the jury deliberates.
4:24 p.m.: The state replays the audio recording of the blessing Chad performed on Alex Cox. Lindsey Blake talks about the three bodies found on his property. She claims these people were simply obstacles for Chad Daybell, needing to get rid of them to get his dreams to come true. Blake asks that the jury thoroughly review the evidence.
4:01 p.m.: Prosecution reminds that jury needs to decided based on their memory, and not counsel's arguments. Alex Cox committed the crimes possibly, but there's enough to convict Chad Daybell, argues Blake.
3:49 p.m.: Court is back in session, and the jurors are brought in to hear the state's rebuttal closing arguments. These remarks will be the last the jury hears from counsel before deliberation begins. A slide showing "Money, power and sex" written across it. Prosecutor Lindsey Blake talks about jury instructions as well, defining aiding and abetting to the jury.
3:24 p.m.: Defense closes their argument. Rebuttal arguments will be heard after a short recess. Court will be back in 15 minutes.
3:16 p.m.: Defense continues to present his arguments. He brings up that Lori Vallow was the one that pursued Chad Daybell. Prior has been jumping around, bringing up many topics in the hour and a fifteen minutes he's had the floor. He now is talking about Tammy Daybell's FitBit and how it was never found.
3:04 p.m.: Prior states Alex Cox killed Tylee Ryan. He then talks about confirmation bias, and how police went only after Chad Daybell. He brings up Melanie Gibb again, and supposed "hundreds" of texts between Melanie Gibb and prosecutor Rob Wood. He later brings up the single blonde hair found on the duct tape around JJ Vallow. Prior argues that if the hair didn't belong to Lori Vallow, it must belong to Melanie Gibb.
2:39 p.m.: Prior argues that it was Lori Vallow who was manipulating Chad - so Chad was unaware of the location or safety of the children. Prior brings up that even if Chad knew that the kids were unsafe, that does not make him guilty of a these crimes. Prior points out jury instruction #18. Then, he brings up that there is not a single piece of DNA of Chad Daybell on the tools found in his garage, as testified to by Dr. Hampikian. Prior also points out that they never did DNA sampling or looked into the phone records of Melanie Gibb or David Warwick, who Prior has pointed the finger at before. Gibb and Warwick were within Lori Vallow's apartment the day that JJ Vallow died, but police deemed that they were not worth looking into.
2:23 p.m.: Prior further points out, where is the agreement to commit crimes. Prior wants the jury to look at the facts and evidence that was presented to the jury, and the lack of agreement to commit crimes. "Facts. And Evidence. Facts and evidence," he reiterates. Prior also reiterates some of the jury instructions to the jury members, by telling them to look at their notes and rely on their memories. He then emphasizes using common sense. "If you have a doubt, and don't know what happened, you must find Chad innocent" urges Prior.
2:02 p.m.: Court is back in session for the defense's closing arguments. John Prior pokes fun of prosecution by stating his arguments won't be "two hours" long, but then later turns the remarks to maintaining Chad's innocence. He then goes back to the jury selection process, and reminding jurors he often asked if they understood what an agreement is. Prior then talks about his careers paths he wanted to pursue, being simply just dreams. Prior compares Daybell's actions to that of just dreams. Prior then talks about Chad's traditional Jesus Christ Church of Latter Day Saints member, or Mormon as Prior said. Prior argues that there is a lack of agreement between Lori Vallow and Alex Cox to commit crimes.
12:53 p.m.: Prosecution continues their closing arguments - it has lasted nearly two hours. At 2 p.m. defense will take over for their side of the case. Until then, court is at lunch.
12:31 p.m.: Another audio recording is played, a phone call between Lori Vallow and her friend Melanie Gibb. Gibb asks if JJ Vallow was safe, as he was determined missing at the time of the phone call. "Yes, he's safe," said Lori. Then, another recording is played - a phone call between Chad, Lori, and Chad's brother-in-law Jason Gwilliam. The patriarchal blessing that Chad provided to Alex Cox is played in court as well.
12:17 p.m.: Blake continues. She discusses Garth Daybell's testimony. When Garth testified, he said one thing. However, in rebuttal, the court heard testimony from another witness that Garth's statement may have been false. Garth said he was woken up by his father the day his mother died. However, Garth made a comment to the rebuttal witness when they were at work. The comment was that Garth had heard a thump, but couldn't find his father anywhere at that time.
12:07 p.m.: State continues their case, with Blake bringing up the attempted shooting of Tammy Daybell, and the fact that Tammy Daybell was Google searching for facts about paintball guns. Tammy had apparently screamed during the attempted shooting, according to her son-in-law that lived across the street. The person trying to shoot her pulled the trigger multiple times, with details of the assailant that matched the description of Alex Cox. Less than two weeks later, Tammy was found dead in her marital bed.
11:47 a.m.: Blake talks about witness testimony, and how it connected the dots as to the deaths of Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow. Blake now brings up the activity of Chad and Lori on Sept. 23, 2019 - the day JJ Vallow died. Some of Lori Vallow's friends wanted to see JJ before they went back home to Arizona, but Lori basically left the conversation with JJ wasn't home and she wasn't going to get him. Then, Blake emphasizes that JJ Vallow's body was found on Chad Daybell's property months later. JJ was found with duct tape over his arms, over his mouth, and within two garbage bags.
11:30 a.m.: Chad Daybell looks sullen as prosecution continues their closing arguments. Another audio recording is played of Chad and Lori talking to each other. In the audio recording, it is heard that Chad is confirming that there was a plan in place to "take care" of the children. At this point in the argument, Blake argues that Lori Vallow moved to Idaho only to be closer to Chad Daybell. Blake also addresses that even before Lori moved to Idaho, Chad had deemed Lori's children as "dark" or with bad spirits.
11:15 a.m.: Lindsey Blake argues that it was Chad Daybell that had all the information regarding the "evil spirits" that was often talks about between himself, Lori Vallow, and others. Blake talks about the "entity" taking over Charles Vallow's body - the husband of Lori Vallow and how many times they casted the entity out of Charles's body. A timeline of the case is presented by Blake. Blake argues that Chad manipulated Lori Vallow with his supposed spiritual abilities.
11:01 a.m.: Court is back in session for closing arguments. Prosecutor Lindsey Blake will argue for the state, and John Prior will argue for the defense. There is a trifold poster on display for prosecution to use in their arguments. The state's closing argument starts with a recording of Lori Vallow calling Chad Daybell from jail. It was the day law enforcement searched the Daybell property - which was June 9, 2020. "Three dead bodies..." starts Blake, pointing out that two of the deceased were children. Blake reviews the case - how Chad Daybell searched up Lori Vallow after meeting her at a conference. Both Chad and Lori were married at the time they met, but quickly became infatuated with each other. Prosecution states that all Chad wanted as "sex, money and power."
10:42 a.m.: Jury instructions have completed, and Lindsey Blake with prosecution asks for a sidebar before she begins her closing remarks. They are going to take a quick break so the state can set up something for closing remarks. The court will come back at 11 a.m.
10:25 a.m.: Judge Boyce continues to read, as he talks about the seven elements Chad Daybell is facing in this trial. Judge Boyce reads further, telling the jury that the state must prove a series of things in each charge.
10:16 a.m.: Judge Boyce continues to read jury instructions. He is reading the rules for what exactly is considered a murder.
10:02 a.m.: Court is called to session for jury instruction and closing arguments in the Chad Daybell trial. All 17 jurors are present. They jurors are brought in. One of the camera views has changed. What was traditionally a tight shot of Judge Boyce is now a wide angle shot of Judge Boyce's desk, most likely so counsel can move around freely while delivering closing arguments. Judge Boyce goes through some court housekeeping. Judge Boyce is reviewing jury instructions.
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