Light and dark spirits; the end of times | Chad Daybell trial testimony takeaways

If you follow the Chad Daybell murder trial, you’re in the right place. 

We’ve seen around 60 witnesses take the stand, and we are closing in on the halfway point of this trial. It’s supposed to last eight-ten weeks and week four is now complete. 

Daybell could face the death penalty if convicted of murdering his first wife, Tammy Daybell, and the two Arizona kids – JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan, who were in the care of his then-girlfriend Lori Vallow. Vallow was found guilty last year and sentenced to life in prison without parole. She is now married to Chad Daybell, her co-defendant. 

Some key witnesses testified this week and on day 17, we finally got to see Lori Vallow’s niece, Melani Pawlowski, take the stand.

She made it clear that the alleged teachings of identifying light and dark spirits and the end of the times, came from Chad Daybell. But she also learned things from her aunt Lori. She referred to Vallow and Daybell as mom and dad because, as we know through this trial, the couple believed they were married in past lives, and at one point, had seven kids, including Melani and JJ. 

>>FULL COVERAGE: Lori Vallow - Chad Daybell

Part of those teachings had to do with casting out dark spirits and if a body became possessed by an extremely dark spirit, the person became a zombie. 

"There was some type of darkness that you couldn’t cast out, so the lord, in his due time, would have to take it and that person would pass away because the darkness was too much or something like that," said Melani.

But it’s what we heard on recordings taken by Melani’s husband, Ian Pawlowski, that stood out. He worked with police in December 2019 for a short time, wearing a wire. This recording takes place when law enforcement becomes suspicious of Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell after a welfare check for JJ. At this point in time, it’s believed that the couple is newly married and in Hawaii. 

Remember, Chad’s sister-in-law, Heather Daybell, testified, and she was very concerned years ago about visions Chad claimed to have. She said he talked about earthquakes coming to Utah and other catastrophic events. This led to the Daybells moving to Rexburg, Idaho, and now you hear in that call that he sees chaos in Rexburg after police are investigating them. 

There were a handful of people following him, most of them in Arizona, specifically Zulema Pastenes, who testified on day 18, saying Chad told her she could control the weather. 

From spiritual beliefs to fact-based evidence in the murders of JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan 

On day 19, the jury got to hear about the autopsies done by Dr. Garth Warren, a forensic pathologist for the Ada County Coroner’s office. Disclaimer: This is hard to hear due to graphic details. JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan were both found buried in Daybell’s backyard in June 2020. But the conditions of their remains were different.

Also on day 19, a Chandler police detective testified about Lori Vallow and the fatal shooting of her former husband, Charles Vallow. We rewind to July 11, 2019, when Charles and Lori’s brother Alex Cox allegedly got into a fight and Charles hit him in the head with a baseball bat. It led to Alex shooting Charles in Lori’s rental home, but it took 45 minutes or so for Alex Cox to call 911.

Charles was going to pick up JJ for school. Instead, Lori left the scene in his car with both of her kids, JJ and Tylee. She didn’t call 911 or do anything, for that matter. 

Listen to this testimony about her locations and how police became suspicious about her story. And Lori also took Charles' phone, and had to give it back to Chandler PD for the investigation later that day. 

On day 20 – back to some more graphic evidence, but keyword DNA. Forensic scientists took the stand to talk about JJ and Tylee. One of them tested 18 tools for blood or DNA. Remember, these tools sat on the Daybell property from the time of the murders of JJ and Tylee in September 2019 until they were recovered in June 2020, and processed a month later. 

Katherine Dace with Idaho State Police homed in on a pickaxe that had some material that would end up matching a DNA profile for Tylee Ryan. 

We have not heard about Chad’s DNA being found on any of the evidence at this point. 

Now we can’t leave out day 21, because for the first time we heard from Jason Gwilliam, the brother-in-law of the late Tammy Daybell. He’s married to Samantha Gwilliam, who testified in Lori Vallow’s trial. Jason was close to Chad and remembers Chad becoming obsessed with the end times. 

He says Chad even wanted Jason to move from Utah to Rexburg, Idaho, saying the area would be a refuge for people and there would be tent cities, including one he would put on his property at some point. Chad referred to Rexburg as the city of light, per Jason. 

When Tammy suddenly died, Jason even helped with the funeral arrangements, but knew that it was happening way too quick – just days after her death on October 19th, 2019. 

Jason also recalled how Chad told him he got married to a new woman, saying she was 5' 6" tall, 120 pounds, fit, and her husband had died of a heart attack. This was just a little more than two weeks after Tammy died. But when Jason finds out about the disappearance of JJ and Tylee, he has a phone call with Chad and Lori that was recorded in December 2019.

Again, nearly 60 witnesses have taken the stand in the Chad Daybell trial -- on pace to surpass the number of testimonies in the Lori Vallow trial. We’ll be livestreaming the trial on Monday, May 13 at 7:30 a.m. Pacific time on fox10phoenix.com/live and on the FOX 10 YouTube channel. I’ll be providing live analysis throughout the day during breaks.