SALT LAKE CITY — When an emergency responder in Arizona began CPR on Charles Vallow in July 2019, something didn’t feel right.
Scott Cowden, of the Chandler (Arizona) Fire Department, testified on Monday afternoon that he performed CPR on Vallow, who had been shot twice, for about 5 minutes before it was ultimately determined that Vallow could not be revived. Cowden said though dispatchers told him the caller said he had started CPR, it did not feel to him like anyone had initiated the life-saving technique.
Cowden is one of three emergency responders who testified on the first day of trial for Lori Vallow Daybell, who is charged with conspiring to murder her then-husband Charles Vallow in July 2019.
Vallow had been shot by his brother-in-law, Alex Cox, the caller who told dispatchers he had begun CPR. Daybell, Vallow’s then-wife, is on trial for conspiring to kill Vallow with Cox’s help.
Cowden will return to the stand Tuesday for questioning by Daybell who is representing herself.
Daybell was found guilty in Idaho of murdering her two children — Tylee Ryan, 16, and Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7 — and conspiring to murder them along with Tammy Daybell, the wife of her current husband Chad Daybell.
Vallow died before Lori Daybell’s children were murdered, before Tammy Daybell was murdered, and before Lori and Chad Daybell were married.
In the conspiracy trial on Monday, prosecutors showed body camera footage of the home where Lori Daybell lived in Arizona, and where Vallow was shot. The video from Chandler Police Sgt. Irwin Wierzbicki’s body camera shows the moments after Vallow died.
Wierzbicki testified that Cox was “nonchalant,” compliant and “extremely calm” when he came out of the front door of the house. The police sergeant said he found Vallow lying on the ground dead in the front room of the house, a room with no other furniture.
Robert Krautheim, another officer who spoke with Cox outside the home, testified that Cox was calm and “not emotional at all.” Krautheim said he noticed a bump or laceration on Cox’s head that was “bleeding a little bit,” noting that Cox held a mostly white paper towel to his head.
According to Cox, Vallow had hit him in the head with a baseball bat and Cox had shot the man in self-defense.
Krautheim said he also spoke with Lori Daybell and Tylee Ryan after they arrived at the home. He described Daybell’s demeanor as calm, nonchalant, and “just matter of fact,” despite multiple emergency vehicles in front of her house.
In her opening arguments earlier in the day, Daybell told jurors that collecting Social Security benefits, having life insurance policies, and acting in self-defense are not crimes.
“A family tragedy is not a crime; it’s a tragedy,” she concluded.
However, prosecutor Treena Kay cited texts between Daybell and Cox, their actions after Vallow’s death, and conflicting stories to explain why the state believes she conspired to kill her husband. Kay said Daybell kept Vallow’s phone so he couldn’t leave the house, saying she and Cox had planned when Vallow would die, and holding the phone was her role.
Kay said Daybell used “religion … as justification to kill Charles Vallow,” citing times she had said that he was possessed by an evil spirit.
Tuesday is the second day of Daybell’s jury trial, which is scheduled to last until mid-May.
The trial began at 11:30 MST, but the judge ordered a half-hour delay on the livestream. You can watch live here:
This story will be updated.
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