Day 25 of Chad Daybell’s trial marked the end of the prosecution’s case, with retired FBI Special Agent Doug Hart serving as its final witness. Hart walked jurors through some of the most damaging communications between Chad and Lori Vallow, including discussions of the supposed “death percentages” of Tylee Ryan, JJ Vallow and Tammy Daybell and Chad’s claims that he could spiritually attack people by increasing their pain or placing a “spiritual virus” in them. Hart testified that Lori repeatedly looked to Chad for answers about who was “dark,” who had become a “zombie” and when people were supposedly ready to die, while Chad portrayed himself as the person capable of determining those things. Prosecutors also returned to Alex Cox’s role, with Hart saying the evidence showed Alex would do what Chad asked and noting that Tammy had no independent connection to Alex outside of Chad. Hart additionally described helping recover JJ and Tylee from Chad’s property in June 2020, including the visibly disturbed area where investigators ultimately uncovered JJ’s grave. After Hart finished and the prosecution briefly redirected to evidence showing Chad could manipulate Lori just as Lori could manipulate him, the state formally rested its case.
The biggest drama of Day 25 came after the prosecution rested, when defense attorney John Prior asked Judge Steven Boyce to acquit Daybell on the charges and a serious error surfaced in the amended indictment. Prior argued that prosecutors had failed to present sufficient evidence tying Chad directly to the murders or proving the alleged conspiracies, but Boyce rejected the acquittal requests after finding the state had presented enough evidence for the charges to go to the jury. The complication involved Count Four, the first-degree murder charge for JJ Vallow: the amended indictment mistakenly listed September 8–9, 2019—the timeframe associated with Tylee’s death—instead of the September 22–23 timeframe prosecutors alleged for JJ’s murder. Prior argued that prosecutors had already rested and should not be permitted to repair the charging document afterward, warning that doing so would create a significant due-process issue. Prosecutor Ingrid Batey characterized the incorrect dates as an inadvertent error and proposed several possible fixes, including correcting the indictment or addressing the mistake through jury instructions. Boyce ultimately refused to dismiss JJ’s murder charge, finding sufficient evidence had been presented and ruling that the incorrect dates resulted from an inadvertent mistake, although he reserved the precise method of correcting it for later. Day 25 therefore ended with the state’s evidence complete but with an unexpected indictment problem threatening to become a major issue as Daybell’s defense prepared to begin.
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