Summary of tweets for Wednesday, May 3rd - Day 16
State witness: Fremont County
Detective Vince Kaaiakamanu /
Part 2
Nate Eaton
@NateNewsNow
·
10h
Sketches from this morning.
sketch 4 to 6
NEW THREAD: Back in the courtroom. Boyce is on the bench and jurors are being brought in.
I have seen Garrett Smith and Josh Garner in the courtroom today. They are both attorneys for Melani Pawlowski. Smith represented her in Arizona, Garner represented her during grand jury proceedings in Idaho.
Kaaiakamanu is on the stand and Blake requests that a firearm seized from Alex's house be brought into the courtroom. "We will make sure all firearms are unloaded and steps have been taken to render them inoperable," Boyce says to the jury.
Two bailiffs walk in with an AR-15 in a long box. There are two other items. Blake asks if Kaaiakamanu can leave the stand to look over the items. He steps down from the witness stand and identifies the firearm.
"That firearm is the Alexander Arms Grendel 6.5 with a vortex scope on it." Kaaiakamanu says there are two solvent traps that "were drilled in to make homemade suppressors."
Blake asks to admit the AR-15 into evidence.
Blake asks Kaaiakamanu to step down and approach the gun. He is given a handheld mic so everyone can hear what he says.
The gun is placed directly in front of the jury. Kaaiakamanu says the gun has a large scope that could be used as a hopper - similar to a hopper on a paintball gun.
Blake asks the gun be held up so the jury can see it. A deputy comes forward and pulls the AR-15 out of the box. Kaaiakamanu points out where the scope is and Blake asks him to point out where a hopper could be on a paintball gun. Thomas walks over to observe the demonstration.
Kaaiakamanu says in his experience, a paintball gun can resemble an AR-15. Blake has no further questions. The gun is placed back on the table in front of the jury. Thomas will conduct cross-examination.
Thomas asks Kaaiakamanu about his professional background - when he became a detective, when he went to training, etc.
Thomas goes back and reviews the events from the morning Tammy Daybell died.
Thomas asks Kaaiakamanu if he made the call that there would not be any follow-up investigation on the day Tammy died. Kaaiakamanu says he didn't make the call. He believes Det. Mattingly spoke with Lt. Powell about the situation.
A few weeks later, the sheriff's office began investigating.
"At the time Fremont County got involved, we were asked to locate a Jeep with a plate out of Texas. That Jeep belonged to Tylee Ryan and she had gone missing. That's how we got involved," Kaaiakamanu says.
Lori is taking notes and talking with Jim Archibald while Thomas conducts cross-examination.
Thomas asks about the email Tammy sent to her son Mark while he was on his mission. Thomas asks for it to be shown on the big screen.
The email is three pages long. The first page doesn't have anything to do with the investigation, Thomas says. Kaaiakamanu says the first page is a lot of discussion about church stuff. On the second page, Tammy talks about her neighbor's dog getting stolen.
The neighbor chased the person who stole the dog, confronted the thief, got the dog and then went into labor.
On the last page of the email, Thomas points out a paragraph that starts with "his theory." Kaaiakamanu says that's referring to a neighbor and that neighbor has a theory that the "crazy dog" lady had her husband come back to steal the dog again.
Tammy says the theory is she spooked the man and he took off. Kaaiakamanu says he became aware of the situation but did not follow up with the lady who stole the dog.
Thomas has Kaaiakamanu read the part of the email where Tammy explains what happened the night the gunman entered her driveway. Kaaiakamanus says he never had a chance to talk with Tammy by the time he got this case.
Thomas asks Kaaiakamanu is he has fired a Grendel 6.5. He asks if there is a whooshing sound when AR-15 guns are fired. "It wouldn't be a whooshing sound but if there is a suppressor on it, it would be very quiet."
Kaaiakamanu says in Alex Cox's belongings there was some reloading equipment but no subsonic bullets or casings.
Kaaiakamanu says a warrant was later issued for Daybell's house. Deputies went out with metal detectors to try and locate casings. They did not find anything.
Thomas asks Kaaiakamanu to read the portion of the email where Tammy talks about hitting the person with her clogging shoes. She ran inside to get Garth and Chad but the guy was gone.
Tammy says they thought the suspect was "a bipolar teenager who lives down the street and walks a lot." Kaaiakamanu says police spoke with several people in the area about the "bipolar teenager" and found out he had autism.
He lived a lot further away from the Daybells than what would have been walking distance.
Thomas says, "Of all the people mentioned, you didn't follow up or speak with any of the people suspected of this?" Kaaiakamanu says that's correct - he never spoke with the autistic teenager or the husband of the woman who tried to steal the dog.
Thomas is done with the email exhibit and asks to see the Powerpoint presentation.
Thomas asks Kaaiakamanu about gun laws and whether you have to register a serial number when firearms are purchased. He asks the detective if it would be out of the ordinary for someone who owned one of these guns to Google how far it shoots, etc.
Thomas says if someone wants to target practice, you might go online to look up the range the gun can fire. Kaaiakamanu says that's correct.
The image showing Alex's Google searches on Oct. 10 is back on the screen. Alex performed several pornographic searches - along with searches for firearms.
The image showing Alex's Google searches on Oct. 10 is back on the screen. Alex performed searches for "trannys" and *advertiser censored* - along with searches for firearms.
Thomas asks Kaaiakamanu if he interviewed or tried to find people who may have seen Alex at the gun range. Kaaiakamanu says he didn't speak with anyone.
Thomas following up on the geofence warrant Kaaiakamanu had served. It was for any activity 150 meters in all directions from the center of the house.
Kaaiakamanu repeats that a device registered to homerjmaximus was at the church the night Tammy died. "It was showing Wifi hits off the back side of the church."
Thomas asks Kaaiakamanu to review photos of the guns. Baffles were on the guns. A baffle enables the user of the gun to quiet down the sound of the gunshot. Thomas has no further questions.
Blake has some follow up questions. She asks why no detectives responded to Tammy's house on the morning she died. Kaaiakamanu said he called the coroner and the coroner said she had already spoken to Mattingly.
Kaaiakamanu also spoke with the deputy and everyone said nothing was out of the ordinary.
Blake asks about Alex's Jeep and when the request was made to Fremont County to help look for the vehicle. Kaaiakamanu says on the morning Tammy died, Fremont County did not have all the information about all the other investigations into JJ, Tylee and Charles.
Blake asks Kaaiakamanu if a bipolar teenager or the husband of a dog thief seemed like plausible suspects in the gun incident. The detective says no.
Blake: "Do you get a lot of reports of masked gunmen in the area?" Kaaiakamanu says no. At the time of the shooting, there was a blinking yellow light at the intersection but no other light in the area, he says.
Blake asks Kaaiakamanu if he can tell if the gun was threaded for a silencer or suppressor. Kaaiakamanu says it was threaded for a suppressor. That would change the sound when fired.
Blake: "When you conduct an investigation, do you go where the evidence leads you?" He responds, "Yes." He says he was not able to question Tammy Daybell about the incident because she was killed 9-10 days later.
Blake has no further questions. Boyce asks for a sidebar. White noise is played.
link:
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