BOISE, Idaho — In court on Tuesday, defense called five witnesses to the stand to prove its side of the story.
Defense attorney John Prior finalized testimony with Joseph Murray on Tuesday morning, who is Chad Daybell's son-in-law. Then, a forensic pathologist took the stand to testify about Tammy Daybell's cause of death - which the defense said was unclear.
After the pathologist, a neighbor of the Daybells took the stand, to testify about gunshots heard on September 9, 2019 - the day law enforcement believes Tylee Ryan died. An investigator from the Idaho Office of the Attorney General also took the stand to testify about an interview with Melanie Gibb. Melanie Gibb was a friend of Lori Vallow's who also believed in the light/dark scale that Daybell used to assign to people. Gibb told the investigator that he had a light aura, which Prior used to prove that it wasn't Daybell exclusively using the scale system.
The day wrapped up a bit early, with testimony from the last witness being pretty quick. Retired Rexburg PD detective Rick Schmitt's testimony was about the day they found the children on the Daybell property.
On Monday, May 20, the defense began its case, calling four witnesses to the stand.
Two of Chad Daybell's children testified in court, Emma Murray and Garth Daybell. Garth's lawyer also took the stand, as well as Joseph Murray, Emma's husband.
Emma and Garth both testified that their mother, Tammy, had declining health, which is the opposite of all state witness testimony. While Garth was on the stand, he got wrapped up in a few of his answers, appearing to be quite nervous to testify.
Garth testified about his role in the investigation, and how law enforcement wanted him to change his testimony, even going as far as indicting him with related charges. However, the charges never went anywhere. Garth did have to testify in front of a grand jury, and obtained a lawyer for the events.
Garth's lawyer, Forrest Fisher, took the stand to testify about the grand jury indictment of Garth Daybell. The charges never solidified, and Fisher's testimony was very short.
The trial is expected to last one to three more weeks.
Live Updates:
2:44 p.m.: The hearing continues, as they discuss which witnesses would be allowed during rebuttal. They will be back on the record tomorrow at 8:30 a.m.
2:18 p.m.: Back on the record from their meeting with the jury, there's no one in the courtroom except for Judge Boyce and counsel. He reminds counsel that it's being livestreamed. There's a motion to reconsider a motion in limine about "upping" the insurance, as previously testified about. Tammy increased her life insurance weeks before her death, adding an additional $80,000. They are arguing that a statement from a witness should be admissible, because Emma Daybell's testimony opened it up. Judge Boyce allows for the witness to testify about Tammy increasing her insurance.
1:37 p.m.: Counsel returns from the sidebar, they were talking about scheduling. The public is to be excused, but not the jury. There will be no additional testimony for the day. It appears that court will come back at some point for the public viewing, but it's unclear.
1:26 p.m.: Rob Wood asks the witness a question, and mid-answer Judge Boyce asks for a sidebar. They go back to direct examination, to clear up an evidence matter. There seems to be some confusion about the labeling of a piece of evidence. Back to cross examination. Hampikian clarifies that his lab is not accredited in the way that a criminal investigatory lab is, mostly because they're an academic lab. Hampikian talks about other objects that had DNA evidence on it, such as the pick axe. Rob Wood wraps up cross examination, and John Prior picks up redirect. He brings up the same objects, valid for Tylee Ryan's DNA. Hampikian is unsure of how it got there. His testimony concluded. Defense asks for another sidebar.
1:20 p.m.: The four hairs that were tested did not belong to the four people they tested. The hair did not belong to JJ Vallow, Lori Vallow, Chad Daybell or Alex Cox. Hampikian also states that the previous testing labs did not do anything wrong persay. Cross examination begins now that Prior wraps up.
1:08 p.m.: Court is back in session as the jurors enter the courtroom. Dr. Hampikian is on the stand to finish direct examination. Hampikian reviewed a great deal of DNA for this investigation. He preferred the digital copies of DNA information, because he had a software that could look at it. He talks about about the tape that was evidence in this investigation - the tape from JJ Vallow's body. Hampikian liked to look at biological DNA, and found both dark and blonde hairs on the tape. Hampikian testifies that there was no evidence that indicated that Chad Daybell's hair was on the tape.
11:58 a.m.: Court will be back at 1 p.m. for additional testimony from Dr. Hampikian.
11:35 a.m.: Although it appears irrelevant to this case, Hampikian answers Prior's question about if Hampikian worked on the Amanda Knox case from several years ago. Hampikian talks about genetic and DNA testing that is done by outside entities, and his own entities. Hampikian is a research lab, so he has access to different tools and newer technology. The state lab has never reached out to Hampikian, as he can remember. Hampikian testifies about DNA, specifically something called touch DNA. He compares DNA to dust, and how dust moves. They move similarly. Prior asks about shedding and DNA.
11:24 a.m.: The next witness is called for defense. Before the witness is sworn in, prosecution asks for a sidebar to chat about some evidence being admitted. Dr. Greg Hampikian is called to the stand. He's a Boise State University professor. He works in both biology and criminal justice, as well as an adjunct faculty member at University of Idaho Law. He has a forensic project, funded nationally, that does work in five states doing DNA review in cases. He is a contractor, so he will work for both prosecution and defense. In this case, he's working with defense. Hampikian discusses his qualifications.
11:20 a.m.: Eller continues to testify about the phone data. Eller was unable to find any location data of Chad Daybell, and Eller was aware that Chad had multiple phones. Cross examination wraps up, and Prior begins redirect examination. Prior reiterates, was there any data points where Chad and Alex Cox's devices were together at the property. Eller said no.
10:45 a.m.: Eller remains on the stand for cross examination. Prosecutor Rob Wood will be questioning the witness. Wood asks about the report that was brought up earlier, showing a map of data points. There is an imbedded video in the presentation, to show when throughout the day the points would come to the Daybell property. Phone records are shown, with Wood reading out a phone number - it's Chad Daybell's phone number. He was calling Alex Cox, on Sept. 9, 2019 around 8 a.m. Eller also testifies that he can't remember if he looked through Tammy Daybell's phone.
10:17 a.m.: Court is back in session after some redactions had to take place to a document being used by Prior in the defense argument. The jury is brought back in, and Patrick Eller continues to testify during direct examination. Prior refreshes the memories of the jury, by asking if Chad's phone was on the property during the dates in question. Eller states that is correct.
9:38 a.m.: There is a sidebar before some evidence is admitted to the court. The document Prior wanted to admit needs some further redaction done to it, so mid-morning break takes place. Court will be back in 20 minutes roughly.
9:21 a.m.: Eller testifies about his knowledge of the case, and how phones got excluded in the FBI's search, due to search warrant procedures. Eller continues to testify about metadata. A new chart is shown on the projector, showing information that came back from Google based on the geofence search warrant. They talk about the Homer J. Maximus account, which belonged to Alex Cox. Cox was on the property on the day that JJ Vallow is believed to have died - Sept. 23, 2019. There were 10 other devices that were on the property that day, or nearby, an additional six were also found in a search.
9:06 a.m.: On the projector, there is a list of cell phones that were near the Daybell property on Sept. 9, 2019. The identification of the sources are from all the Google information tracked from a device. Based on the records, Chad Daybell's phone was not present, but Alex Cox's phone was. His testimony continues, talking about devices that were within the radius of the property.
8:49 a.m.: Eller talks about metadata, which he describes as data about data. He using an analogy of a digital image. You see the image, but there's a great deal of data attached to the image, in the background. Eller used metadata to look into the phones involved in this investigation. The best source of data about phones, is the phone itself. Even with settings toggled, the data can still be found on the device. They talk about geo-fencing from Google connected devices.
8:37 a.m.: Court is called to session for the 28th day of Chad Daybell's trial. Judge Boyce enters and immediately brings in the jury. The defense case in chief continues. The next witness is Patrick Eller. He is an expert witness. He is the CEO of Metadata Forensics and is also a digital forensic examiner. His company is based out of Richmond, Virginia. His business is a forensic company, that does investigatory work and training for law enforcement. Eller discusses his background and qualifications.
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