Summary of tweets for Tuesday, May 2nd - Day 15
State witness:
Alice Gilbert, neighbor of Daybell's /
Part 2
Nate Eaton
@NateNewsNow
·
12m
NEW THREAD: We are back from the break. Jurors are being brought in.
Gilbert says she and her husband reached out to visit Chad on Oct. 26 after Tammy's death. Chad said he would come to their house. "He came over to our place and I made cookies. He came in and sat in the kitchen. We asked how he was doing.
He said, 'Actually I'm going very good.' He said he met the woman he was going to marry." Gilbert and her husband were shocked. Chad went on to say how beautiful Lori was and said they met at a conference in St. George.
They asked for her name and Chad didn't want to say but eventually he said Lori Vallow.
Lori was not with Chad when she came to visit the Gilberts. Gilbert says she and her husband work at the temple on Tuesday night. They were waiting in a room one Tuesday night and Chad tapped her on the shoulder and asked Gilbert to come in the hallway.
Gilbert met Lori and her niece Melani. "It was awkward," Gilbert says
Chad brought Lori over to meet the Gilberts. "They came in and sat on the couch. They were quite affectionate with each other," she recalls. "It was abnormal for us to see Chad that way. His arm was around her, he had his arm over her legs. She was giggling and laughing.
For my husband and I, we were embarrassed just because we hadn't seen Chad that way. They looked like teenagers."
Gilbert asked Lori if she had been married. Lori said her husband died of a heart attack. Chad said Lori recently lost a daughter and Gilbert expressed her sympathies for Lori. Gilbert says Chad was not flirtatious or affectionate with Tammy.
Gilbert recalls asking Lori if she was used to the cold because in October 2019, there was an extreme, hard, early frost. The potato farmers were getting their harvest done early so Gilbert remembers how cold it was. This was the week of Oct. 26, 2019.
Chad told the Gilberts he was going to go to Hawaii to write a book. Chad said they were going to get married but they didn't know when. They mentioned they were taking Chad's kids to Disneyland around Thanksgiving. Nothing was said of Lori's kids.
"I had the impression that Lori had no other children. That she was an empty nester. I thought the daughter who had died was like an older daughter who died of cancer or illness or something."
After the visit, Chad and Lori came back after they got married. They returned to Idaho before the family California trip and stopped by the Gilberts' to show them wedding pictures. Gilbert believes this was around two weeks after the initial visit.
Gilbert was shocked to see wedding pictures because they got married so quick.
Gilbert recalls Chad visiting her house by himself in February 2019. She was in the middle of a project and she walked him to the door. "He stopped and said he had a vision that Tammy's time on earth was coming to an end. It was fulfilled.
He didn't know how or when but he didn't see her living past the age of 50."
After Lori was arrested in Hawaii, Chad visited the Gilberts and asked if he could live in one of their spare bedrooms. He said his house was too crowded. Gilbert said they had a daughter coming to live with them and they didn't have room.
When Lori's bond hearing was scheduled, Chad visited the Gilberts and asked if they would put their property up for bond. The Gilberts said they would think about it. Chad left. The next day Chad texted and said he had arranged for a bondswoman to come and talk with them.
Blake asks for a sidebar after Thomas objects to some of her questions.
During his visit to the Gilberts, Alice confronted Chad about the fact that he told her Lori's daughter had died. Chad denied telling her this. Alice knew the kids were missing and said to Chad, "Didn't Tylee deserve a life? A car? A boyfriend?"
Chad responded, "She didn't like people and she didn't like me." Alice was struck that Chad used the past tense.
Gilbert then recalls overhearing Chad tell someone, "They think I killed my wife." Blake has no further questions.
Archibald is cross-examining Gilbert. He asks how Gilbert got to know Melanie Gibb. Gilbert says she didn't know Melanie but she listened to podcasts with Melanie Gibb and Lori. Archibald asks what kind of podcasts they were.
"They were upbeat and positive podcasts. Encouragement. A lot of life in the podcasts."
Archibald asks Gilbert if she's aware of what Chad did for a living. She says she knew Chad wrote books. She read Chad's last series before they moved to Rexburg. Gilbert says she wasn't sure about the books. She didn't talk much with him about the books.
Gilbert says she never spoke with Chad about his visions but her husband did sometimes at church.
Archibald asks Gilbert if she spoke with Chad about the conferences he went to. She says she and her husband attended Preparing a People conferences in Rexburg and Boise. She believes she went to the one in Rexburg in 2018 and the one in Boise in 2019.
Chad presented at both seminars and attempted to sell his books.
Archibald asks Gilbert if Chad's goal in talking about his near-death experiences was to sell books. She says she thinks so. Archibald asks if the seminars were sanctioned or approved by the church.
Gilbert doesn't think so. Gilbert says she learned about Preparing a People after seeing a brochure in Rexburg.
Archibald asks if the subject matter at the conference was approved by the church. Gilbert says no. There were all kinds of topics discussed - fossils, The Book of Mormon, positivity, food storage, etc.
"Did some of the topics focus on the end of the world?" Archibald asks. Gilbert responds, "I think Chad's did."
Archibald asks Gilbert is Chad spoke about The Church of the Firstborn. She says not in the seminars but she heard Chad talk about it in conversations with her husband. "Sometimes you just nod and listen but again, you have no idea."
Archibald asks Gilbert is The Church of the Firstborn is a spliter group of the LDS Church. Blake objects and says the question is beyond the scope. Boyce sustains it. Archibald asks Gilbert if Chad was a "weird guy." She says he was but there's a lot of weird people.
Archibald asks Gilbert if she looks to Chad for spiritual guidance. She says she did not.
Archibald asks if Gilbert thought Lori was enamored with Chad. Gilbert says, "They were definitely in love." Archibald has no further questions.
Blake has some re-direct questions. "Did Chad appear enamored with Lori?" Response: "Absolutely." Blake: "And Chad was more enamored with Lori than he was with Tammy?" Gilbert says yes. Blake has nothing further. Gilbert is released from the witness stand.
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