Vallow's son testifies that his mother was influenced by Daybell

BOISE — Lori Vallow's oldest son, Colby Ryan, testified on the eighth day of the Chad Daybell trial. 

Testimony in the trial continued on Monday morning, when five witnesses were questioned in front of the jury, each discussing various topics including text messages between Vallow and Daybell, contact with J.J. Vallow and various instances witnesses interacted with Daybell and Vallow. 

Daybell is charged with conspiracy to commit murder, first-degree murder, insurance fraud and grand theft in connection to the deaths of 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, 7-year-old J.J. Vallow and Daybell’s late wife, Tammy Daybell.

Colby Ryan was visibly emotional during parts of his testimony on Monday, particularly when he was shown a picture of Tylee and asked to identify her. 

"That's my sister, Tylee," he said, choking up. 

Ryan last saw his sister Tylee and his brother J.J. on Aug. 30, 2019, outside of his place of work in Mesa, Arizona. On that day, Vallow had called Ryan during his work day to tell him she, Tylee and J.J. were moving, so he met them outside to say goodbye. Ryan testified that Tylee was crying and that Vallow did not specify where they were going. 

Ryan testified about the day he was told his stepfather, Charles Vallow, had died, in July 2019, after Vallow was shot by Alex Cox, Lori Vallow's brother. Ryan was told by Lori Vallow that Charles had died of a heart attack. When Ryan came over after work, he hugged Tylee, who was crying, and saw his uncle Alex Cox sitting on the couch with a bandage on his head. After Ryan inquired about the bandage, Cox explained that Charles Vallow had hit him and Cox had shot him in self-defense. When Ryan confronted his mom about her lie, he said she was "unrattled" and "calm." 

"I thought it was crazy because I was freaking out and she seemed to not care," he testified. "... There was a lot of lying in a lot of places."

Vallow never explained why she had lied about her husband's cause of death, Ryan said. Ryan believes his mother was influenced by Daybell. 

The state also questioned Josh Wilson, the principal of Kennedy Elementary School in Rexburg, where J.J. briefly attended school in 2019. According to Wilson, Vallow enrolled J.J. on Sept. 3, 2019, and told Wilson that they had just moved to Rexburg from Arizona after her husband Charles died of a heart attack.

J.J. was enrolled at Kennedy Elementary for three weeks, Wilson testified. After Vallow told Wilson that J.J. was moving to Louisiana and would be homeschooled, Wilson kept J.J.'s record just in case they ever decided to enroll J.J. in public school again. Wilson testified that Vallow never mentioned Chad Daybell. 

Vallow often told Ryan about her finances and would say that they were running low on money, Ryan said. After Charles' death, Ryan asked his mother how she would take care of Tylee and J.J., especially since she ended up not being the beneficiary of Charles' life insurance. Vallow said that she would be using Tylee's Social Security benefits she had been receiving since her father Joseph Ryan's death. 

Vallow mentioned that she would be married again soon, which Ryan dismissed. She never mentioned Daybell to him, Ryan testified. In fact, Ryan said he didn't know his mother had married Daybell until December 2019, one month after they got married.

Even though he didn't know where they were, Ryan still kept in touch with Tylee via text but the conversations didn't seem normal after a while. 

"Little things," Ryan said. "Like if you capitalize the letter 'I' and periods and emojis, just things like that ... it felt off when I was receiving those texts."

With a young family of his own, Ryan occasionally asked Vallow for money, which she sent to Tylee, who Venmoed the money to Ryan. Ryan continued receiving money through September, even if he didn't ask for it. Gilbert police came to Ryan's home looking for J.J. and Tylee on Nov. 27, 2019, but Ryan didn't know where they were. When police left, he contacted Vallow. 

"I asked what was going on," Ryan said. "She said she would take care of it."

David Warwick, who was present on the last day J.J. was seen alive, also testified about his experiences with Vallow and Daybell. Warwick, who is married to Melanie Gibb, was at Vallow's home on Sept. 20-23 in 2019.

During that visit, Gibb, Vallow, Cox, Daybell and J.J. were present. Warwick did not see any sign of Tylee. He made an effort to communicate and get to know J.J., but he was very interested in a game he was playing, so the two did not communicate much. 

Later that weekend, Warwick went with Daybell and Vallow to see "terrestrial buildings" they wanted to show him. They walked to a park, where Daybell and Vallow described a building made of stone. Warwick did not see a building there and felt that Vallow and Daybell were trying to get him to trust what they were doing. He didn't. 

When he went to say goodbye to Vallow and J.J., Warwick said he was told that Vallow had called Cox to take J.J. She seemed "dramatic" at the time and was talking fast, Warwick noted. She said he was having a "possession attack." It didn't seem accurate to him, Warwick testified. 

Last week, the jury heard from Gibb, who seemed to buy into Daybell and Vallow's teachings and delusions, but Warwick does not. 

Before that, Warwick had come in contact with Daybell in 2015 during a meeting in Rigby and during a conference in Brigham City, Utah. Warwick described Daybell as being very meek and kind. 

The next time he saw Daybell was in August 2019 at Vallow's home in Arizona. At the time, Warwick was with Gibb and was invited to a luncheon at Vallow's home. During the luncheon they discussed the gathering of the 144,000, referencing the Bible and the gathering Israel.

Warwick testified that he disagreed with Daybell's belief that he was called to gather the 144,000. Warwick believed that role would be given to the prophet or someone selected by the prophet. He also disagreed with Daybell's belief that Satan had the power to possess people's bodies, leaving the person's spirit in limbo. Warwick also testified that he was concerned about the relationship between Daybell and Vallow because Daybell was still married. 

Sidney Shank testified about her experience babysitting J.J. on Sept. 19, 2019. Shank connected with Vallow on Care.com and met her and J.J. on Sept. 18. Vallow informed Shank that J.J. had autism and some behavioral difficulties. She also told Shank that they had recently moved from Arizona to Rexburg and that her husband had recently died of a heart attack.

Vallow never mentioned Tylee's name to Shank, but did mention that she had a daughter attending college who occasionally came home to do laundry and would babysit at times. 

Shank babysat J.J. for three or four hours on Sept. 19. J.J. played with some neighbor kids but did have some behavioral issues when Shank brought him home. At one point, J.J. threw an ottoman, a chair and broke a mirror, Shank testified. 

Vallow did not try to correct J.J.'s behavior while Shank was present. No one used the word "zombie" to describe J.J. while Shank was there. "Zombie" was a term Daybell and Vallow would use to describe someone who was dark or possessed. 

The state also questioned Wynn Hill, who was dean of students at Brigham Young University-Idaho and was contacted by police in February 2020 and asked to check school records for Tylee Ryan, Tylee Cox or Tylee Vallow. BYU-I had no record of her at the school, Hill said. Tylee had never even applied to BYU-I, Hill testified. Vallow had previously told several people that Tylee was attending BYU-I in September 2019. 

Retired FBI Agent Doug Hart took the stand again on Monday morning, testifying about various text messages between Daybell and Vallow in August 2019. The text indicated an affair between Daybell and Vallow, along with some conflict between the two because of Daybell's responsibilities to his wife and children. Hart previously testified on Friday. 

Testimony is expected to continue on Tuesday morning at 8:30 a.m.