Summary of tweets for Trial Day 2, 4/11/23 - State Witness:
Rexburg Police Detective Ray Hermosillo/part 2
Nate Eaton
@NateNewsNow
·
41m
NEW THREAD: Back from the morning break. Lori was walked in wearing leg shackles and then a deputy locks the shackles to the floor in the courtroom so she can not leave the table.
Hermosillo remains on the stand. He is handed four photos of the Jeep that the state wants to admit as evidence.
First photo is the gray Jeep Wrangler. Second photo shows the rear view of the Jeep with Texas plates. Third photo shows the interior of the Jeep taken from the driver's door. Fourth photo shows the interior of the Jeep from the passenger's side.
Wood asks to have a business document from Apple related to an iCloud account admitted as evidence.
Hermosillo says he has reviewed the iCloud account and says it belongs to Lori Vallow based on the photos and records contained in the account.
Wood asks to admit a photo of JJ, Tylee and Alex in Yellowstone. He also asks to admit a photo of JJ on the couch in Lori's apartment.
These are the photos just admitted as evidence.
View attachment 414086 View attachment 414087
Hermosillo recounts what happened the morning of June 9, 2020. Police went to Chad's house and Chad's son Mark opened the door. He said his dad was still asleep.
Officers went to Chad's room, he sat up in bed and officers said they were there to serve a search warrant. Chad got dressed and then walked downstairs with police into the kitchen.
Chad asked to call his attorney who, at the time, was Mark Means. Chad called Mark & police went into the front room with Chad, where they served him with the warrant. Chad asked if he needed to leave. Police said he did not but if he left, an officer would need to accompany him.
Chad went outside to his car to make a call. The FBI and other law enforcement officers arrived to help execute the search warrant. (Personal note: it was around this time I received a tip that something was happening at Chad's house.
Hermosillo says Chad was looking over his shoulder while he was in the car on the phone. Hermosillo said he looked where Chad was looking and saw the tree and pond in the backyard area.
Hermosillo was assigned to sift through the area around the firepit. "While we were sifting through the firepit, there were a lot of people going to the pond area under the tree so we were called over to assist in that location," he says.
Wood asks to admit a Google Earth image of Chad Daybell's property so the jury can have an idea of the layout.
As Wood shows the image to the jury, Lori is taking notes and occasionally looks up at the jurors.
Hermosillo says when he went over to the tree/pond, there was a section of shorter grass and dirt compared to the rest of the area that had longer grass. A team began excavating the section by removing the top layer of soil.
"As they began to remove the top layer of soil, it exposed three large rocks. At that point, there was a strong odor that through my training I knew was a decomposing body."
After the rocks were removed, there were pieces of large wood paneling. The team started to brush away damp soil that was a different composition compared to the soil on top of the ground.
As the soil was being removed, police saw a black, round object starting to protrude through the dirt.
As police scraped away more dirt, they discovered a round object "that appeared to be the crown of a head." Police continued to remove soil and Hermosillo says they appeared to find a small body wrapped in plastic.
Police made a slit in the plastic and there appeared to be human hair. At this point, officers were told Chad was leaving his daughter's house across the street "at a high rate of speed." Officers followed Chad, pulled him over and he was taken into custody
Hermosillo went back to the burial site after Chad was taken into custody and the small body wrapped in plastic was put in a body bag. It was then placed into the coroner's vehicle and driven to the morgue by the Fremont County Coroner and a Fremont County deputy.
Hermosillo and Det. Ball followed the vehicle and then returned back to Chad's house when the body was dropped off.
After the body was dropped off, Hermosillo and Ball returned to Chad's house. Hermosillo is now pointing out on a map where the body in plastic was found and where the firepit was.
Hermosillo says when he arrived back at Chad's property, police were digging in the area of the pet cemetery. "In digging down, they located items of interest that we needed to slow down and dig more methodically."
Hermosillo says they then got on their hands and knees and began digging around "this moist section of dirt."
"We started finding burnt flesh, decomposing bones. The smell was so bad we had to take turns digging," Hermosillo says.
"Eventually we uncovered bits and pieces of Tylee, whom we assumed was Tylee, that had been burned. There were pieces of bone, charred flesh, just globs of flesh that were falling apart."
link:
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