Thursday 2nd - Afternoon update
CHAD DAYBELL TRIAL
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE TRIAL LIVE
Please excuse the typos. These are live updates from the courtroom.
3:25 p.m. Stubbs says they never saw JJ or Tylee the day they went to the apartment. Wood says this would be a good stopping point for the day. Stubbs will be back on the stand tomorrow. Join me tonight for Courtroom Insider at 6:30 p.m. MDT.
3:23 p.m. Stubbs says police were not able to verify JJ’s location that day. Stubbs says Melanie did not have JJ. A warrant was established the following morning to search three apartments in the complex – 107 (Alex), 174 (Melani B.) and 175 (Lori).
3:21 p.m. Ball knocks on the door and says, “Lori.” Lori opens the door and says Melanie is at “Frozen 2” with JJ. Stubbs tells Lori to call Melanie and have her return the officer’s call.
3:20 p.m. Stubbs went back to the apartment ten minutes later. Wood shows the body camera footage on the screen. Stubbs says they should ask Lori if she will call Melanie and get a certification. Melanie was not answering the phone.
3:18 p.m. Stubbs went back to the apartment because the police could not get a hold of Melanie Gibb. He was wearing a body camera. Wood moves to admit it as evidence.
3:16 p.m. Stubbs was concerned with Lori’s and Alex’s states of mind. Lori said her brother was in the apartment but Stubbs never saw him. Stubbs says he noticed the staircase to his right. There was a shadow on the wall that kept moving back and forth. “It appeared to be a person moving back and forth at the top of the stairs. It made me nervous as to what that person’s intentions might be that we could not see.”
3:14 p.m. Stubbs says Melanie Gibb was not in Arizona that day, she was in Utah. Stubbs notes that Lori says Chad was her brother’s friend whereas a month earlier, he had seen the couple holding hands and police knew Lori and Chad were married Nov. 5 in Hawaii.
3:12 p.m. Stubbs says he had several concerns after his conversation with Lori. Stubbs found no evidence that Lori’s brother had been to her apartment or even in the area. Stubbs never found evidence that Kay was trying to take JJ. Stubbs went to BYU-Idaho officials and could find no evidence of her ever applying or being enrolled at BYU-Idaho.
3:11 p.m. The video is over. We will post it in its entirety later if you want to watch.
3:10 p.m. Lori says her brother from Kansas keeps knocking on her door. Lori says after her husband passed, she found emails and texts between her husband and brother that they were planning “all this stuff.” Lori says she was going to stay with her friend Melanie.
3:08 p.m. Kay is watching the screen as Lori is talking about how bad Kay is. Stubbs says their only concern is the child. Ball brings up the two guys who were outside. One was Alex, the other was Chad. Lori says Chad was one of her brother’s friends. Ball asks if Chad’s wife recently passed away. Lori nods her head. Stubbs doesn’t know.
3:07 p.m. Lori says she doesn’t tell people the truth about where she is or what they are going. She says she’s a good person and done everything she’s supposed to do in life but everyone is causing her trouble. Lori says her daughter is going to BYU-Idaho.
3:05 p.m. Chad is watching the monitor as the body camera footage is played. Lori tells police that her husband died earlier that year and since he passed away, Kay has been trying to fight to get JJ. Lori says JJ has autism and ADHD.
3:04 p.m. Lori says her son is with Melanie Gibb. Ball says the officers at her house earlier got a bad vibe that something was going on. Nobody knew anything about a child. Lori says a lot of stuff has gone on. Lori says she’s had to move around a lot because one of her brothers is trying to kill her.
3:03 p.m. The video is played in court. Stubbs says to Ball, “Her car is out there. It’s blue.” They knock on the door. Lori opens the door and Ball introduces himself. Lori says her brother is there.
2:59 p.m. Lori told Stubbs that JJ was in Arizona staying with Melanie Gibb. Lori said Alex Cox was in the apartment. Stubbs asked if Lori knew Chad Daybell. Lori said Chad was her brother’s friend. Wood asked to play the body camera video.
2:58 p.m. Wood moves to admit the body camera footage.
2:55 p.m. Stubbs and Lt. Ball went to the apartment to help Hope and Hermosillo look for JJ. When the officers approached apt. 175, Lori’s apartment, they knocked on the door. She answered. Police told her they were there inquiring about her son as there was concern his grandmother had not heard from JJ for some time.
2:54 p.m. On Nov. 26, 2019, the police department got a request for a welfare check on JJ Vallow as the request of Kay Woodcock. She had not heard from him. Stubbs and another officer went to Lori’s apartment to try and make contact with her.
2:53 p.m. After Chad and Lori went into the store, Stubbs left and the other Fremont deputies stayed to continue surveillance.
2:50 p.m. Chad and Lori were smiling, laughing and joking with each other. As they approached the store, Lori placed her head on Chad’s shoulder. Wood displays the Hobby Lobby photo on the screen.
2:48 p.m. Two deputies from the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office were in another vehicle tracking Chad and Lori’s movements as well. Wood asks to admit the photo showing Chad and Lori holding hands outside Hobby Lobby.
2:47 p.m. While Stubbs was doing surveillance, he saw Chad and Lori Vallow leave her apartment and get into a blue Subaru with Arizona license plates. Stubbs followed the car to see if Chad and Lori would lead officers to the Jeep. They ended up in Idaho Falls and stopped at Mountain America Credit Union. Then they visited Hobby Lobby.
2:45 p.m. Stubbs’ first involvement was Nov. 1, 2019. Arizona authorities were investigating the attempted shooting of Brandon Boudreaux and contacted Rexburg police to see if they could find a gray Jeep on Pioneer Road. Stubbs and other officers went to do surveillance on the Jeep.
2:42 p.m. Stubbs was over digital forensics with the department. He had training on Cellebrite – a program used to find information on cell phones, tablets and computers.
2:39 p.m. Stubbs retired from law enforcement about three months ago. He is now a speciality mechanic. Before his retirement, Stubbs was a sergeant supervisor in the detective division. He was a detective since 2010.
2:36 p.m. We are back in the courtroom. Next witness is retired Rexburg Police Officer David Stubbs. Rob Wood will question him.
2:13 p.m. Afternoon recess. Back in 20 min.
2:11 p.m. Heather doesn’t exactly recall when she sent the email to the stake but believes it was after the children were found. Wixom has nothing else. Heather is excused and Prior does not intend to call her. Heather is released from the subpoena.
2:10 p.m. Heather’s hope was that if his dad said something to Chad about his teachings getting off track from mainstream LDS teachings, Chad would listen.
2:07 p.m. As far as Chad using the church building, Heather knew Chad, knew his vehicle and knew what he was doing inside the building. Heather said she and Matt both went to Matt’s dad with concerns about what Chad was participating in. “Most of the time the response was just don’t worry about it,” Jack Daybell said. Heather said one time they were talking on her driveway and Jack said, “Don’t be a pot-stirrer.” This was in 2015-2016.
2:06 p.m. At the time Chad wrote the letter, Heather felt he was a very misguided person and had gotten himself involved in relationships with other people that hurt others.
2:04 p.m. Heather is unsure if Chad was still serving as the executive secretary when the kids were found on the property. He was serving in that capacity when he married Lori Vallow. Wixom asks if Julie Rowe has been excommunicated from the LDS Church. Prior objects. Boyce sustains the objection. Heather says when she observed Chad and Julie together, she was concerned about their personal relationship. “They seemed particularly close. He brought her to my home on one occasion and it made me uncomfortable,” Heather says. Chad brought Julie to Heather’s home to show him the property. They walked along the land and the river. “What I observed was Chad and Julie were communicating very close to each other and Tammy and the children were following behind. It made me feel bad for Tammy that Chad appeared so close to Julie.”
2:03 p.m. Wixom asks if it’s consistent for an executive secretary to be engaging in an adulterous relationship. Heather says having an affair is not conducive to having that calling. If the church became aware of that, the person would be subject to church discipline.
2 p.m. Prior has no further questions. Wixom will now re-direct. He asks Heather if it’s fair say someone having an adulterous relationship….and Prior objects. Boyce asks for a sidebar.
1:58 p.m. Heather was concerned that Chad was using the church building to write his books. Chad’s father referred to Heather as a pot-stirrer when Heather and Matt approached him about Chad’s teachings and books, Heather says.
1:56 p.m. Heather says she injected her own personal opinion in the email because this was her community. Heather says she wasn’t happy with Chad moving to Rexburg. “Had they even moved in and been somewhere further away, or they just wanted to move to Rexburg for a new start, no problem with that,” Heather says.
1:55 p.m. Boyce tells Prior he is cutting Heather off on almost every question and to wait for her to finish before asking another question.
1:52 p.m. Prior asks if Heather knows the person who forwarded the email. Heather does – it was the ward Relief Society president. Heather says she sent the email to the ten presidents and left is up to their discretion if they shared it with their wards.
1:50 p.m. Prior asks Heather about another paragraph in the letter. She wrote that she had firsthand knowledge about Chad and his beliefs for some time. Prior asks if her firsthand knowledge came from Dave Hope. Heather isn’t referencing the investigation – she says she’s referencing the beliefs of Chad.
1:48 p.m. Heather says Dalling asked her to forward on the top portion of the email but then Heather added her own thoughts. Dalling sent Heather a talk that he asked her to forward to the ward Relief Society presidents.
1:46 p.m. Heather has her glasses and read the letter. The letter has not been admitted into evidence so Heather can use the letter to refresh her memory but can’t read from it. Prior asks what the first sentence is. Heather wrote that she was forwarding an email at the request of President Dalling, the stake president.
1:39 p.m. Heather needs her reading glasses. We are taking a short break so she can get them. You can read the letter Heather is talking about
here.
1:33 p.m. Heather had access to everyone’s email addresses. Prior asks if she has a recollection about what was in the letter. Heather hasn’t read it for several years. Prior asks if he can provide a copy to Heather.
1:32 p.m. Heather was the president of the Relief Society in the Henry’s Fork Stake. There were ten wards and around 200-300 people in each ward. Heather was over the ten ward Relief Society presidents.
1:30 p.m. Heather was concerned that Chad had chosen to buy a home so close to Heather’s home and Chad had talked about Heather’s land being part of whatever was coming in his visions.
1:29 p.m. AVOW stands for Another Voice of Warning. Prior asks Heather if her husband and Chad had a close relationship. She says before 2014, they had a good relationship.
1:27 p.m. Rowe spoke primarily to LDS members. Prior asks if Rowe was looked down upon because she was doing this. Heather said Rowe filled the Tabernacle in Rexburg when she spoke. Chad told Heather he reached out to Rowe on a website called AVOW. Heather was never on AVOW. It’s a website with like minded people who have visions and dreams – it’s like a prepping website.
1:25 p.m. Heather says the bishop is the priesthood leader of the ward. A ward is a specific geographic area and each ward has a bishop. Heather says in 2014, Julie Rowe’s became an issue. Chad was publishing Rowe’s book.
1:23 p.m. Prior asks about Chad having these unusual teachings but he was able to maintain his LDS membership. Heather says that’s correct. Heather says Chad was the executive secretary in his ward.
1:21 p.m. Prior now questioning Heather. He asks her about speaking to Det. Mattingly in Feb. 2020. Heather expressed concerns that Chad was doing his writings inside the LDS Church building. Heather noticed his car often at the church.
1:20 p.m. Wixom asks if sending the letter out has come at a cost to Heather and the Daybell family. She says there was a cost because in the beginning, people thought Heather was just trying to cause problems with Chad. This caused damage with the relationship with Heather and Chad’s kids. Wixom has nothing further.
1:17 p.m. Heather said she tried to raise awareness that Chad was involved in inappropriate activities. In the beginning, she shared this information with church leaders – once or twice with her stake president. As things progressed, she became more concerned. “There were people in the ward I would talk to to try and stop what was happening.”
1:15 p.m. Because Chad was a relative, Heather wrote the letter about the importance of sticking to the basic principals of the gospel. She said Chad appeared to be doing everything he appeared to be doing and Heather was trying to make things hard for him. Heather said some of the Relief Society presidents in the stake reached out because there were women in their congregations that were following Chad’s teachings.
1:14 p.m. Heather sent a letter to the ten Relief Society presidents in her LDS stake. She was in charge of keeping track of the presidents, giving them support, etc. Heather believes the letter was sent during the time period JJ and Tylee were missing and Chad was in Hawaii. Beginning of the year 2020.
1:13 p.m. Heather rarely had contact with Hope. They attended a baby blessing together a few years ago and went on a family camping trip with a bunch of other families. Heather has never spoken to Hope about the case.
1:11 p.m. We see another photo displaying more musical instruments in the room. Wixom asks Heather if he knows who David Hope is. He is her daughter’s father-in-law. Hope is also a retired police det. with Rexburg Police.
1:10 p.m. Wixom shows a photo on the screen. We see a staircase going up to the cozy cone area of the house. The next photo is a piano and little drum set. Heather believes they were in the cozy cone loft, where the music instruments were kept.
1:06 p.m. Heather doesn’t recall hearing anything from Chad about vision he had for Tammy. Wixom asks to admit some exhibits. Prior asks for a sidebar.
1:04 p.m. Heather says she has not spoken to Chad’s children since JJ and Tylee were found buried on the property. Wixom asks Heather about the trip Tammy made to Utah a few weeks before died. Heather says Tammy didn’t like to travel alone so it was abnormal.
1 p.m. We are back in court and Heather Daybell remains on the stand. Prosecutors are at their table and Chad Daybell is at the defense table with John Prior.
www.eastidahonews.com
I get some time and went through two bags of mail (generally not important mail and I have it checked) and did some other things but sit down for a break with nothing to listen to.