Summary of tweets for Friday, April 28th - Day 13
State witness:
Samantha Gwilliam, Tammy's sister back on stand.
Nate Eaton
@NateNewsNow
·
2h
It’s Friday and today court will be held 8:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. with no lunch break. Samantha Gwilliam, Tammy Daybell’s sister, will be back on the stand to start the day. You can get caught up on anything you missed yesterday here.
Larry and Kay Woodcock are here in the courtroom. He says this week has been very rough - especially for Kay.
Bailiff is reviewing courtroom conduct rules with the audience. Lori Vallow Daybell is dressed in black today. Prosecutors and defense attorneys are in the courtroom ready to go.
Judge Boyce is on the bench and jurors are being brought in.
Samantha Gwilliam is back on the stand. Fremont County Prosecuting Attorney Lindsey Blake is questioning her.
A photo of Tammy Daybell is shown on the big screen. Blake reminds the jury that Samantha and Tammy were the only two girls in their family. They saw each other every day.
Samantha says Tammy and Chad moved to Idaho at the end of the school year and the following school year Tammy found a job in the school system. "She loved working with students."
Tammy was talented in computers. She helped one of her schools get a new computer lab. Samantha recalls that Tammy had been sick with depression a few years prior to her passing but two weeks before she died, "Tammy looked very healthy.
She did not look sick at all." When Tammy had been sick before, she spoke with Samantha about it. On the visit two weeks before she died, Tammy never mentioned she felt sick.
Tammy died on Saturday, her funeral was Tuesday. "It was really quick," Samantha says. She asked Chad was the funeral was happening so quick. He said that's what Tammy would want to avoid the fuss.
She asked Chad why they were burying Tammy in Springville rather than in Rexburg where her husband and kids lived. "He said that he thought it would be better if she was down there because it's cold in Rexburg and they wouldn't get to visit her as much."
Samantha says some family members weren't able to come to the funeral because it happened so quick. She says the summer before Tammy died, Chad seemed "more distant" and was "very different." "We didn't know what was going on."
Tammy learned Chad was remarried one month to the day of Tammy's passing. "You don't get married four weeks after you just buried your wife of almost 30 years. You just don't do that."
Samantha says they then learned that Chad remarried two weeks after Tammy's death "and we were devastated." Chad told Samantha that his new wife's name was Lori Ryan and her previous husband had a heart attack. "They were both grieving the passing of spouses."
"As any good sister did, I went to the internet to see who this woman was. I discovered (Lori's) name was tied to Vallow and it brought up newspaper articles about a man in Arizona who had been shot in his own home by his brother-in-law.
I took that to my husband and said, 'I think this is the same woman who he married. He did not die of a heart attack.'"
Samantha found an obituary for Charles and a comment Kay Woodcock left that said, "We will take care of JJ." After learning there were children involved, Samantha said to Chad, "Please tell me about this woman you replaced my sister with."
Chad responded that Lori had a hard life and they were trying to stay away from the stigma of what had happened to her. Samantha asked if Chad and Lori would be raising kids together. "He told me no. There's no children and they were going to be empty nesters."
Blake has no further questions. Jim Archibald will be cross-examining Samantha.
Archibald asks that Samantha be handed a copy of Tammy's obituary. He asks who wrote it. Samantha said she wrote it with some of her family members. "Chad had given us some information but myself and my parents had put it together."
You can read Tammy's obituary here:
https://flammfh.com/obituary/tamar
The obituary says Tammy died peacefully in her sleep. Archibald asks Samantha where she got that information. Samantha says that's what they were led to believe by information Chad gave them. Archibald asks about Spring Creek Book Company and if it was Chad's full-time job.
Samantha says sometimes yes and he would sometimes work at the cemetery. Spring Creek went bankrupt after a distribution issue. Deseret Book sent back a bunch of extra books that had been printed that were not selling, Samantha says.
Archibald asks Samantha when Chad and Tammy moved to Rexburg. She says she doesn't remember the exact year but says they lived in Rexburg at least three or four years before Tammy died. Samantha says it became harder to stay in touch after Chad and Lori moved to Rexburg.
Archibald asks if Chad spoke to Samantha about his near-death experiences. She says he did. Archibald asks Samantha to describe Chad's books. "They were very spiritual in nature. He did make some money off them - I don't know the exact amount."
Samantha doesn't recall when Chad first talked to her about his near-death experiences. She says those are normally spiritual experiences that people keep private. Archibald responds,
"Chad was making money and writing books and going to conferences based off his spiritual experiences."
Archibald asks Samantha if Tammy went with Chad to his conferences. Samantha says she didn't go with him because she had a job and was taking care of the kids. Archibald asks Tammy where Chad would go to sell his books.
Samantha says she didn't track him but he's been to Idaho, Arizona, Utah to speak and sell his books.
Tammy helped Chad write the books. "Did you ever hear Tammy say Chad, quit trying to sell books? Get a real job," Archibald asks. Samantha says she never heard a conversation like that. Tammy helped Chad publish the books and was in charge of the graphic design of the books.
She was instrumental in the process.
Samantha says most of Chad's books were fictional and geared toward religious aspects. Some were advertised as fiction, others were not. "Were you aware that at one time he said everything I have written is true?" Archibald asks.
Samantha says she doesn't know about that statement and doesn't recall him ever saying that to her.
Samantha says she's an avid reader and read some of Chad's books to support him but she's a teacher and doesn't have time to read everything. She doesn't know if Tammy believed what Chad wrote was true.
Archibald asks if Chad and Tammy were empty nesters when Tammy died. Samantha says they had a son living at home and another son on an LDS mission in Africa. Chad and Tammy did not have any minor children at the time of her passing. All of the kids were adults.
Archibald asks what a cemetery sexton is. Samantha says they oversee everything at the cemetery, the upkeep, helping people with services, etc. Chad did this for "quite some time" starting in high school as a teenager and then into his adult life.
"It was something he knew how to do and it paid well." Samantha says Chad did not take a job as a sexton in Idaho.
In June 2019, Chad and Tammy came to stay with them to celebrate Chad's mom's birthday. Samantha says the next month, Chad and Tammy came back but they didn't know they were in Springville.
There was a movie premiere tied to a book Chad helped right. "They happened to be in town for that and they just showed up at our door to give me my birthday present." Chad sat in the car and "it was very unusual."
The next time Samantha saw Tammy was in Oct. 2019. Tammy looked healthy and fine.
"Did she ever say to you that my husband has had a vision that I'm going to die?" Archibald says. Samantha says no. She was not making arrangements to die.
After Tammy died, Samantha says she felt "something had happened to her and I didn't even know why. I had no reason to suspect Chad. I had no reason to suspect anything but I do feel as a spiritual person myself that my sister was telling me something had happened to her."
The visit in Oct. 2019 with Samantha and Tammy in Utah was before the driveway gun incident. They then texted each other about the incident when it happened and Samantha was told some teenager tried to fire a paintball gun at her.
Samantha says she has never met Lori because Chad and Lori left for Hawaii. At the end of November 2019, Chad and Lori and all of Chad's kids went to Knott's Berry Farm and the beach in California.
Chad's kids told Samantha about the trip. Archibald ends his questioning by saying, "I'm sorry for the loss of your sister." Samantha tearfully responds, "Thank you."
Blake has some follow-up questions for Samantha. She asks if Chad ever spoke to her about how they were going to support themselves after Tammy died because Tammy was the main breadwinner.
Samantha mentions there was life insurance money and "he told us (his new spouse) had lots of money."
Chad never came around Tammy's family after he got remarried. "He wouldn't even tell my parents he got remarried. He made his daughter call my mom."
Blake asks Samantha if Chad ever told her about him having a vision that Tammy would die before she was 50. "He never said that at all." Blake asks Samantha if all 5 of Chad's kids are still alive. Samantha responds that they are. Blake has no further questions.
Samantha leaves the witness stand and Larry and Kay Woodcock reach out for a hug before Samantha leaves the courtroom with her husband.
link:
https://twitter.com/NateNewsNow