Monday 29th - 1st update
LIVE UPDATES FROM THE CHAD DAYBELL TRIAL
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Please excuse any typos – these updates are live.
1:30 p.m. Blake says their next witness will not be here until Wednesday. She requests that court dismiss for the day and we reconvene Wednesday. Boyce says it is complicated and complex to schedule for a trial of this length. He says we will break early for the day. I’ll recap everything tonight on ‘Courtroom Insider’ at 6:30 p.m. MT. Hope you’ll tune in.
1:27 p.m. Defense and prosecution having a sidebar with Boyce. Wanted to point out that while the Daybell home may not technically be two stories, there are stairs up to a second story loft above the garage.
1:25 p.m. As Patricia left the witness stand, she looked over at Chad. He was focused on his laptop and did not look at her.
1:23 p.m. Prior asks if Patricia recalls any discussion at the viewing about Tammy or Chad going upstairs or downstairs in the house. Patricia doesn’t recall. Prior has no further questions. The state may recall Patricia later. She is dismissed for now.
1:21 p.m. Wixom has no further questions. Prior will now cross-examine. He asks Patricia if it would surprise her to learn that in the last year of Tammy’s life, phone records show there was no communication between Patricia and Tammy. Patricia says that’s not correct – they would message on Facebook and text. Patricia says Tammy would call her.
1:21 p.m. Patricia would stop by a quick visit but would end up staying hours. They’d chat about their kids and life. Chad would eventually get home and sit down to chat with them but she always got a feeling she needed to go home when Chad showed up.
1:19 p.m. Patricia says she felt Tammy had to hide what she was doing so she wouldn’t get in trouble with Chad. When Patricia and Tammy both lived in Springville from 1995-2015, Patricia would visit Tammy at least once a month.
1:17 p.m. Patricia says after Emma told a story about Tammy wanting more pets, Patricia looked at Chad and he looked a little concerned but then laughed. Garth told a story about Tammy playing video games and she would be the lookout for when Chad got home. Chad looked concerned “for a split second” but then started to laugh, Patricia says.
1:16 p.m. Patricia went to the funeral the next day. “There was a couple things he said that I thought weren’t very nice,” she says, referring to Chad. “The first thing he said was she wasn’t easy to live with, she was lazy and she had depression, which she did but to say it out in front of the whole congregation was embarrassing for her.”
1:15 p.m. Chad told Patricia that Tammy went to bed around 10 p.m. and he stayed up working. He went to bed later and he woke up the next morning to the sound of Tammy rolling/falling out of bed. He told Patricia Tammy was half on/half off the bed.
1:14 p.m. Patricia and Hanna, her daughter, went to talk with Chad. Patricia said she was sorry for his loss and they hugged. She asked him what happened. “He said that Tammy wasn’t feeling well and she was coughing a lot. He asked if she was ok and she threw up. She said she was going to bed. He asked her if she was ok and she said yes. She was feeling better after she threw up and then she went to bed,” Patrica recalls Chad telling her. Chad told Patricia, “Tammy loved you so much.”
1:13 p.m. Patricia says when she was going through the line, she noticed Chad talking with people. When someone would cry, he would cry – but he was mostly just visiting. “I felt like he should have been more sad,” Patricia says.
1:11 p.m. Patricia says it was confusing because Tammy was so young and healthy. She went to the viewing on the Monday following the death and the viewing before the funeral the next day. On Monday, Patricia went alone to the viewing. When she walked in, she said she was really upset. She and Hannah went through the viewing line.
1:10 p.m. Wixom asks about Oct. 19, 2019 – the day Tammy died. Patricia says her mom called her and was crying hysterically. She told Patricia that Tammy passed. “It didn’t register who she said because it didn’t make sense my cousin Tammy had passed,” Patricia says. “It didn’t make sense.”
1:09 p.m. Wixom asks how often Patricia spoke with Tammy after the Daybells moved to Idaho. At first, they spoke every few weeks and then it went down to a month.
1:07 p.m. Patricia taught school and so did Tammy. Tammy would leave little notes for her in the classroom. “I still have one,” Patricia says through tears.
1:05 p.m. Patricia would spend weeks during the summer with Tammy and they wrote letters back and forth. Tammy and Patricia were best friends and drove to school every day. Tammy encouraged Patricia to join the school band and take classes with her.
1:03 p.m. Next witness is Patricia Later. She is Tammy’s first cousin. Wixom asks if they had a strong relationship when they were younger and Patricia starts to cry. She says they are seven months apart and they were like sisters. They grew up with each other.
1 p.m. Prior asks Hannah if she is aware the home is one story. Hannah says she has never been to the house. Wixom has one follow-up question. Wixom asks Hannah if she or her dad asked Chad any questions about the layout of the home. Hannah says no. There is no doubt in her mind that Chad talks about going downstairs.
12:58 p.m. Prior asks if Hannah ever gave a report to law enforcement. She said she did in August 2020. She has met with investigators twice.
12:57 p.m. Hannah didn’t ask any questions to Chad but felt confused and uncomfortable. That night, Hannah spoke to her mom about the inconsistencies and then later mentioned it to Samantha Gwilliam, Tammy’s sister. Rocky Wixom has no further questions for Hannah. Prior will now cross-examine.
12:55 p.m. Around two hours later, Hannah went through the funeral line with her mother. She says Chad told them what happened – Tammy had been coughing violently and he was worried about her. Between 9-10, she came down to his office and said she was going to bed. Chad said he was worried about her and went to bed with her but around midnight, Tammy rolled out of bed. Hannah was confused because the stories were inconsistent.
12:55 p.m. Hannah says Chad appeared calmer than she would have expected. He would only get emotional when Hannah’s dad got emotional and then would stop when her dad stopped crying. “It stood out to me because I would have expected someone who just lost their partner to be a little more distraught.”
12:51 p.m. Hannah attended Tammy’s funeral and viewing. She went through the viewing line twice with different people. Chad was first in the viewing line. Tammy’s and Chad’s children were also in the viewing line. Hannah and her dad had a conversation with Chad. She says Chad said Tammy had been sick that day and she had been vomiting and coughing and around 10 p.m., she threw up again. Chad said Tammy then went to bed but Chad stayed in his office working. Around 1 a.m., he went upstairs and found Tammy on the floor and she had rolled out of the bed. Chad said he found her cold. As Hannah testifies, Chad smiles.
12:48 p.m. Hannah is a freelance photographer. Tammy is her mom’s cousin. Hannah was with her mom on Oct. 19 when she heard Tammy passed away. “I was very saddened by the news and very confused,” Hannah says.
12:47 p.m. Prosecutors call Hannah Parker to the stand as their next witness. She prefers to go by Hannah Munoz. She lives near Springville, Utah.
12:45 p.m. We are back in the courtroom. Boyce is on the bench and jurors will be brought in.
11:29 a.m. Lunch break now until 12:45 p.m.
11:27 a.m. Prosecution asks for a brief sidebar. White noise is played in the courtroom.
11:26 a.m. Prior wants to re-cross but Boyce says no, Wood did not go outside the scope. He tells Prior he can asks his questions when the agent is recalled. The witness is dismissed.
11:25 a.m. Ballance has been involved in multiple criminal investigations. Wood asks if it’s common for people engaged in criminal activity to opt out of geolocation services on their devices. Ballance has seen that numerous times. Wood has no further questions but intends to bring Ballance back.
11:24 a.m. Wood asks if the geolocation settings can be altered on a cell device. Ballance says a user can make changes about what is stored on a device. Users can opt out of certain services.
11:21 a.m. Ballance looked at the cell tower list of the providers from September 2019 and June 2020. There were no major changes between that time frame. Wood asks about the GAR system. Ballance says it’s made up components and anyone can purchase the primary components. There are civilian companies that do drive testing, Ballance says, not just the government. Ballance says a civilian could take his raw data file and compare it with their own testing.
11:19 a.m. Wood asks Ballance to describe why he uses 100 meters as a margin of error. Ballance says his research can be more precise using 100 meters or less.
11:18 a.m. Prior has no further questions. Wood has some brief re-direct.
11:16 a.m. Prior asks Ballance if we know the content of all of the text messages. Ballance says we do not. He confirms there was a “significant amount” of communication between Chad and Lori. Prior asks Ballance if he’s aware Chad and Lori were having an affair. Ballance is aware.
11:14 a.m. Prior asks Ballance who provided him the phone data. Ballance doesn’t recall specifically but says data was sent to him numerous times from numerous law enforcement agencies.
11:12 a.m. Prior shows another slide from the homerjmaximus account between midnight and 5 a.m. on Sept. 9, 2019. Alex was inside or very close to Lori’s apartment that morning. Prior asks why Ballance didn’t put any cell phone data with Melanie Gibb and David Warwick. Ballance says he was not asked to examine their phone records.
11:10 a.m. Prior brings up the slide showing Chad’s property with a focus on the irrigation pond where the homerjmaximus device was recorded. Prior asks Ballance to point out the fire pit.
11:07 a.m. Prior says there is no way for the public to verify the tests. Ballance says there is a way – the public can go buy the sensors and do a drive test.
11:05 a.m. Prior asks about Gladiator Forensics. It’s a company used by the FBI. They will only sell their equipment to law enforcement, according to Ballance. Prior says only the government has access to the Gladiator tools – not the public at large. Ballance says that is correct.
11:03 a.m. Prior asks Ballance when he did the drive test. Ballance says it was done the week of June 16, 2020 and was over multiple days. Ballance says drive tests are done to show where a phone could be – not exactly where it is.
11:01 a.m. Prior asks Ballance to explain the difference between a tower and a cell site. Ballance says the cell site includes the tower and sector. The tower is just the tower itself.
11 a.m. Attorneys are back and Prior continues questioning. He asks about the other visits Alex’s device recorded in or around Chad’s property.
10:55 a.m. Prior shows the slide displaying Alex’s device on Oct. 9 between 5:16 p.m. and 11:53 p.m. Wood asks for a brief sidebar. Attorneys and judge leave the room.
10:52 a.m. Prior asks Ballance the significance of including Oct. 9 in his report. Ballance says that’s the day Tammy Daybell reported an assault attempt that day.
10:50 a.m. Wood has no further questions. Prior will now cross examine.
10:49 a.m. Several of the jurors are taking notes during the presentation. Others look at the screens in front of them. Chad Daybell doesn’t show much emotion – looks at the computer screen in front of him and will glance up at the projector screen in the courtroom.
10:46 a.m. Wood tells Ballance he wants to review a few of the slides again with a focus on the timeline.
10:44 a.m. Wood asks Ballance if he looked at other times where the homerjmaximus account showed up in or around Chad’s property. There are some times: Aug. 7, Aug. 24, Sept. 6, Sept. 25, and Oct. 15.
10:42 a.m. On Sept. 23 between 10:13 and 10:17 a.m., Chad’s device texted Lori. It also called Alex’s device.
10:40 a.m. The next slide shows activity on Chad’s phone the morning of Sept. 23 between 9:30 a.m. and 10:27 a.m. There were multiple calls and texts between his device and Lori’s device.
10:39 a.m. The next slide shows Alex’s device traveled north from his home to Rexburg toward Chad’s home the morning of Sept. 23. His device was in and around Chad’s property between 9:55 a.m. to 10:12 a.m. The device was tracked near the area where JJ’s body was found.
10:38 a.m. On the same day between 9:27 a.m. and 9:57 a.m., three cell phone towers near the Daybell residence picked up activity on the devices. A tower near Lori’s Rexburg house was also utilized for her device.
10:36 a.m. At 9:25 a.m. on Sept. 23, Chad’s device called Alex’s device. The call was 38 seconds.
10:34 a.m. The exhibit now moves to Sept. 23, the day after JJ was last seen alive. The slide shows multiple outbound text messages and one inbound text message between Chad’s device and Lori’s device were made between 3:59 a.m. and 8:35 a.m. Chad sent Lori a text at 3:59 a.m.
10:31 a.m. The next few slides show the cell phone towers that were utilized by devices belonging to Chad, Lori and Alex on Sept. 9.
10:28 a.m. The new slide shows Chad’s device received a text from Lori’s device on Sept. 9 between 12:32 – 12:34 p.m. At 12:39 p.m., a text message was received on Chad’s device from Lori’s device.
10:25 a.m. At 11:45 a.m., Chad’s device called Lori. An outgoing call was also made from Alex to Lori around this time.
10:24 a.m. Alex Cox’s device was on Chad’s property at 11:42 a.m. The device was then traveling southbound away from the property around 11:46-11:47 a.m.
10:22 a.m. The next slide shows Chad’s phone was used between 10:30 a.m. – 12:20 p.m. on Sept. 9. There were multiple text messages and one call with Lori Vallow. The activity was during the same time frame that Alex’s device was on the property.
10:20 a.m. The morning break is over and Boyce is on the bench. Jurors are being brought in. Ballance remains on the witness stand.
9:48 a.m. Morning recess. Be back in 30 minutes.
9:45 a.m. We see another slide showing Alex’s device on Chad’s property between 9:21 a.m. and 10:57 a.m. that morning. Multiple spots were picked up on the property including areas close to where Tylee was found. Ballance went to the Daybell property. He noted there is a gate that allows access.
9:44 a.m. The next slide shows Google location history with Alex’s device between 8:49 a.m. to 9:15 a.m. He is in the area of his apartment at 8:49 a.m. and by 9:15 a.m., he is just south of Chad’s house.
9:41 a.m. At 8:58 a.m. that morning, a text was sent from Chad to Lori. There were also texts at 8:15 a.m. and 8:39 a.m.
9:40 a.m. A call was made from Chad to Alex that morning at 8:11 a.m. The call was 180 seconds.
9:39 a.m. Wood asks how often Chad and Lori communicated with each other. “Pretty regularly,” Ballance responds.
9:38 a.m. The next slide shows activity on Chad Daybell’s phone between 7:20 a.m. – 8:04 a.m. on Sept. 9. There were multiple text messages with Lori and a call at 8:03 a.m.
9:35 a.m. Alex Cox’s device was at Lori’s apartment at 2:42 a.m. on Sept. 9. At 4:37 a.m., his device was at Alex’s apartment.
9:32 a.m. The next slide shows Google location history between midnight – 5 a.m. on Sept. 9, 2019 from the
homerjmaximus@gmail.com account (Alex Cox’s account). Tylee was last photographed alive the day before.
9:30 a.m. A list of locations of interest appears on the screen. It’s includes: Burn pit in Chad’s yard, Tylee and JJ body location, Chad’s residence, Lori’s residence, Alex’s residence, the Salem LDS church, Holiday Inn Express in Springville, Utah, Evergreen Cemetery in Springville, Wireless Revolution in Rexburg, Walmart in Rexburg, BYU-I library, Sportsman’s Warehouse in Idaho Falls and Marriott Residence Inn in Kansas.
9:28 a.m. A slide shows the phone numbers Ballance investigated in this case. There are seven phone numbers on the screen. We now see a slide showing the geographical area where he did the drive test.
9:21 a.m. Attorneys are back and the exhibit is displayed. One of the slides shows the locations of cell phone towers in the Rexburg area. There is also a slide showing what cell phone towers look like and how they are split up into sectors.
9:16 a.m. Prior doesn’t object to the exhibit but asks for a sidebar. The attorneys leave the courtroom with Boyce.
9:13 a.m. In this case, Ballance examined numerous call detail records from multiple phones as well as Google location history. He says the records were voluminous. He has prepared a report with his findings. Wood moves to have the report submitted.
9:11 a.m. Ballance says you can not pinpoint the exact location of a phone with Google location services but you can find the general location. Ballance says he looks for devices/phones – not a specific person. The phone could be in the pocket of a person – but he’s locating devices.
9:09 a.m. Wood asks Ballance about Google location services. He says Google provides a service where users can opt in to have their locations recorded. These are tracked using wifi and cellular signals.
9:06 a.m. He used a specialized piece of equipment that had sensors, antennas, scanners, a computer and software to get raw measurements that map out cell phone towers. The equipment is called a GAR – Gladiator Autonomous Receiver.
9:04 a.m. Ballance was contacted by law enforcement in June 2020 after the bodies of JJ and Tylee were found. Ballance gathered up equipment and did a drive test to measure cell towers in the Rexburg and St. Anthony areas.
9:02 a.m. Ballance says in populated cities like Boise, cell phone companies providing overlapping coverage from tower to tower so calls don’t drop. He compares it to sprinklers on grass. If some spots don’t get water, they will die whereas sometimes sprinkler water overlaps to make sure the grass is watered.
9 a.m. Most cell providers capture the majority of user data but Verizon does not capture the location detail of text messages. Cell companies also have lists of all their towers.
8:58 a.m. The phone makes the decision of which tower and sector to connect to – but the phone will choose the strongest tower is can find, Ballance says. Cell companies keep records on their users phone activities.
8:56 a.m. Ballance says towers are divided into three different sectors. He compares it to cutting a pie into three different pieces. A cell phone is constantly scanning the environment to look for the strongest tower and sector.
8:54 a.m. Wood asks Balance to explain what a cell tower does. Ballance says a cell tower is constantly emitting radio frequency in a given area. He explains that cell phone towers connect with each other to enable calls to be made. The range of a cell tower depends on the area – higher populated areas have more cell towers.
8:51 a.m. Rob Wood is questioning Ballance. He asks about the training involved to become a member of CAST.
8:48 a.m. Ballance has been a special agent since June 2016. He works in Washington, D.C. He worked as a US Deputy Marshal for nine years before joining the FBI. He is currently member of the Cellular Analyst Survey Team (CAST). CAST is a group of 70-80 special agents and task force operators who specialize in using cell phone records to determine the general location of a phone that might be of interest in an investigation.
8:45 a.m. Other camera angles inside the courtroom will be shown but the witness will not appear on the livestream. You can watch
here.
8:42 a.m. Jurors are in their seats. The next witness is Nick Ballance. He’s an FBI Special Agent. This witness will not be shown on video but audio of his testimony will be streamed.
8:37 a.m. Judge Boyce is on the bench.
8:32 a.m. Fremont County Prosecutor Attorney Lindsey Blake, Madison County Prosecuting Attorney Rob Wood, Special Prosecutor Ingrid Batey and Fremont County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Rocky Wixom are at the prosecution table. John Prior and Chad Daybell are at the defense table. On Friday, Blake said this morning’s witness would be lengthy. They have not said who will be taking the stand.
8:25 a.m. Nate Eaton here. Back in the courtroom for day 13 of Chad Daybell’s murder case. Chad is wearing a blue dress shirt and yellow tie. Larry Woodcock is in court and so is Vicki Hoban. Around 25-30 members of the public are in the gallery.
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