PHOENIX ā Investigators on Monday testified about the investigation into Charles Vallow’s death on Monday, covering his autopsy, gun identification, social security and life insurance and the first police interview with Lori Vallow Daybell.
Daybell is charged with conspiring to kill her husband. Prosecutor Treena Kay said she expects to finish presenting her case on Thursday, meaning Lori Daybell, who is representing herself, will likely begin presenting her case in one week.
On Monday ā the beginning of the second week of her jury trial ā Derek Baumgarner, of the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office, said injuries to Vallow’s knees could have been caused by falling down after he was shot, as the injury to his knees occurred close to his time of death. He said there was not a head wound indicating he fell back after being shot. After being shot once in the heart, Baumgarner said Vallow could have lived for a few seconds and up to about two minutes before he died.
A second shot left a “shored” wound, showing the bullet hit a hard surface when exiting ā meaning there could have been a floor directly behind him matching detectives’ claims that another shot hit Vallow while he was on the floor.
Daybell asked if it were possible the shored effect would come from a bamboo shirt, but Baumgarner said he has seen it happen with a belt but not fabric. He also said the fact that it was present with just one of the wounds with the effect makes it unlikely it was caused by the shirt.
Mark Saari, a special agent with the Office of the Inspector General, said Lori Daybell and her son Joshua “JJ” Vallow were approved for almost $4,000 in social security benefits after Vallow’s death as a survivor and mother-child care benefit, in addition to the $1,859 dollars her daughter Tylee Ryan was already receiving.
He said the benefits for Daybell being the mother of a surviving child should have been ended when she married Chad Daybell, but she did not give notification of her marriage. Saari did not make any mention of the benefits also not continuing after the deaths of JJ and Tylee ā who were both killed before Lori Daybell remarried.
Lori Daybell was found guilty in Idaho of murdering 7-year-old JJ and 16-year-old Tylee, along with conspiring to murder them and Chad Daybell’s then-wife Tammy Daybell.
Cassandra Ynclan, an officer with the Chandler Police Department, testified about driving Lori Daybell and Tylee to the police office for interviews, and multiple clips from those interviews were played for the jurors.
She said Lori Daybell was “not real emotional; she was pretty clam. Didn’t seem overly affected,” when they went to let her know about her husband’s death ā and she unexpectedly said she knew he had died. During the 20-minute drive to the police station, Ynclan said they talked about Tylee’s school, but she said Lori Daybell was chatting and did not seem stressed or emotional.
In the interview, Lori Daybell said her husband was sending her threats “all the time,” but she did not answer directly when asked what kind of threats.
“He’s always mad at me, and he doesn’t want a divorce, but I don’t like him ā¦ that’s just how it is,” she said in the interview.
Ynclan also said she talked about how the argument that morning started ā she wouldn’t give Charles Vallow back his phone. She said he had been texting her brother, Adam Cox, who came into town at the same time, which she said was weird.
After Tylee and Cox came into the main areas of the home, Lori Daybell said Charles Vallow took a bat Tylee had, and Tylee ended up on the floor before Lori Daybell told her to go outside with JJ. She said she was in the kitchen when Cox pulled out a gun.
“I didn’t see the shot, I heard it and then I came back around and I saw that he was on the ground,” she said.
After that, Lori Daybell told her, “I just left.” Despite having at least two phones on her, Ynclan said Lori Daybell did not call 911.
Ynclan said she did not ask why Lori Daybell didn’t just give Charles Vallow back his phone. She said they later got the phone from Lori Daybell and Tylee, who had it in the car they had been driving.
Robin Smith Scott, who answered the phone at Banner Life Insurance when Lori Daybell called about Charles Vallow’s policy, testified that he had changed the beneficiary to his sister. Two phone calls were played, one from July 15, 2019, where Lori Daybell said she was the beneficiary of the policy and that her husband was shot ā but it was not a homicide, “it was an accident.”
On July 18, 2019, Scott talked to Lori Daybell again after an email notified her that the beneficiary had changed and was not her but said they could not say who the new beneficiary or beneficiaries were. Lori Daybell said she was “completely surprised” about the change, talking about how they had adopted a son together with autism.
“I don’t know what he was doing since we have five kids, and we’ve been married for 15 years,” Lori Daybell said.
Although the couple did have five children counting those from previous marriages, they only had one child together, and three of their other children were adults.
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