Idaho v. Lori Vallow Daybell - Day 5

STATE WITNESS 6: DET. NATHAN DUNCAN, CHANDLER, ARIZONA, POLICE DEPARTMENT

• Read aloud emails and texts found in phones and iCloud accounts associated with Lori, Charles and Chad.
• Charles emailed Tammy about the affair between their spouses in June 2019.
• Lori used a burner email account to send Chad speaking invitations as covers for visits to her.
• One of them purported to be from Charles asking Chad to be a “ghostwriter” for Charles’ autobiography. Charles found it and sent Lori emails confronting her about it and her affair, which included threats to reveal the affair to Tammy.
• Two days before Charles’ death, Lori texted Alex and said “the plot thickens… gonna need you to stay close for the next couple of days… it’s all coming to a head this week… I will be like Nephi… and so will you!”
• Lori exchanged texts with Zulema about their efforts to “put fire” and “burn” Hiplos, the name Lori gave for the second demon that she said had taken over Charles.
• The week after Charles’ death, Lori exchanged texts with Chad about her surprise at being removed as beneficiary from Charles’ insurance; blames it on “Ned,” the name they used for the first demon to inhabit Charles.
• Alex texted Lori that he set the Wifi password to “2manykids” and Lori responded “funny.”
• Two weeks after Charles’ death, Chad texted Lori: “I got the inspiration to go back to my original death percentages that helped us track Charles, Ned, etc. Tammy is very close. Her percentage has fallen steadily since Hiplos left. It is encouraging.”

FORMER FOLLOWER OF CHAD AND LORI’S; ALEX COX’S WIDOW

• Pastenes said she bought into Lori’s “charming” and “convincing” way of expressing things. Pastenes believed Lori was a person in “high spiritual standing” based on Lori’s claim that she was in direct contact with the angel Moroni and Jesus Christ. Pastenes felt similarly about Chad, who claimed he was the apostle James the Less in a previous life in which he was married to Lori.
• Pastenes painted a picture of a cult-like atmosphere in which Pastenes and other acolytes assisted Lori in “castings” to expel demons from her then-husband, Charles Vallow, who Chad and Lori allegedly believed was inhabited by a demon they called Ned, then another called Hiplos.
• Pastenes also participated in the attempted casting of a spirit Lori called Viola from Chad’s wife, Tammy Daybell, on the same day as the alleged attempted shooting of Tammy in October 2019. Pastenes said after the casting, Lori got a phone call that made her upset, and Lori said something to the effect of, “Idiot, can't do anything right by himself.”
• The jury saw drawings from Pastenes’ journal documenting the couple’s teachings, including the light/dark scale they used to rate people, and the steps involved in a casting.
• The jury saw photos of Pastenes with Lori, Chad, Melanie Gibb and other members of their inner circle at religious conferences in 2018 in St. George, Utah; Rexburg, Idaho; and Mesa, Arizona.
• Followers received blessings from Daybell about their past lives (or probations) and the roles they would play in the Second Coming of Jesus after the world’s end.
• The couple appeared to take a strong interest in Pastenes, who Daybell said was Lori’s daughter in a previous life who was raped, killed and dismembered at age 14.
• Prosecutor Rachel Smith also questioned Pastenes extensively about Alex Cox -- who Pastenes met through Vallow in 2018 and married in 2019 -- and Cox’s role as his sister’s protector or “warrior-defender.”
• Pastenes said Cox was unwavering in his devotion to the couple until they left for Hawaii after Tammy Daybell’s death and ceased contact with him.
• When Cox learned in December 2019 of Tammy Daybell’s planned exhumation, Pastenes said Cox remarked, “I think I’m being their fall guy.” Pastenes said that when she pressed him on what he meant, he said, “either I am a man of God or I’m not.” He died the next day.
• On cross, defense lawyer John Thomas expanded on the nature of the castings, drawing out the point that they were verbal in nature and did not involve physical acts or violence.
• On cross, Pastenes agreed that Lori and Chad’s teachings were similar to those espoused at “Preparing a People” religious conferences.
• On cross, Pastenes said she no longer believed in Chad and Lori or their teachings. Her experience with them had taught her to be more cautious of people’s motives and less apt to assume the best in them, she said.

Court TV senior field producer Emanuella Grinberg contributed to this report. 

 

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