Chad Daybell trial: Lori Vallow’s friend confronted with subpoena outside court in cult prophet case
Chad Daybell’s trial comes one year after Lori Vallow was convicted over the murders of Tylee Ryan, JJ Vallow and Tammy Daybell
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Melanie Gibb, the former friend of Lori Vallow, was served with a subpoena during a break in Chad Daybell’s triple murder trial in Boise, Idaho on Thursday.
Daybell’s defence attorney John Prior told her she had to accept to the papers. Ms Gibb was called by the prosecution to testify in the case a year after she testified at Vallow’s trial about the couple’s extreme religious beliefs.
Daybell, 55, is on trial for the murders of Vallow’s children, Tylee Ryan, 16, and JJ, seven, as well as his then-wife Tammy Daybell, who died suddenly in her sleep in October 2019. Weeks later, Daybell married Vallow.
Nine months after the children were last seen, they were found on Daybell’s property in Rexburg, Idaho.
Prosecutors say his “desire for sex, power, and money” led to their murders. Mr Prior, however, said his client was manipulated by Vallow.
Last year, Vallow was convicted in the three murders and sentenced to life in prison. Jurors heard how she, Mr Daybell and her late brother Alex Cox were fuelled, in part, by their bizarre cult beliefs.
If convicted, Mr Daybell faces either the death penalty or life in prison.
Doomsday cult, murders and children buried in a pet cemetery: The twisted case of Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell
Is Chad Daybell a doomsday cult mastermind? Trial for the murder of Lori Vallow’s children and ex-wife begins
Did a doomsday cult really drive Lori Vallow to murder her children?
Chad Daybell, Lori Vallow and Alex Cox: Key players in the ‘doomsday cult’ murder case
Chad Daybell visibly shakes while graphic photos of children’s remains are shown
Daybell was shaking at the defence table as graphic photos of Lori Vallow’s children’s remains were shown at his death penalty trial on Thursday.
Rexburg police detective Rey Hermosillo took the court through the horrific process of digging up the remains of Tylee, 16, and JJ, seven, who were found buried on Daybell’s property.
Spectators at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho noticed the “doomsday cult” author start to tremble as the gruesome pictures were shown to the jury.
During opening statements this week, prosecutors said Daybell’s “desire for sex, power, and money led to the murders” of his former wife Tammy Daybell and the children of his new wife Lori Vallow, and that he sought to eliminate “obstacles” in pursuit of a life with Vallow.
Daybell’s defence attorney John Prior, however, said his client was manipulated by Vallow.
VIDEO: Prosecutor says Chad Daybell’s 'desire for sex, power, and money’ led to triple murder
Reminder: No court today in Chad Daybell’s trial
There will be no court today in Chad Daybell’s triple murder trial.
Detective Hermosillo finished his testimony for the state on Thursday.
The next witness is not yet available, so court will be in recess until Monday.
RECAP: Detective describes gruesome discovery of JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan
Rexburg Detective Ray Hermosillo testified on Thursday about finding Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow’s remains buried on Chad Daybell’s property.
He said investigators took turns digging because the smell of decomposition was so bad.
Graphic photos of the remains were shown in court, but not on the livestream. Daybell reportedly began to tremble during the testimony, court spectators said.
JJ was found in a bag that was “wrapped in dark plastic with duct tape around it.” He was still in the red pyjamas he was last seen wearing with duct tape wrapped around his head, over his mouth, and around his wrists, arms and ankles. Det Hermosillo said there were scratch marks on his neck and bruises.
After the boy’s body was taken to the morgue, Det Hermosillo returned to the site and said they uncovered “globs of burnt flesh starting to protrude through the dirt” that were later determined to be Tylee Ryan’s charred remains.
“At that point, we saw what appeared to be the shape of a green melted bucket that appeared to have the remains of what we assumed was Tylee charred and burned inside that bucket,” he said.
JJ’s grandmother Kay Woodcock and Tammy Daybell’s aunt Vicki Hoban were not in courtroom on Thursday for the testimony. However, JJ’s grandfather Larry Woodcock, was spotted in the gallery.
Chad Daybell’s children will testify at his murder trial
Chad Daybell’s adult children have mostly stayed out of the spotlight in the wake of their father’s arrest in the death of their mother Tammy Daybell and Lori Vallow’s two children.
But almost all of them will testify in his death penalty case in his defence.
Daybell’s attorney John Prior said in opening statements that they will detail their mother’s “health struggle” before her sudden death in 2019.
Daybell had told police his wife had died suddenly in her sleep after battling an illness, but an autopsy later revealed she died of asphyxiation.
“They’re going to talk about their mother’s use of various medical treatments she would use—oils she would put on her leg, medicine, and different herbs she would take, and that their mother was suffering from a number of maladies, and she would refuse to see a doctor,”Mr Prior said said on Wednesday.
Read more:
Chad Daybell’s children will take the stand in their father’s defence
Chad Daybell faces the death penalty if convicted in the disturbing murders the prosecution say were fuelled by his desire for ‘sex, money and power’
Juror from Lori Vallow’s trial shares his thoughts about Chad Daybell case
Who are Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow? Key players in the ‘doomsday cult’ murder case
Chad Daybell is now on trial for the murders of his wife Tammy Daybell and Lori Vallow’s children JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan – almost one year after Vallow was convicted in the slayings.
JJ, seven, and Tylee, 16, went missing back in 2019, their remains later found buried on the grounds of Mr Daybell’s Chad property in Idaho.
One month after the children were last seen, Mr Daybell’s first wife Tammy, 49, died suddenly and Vallow and Mr Daybell jetted off and got married on a beach in Hawaii.
Prosecutors said that the couple conspired with Vallow’s brother Alex Cox to kill JJ, Tylee and Tammy as part of their doomsday cult beliefs – but also so they could collect life insurance money and the kids’ social security and survivor benefits.
Read about the bizarre and tragic case here:
Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow: Who are the key players in ‘doomsday cult’ murder case?
Chad Daybell is on trial for the murders of his wife Tammy Daybell and Lori Vallow’s children JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan
Lori Vallow’s sister says she’s been ‘delusional’ for years
Lori Vallow’s sister Summer Shiflet said the “cult mom” has been delusional for years.
Her comments came after Vallow’s sentencing last summer.
At the sentencing, Vallow spoke out for the first time, claiming that “Jesus Christ knows no one was murdered” and that the children and Tammy were “busy” and “happy” in heaven.
“I have known she’s been in this delusion for a while. It took me a long time to accept that and understand what was going on,” Ms Shiflet said.
“I had never seen anybody with a delusion disorder before. I didn’t know how to process that or what it looked like (but) that’s about typical of most conversations with her. It’s about her faith and there’s never any acknowledgment of what actually happened. You can’t ever really get any answers so it leads to frustrating situations.”
Who is Lori Vallow and did a doomsday cult really drive her to murder her children?
At Lori Vallow’s trial last year, prosecutors pinned her motive in the murders of her children on three pillars of a ‘cult playbook’: Power, money and sex.
But a survivor of one of America’s most notorious cults tells Rachel Sharp we may never know if a cult truly drove Vallow to kill.
Did a doomsday cult really drive Lori Vallow to murder her children?
Prosecutors pinned Vallow’s motive in the murders of her children on three pillars of a ‘cult playbook’: Power, money and sex. But a survivor of one of America’s most notorious cults tells Rachel Sharp we may never know if a cult truly drove Vallow to kill
Who is Chad Daybell? Gravedigger, ‘doomsday’ author... now, killer?
Chad Daybell dug graves while he was a student at Brigham Young University and worked as a cemetery sexton in Utah for almost 20 years.
He told the Deseret News in 1992 that he believed digging graves helped him through school.
Daybell later founded his own publishing company, Spring Creek Book Company.
He authored several fiction and nonfiction books – many of them doomsday books loosely based on the teachings centered around The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
He married his first wife Tammy in 1990 and they founded Spring Creek Book Company together in Utah – the company which published his doomsday books.
The couple had five children together and moved to Salem, Idaho, in 2015.
Among his teachings, he claimed he could teleport, could see into the future, see dead people, and that he and Vallow were part of the chosen 144,000.
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