Summary of tweets for Tuesday, April 18th - State witness:
Rexburg Police Det. Chuck Kunsaitis.
Nate Eaton
@NateNewsNow
·
9h
Next witness on the stand is Rexburg Police Det. Chuck Kunsaitis. Before he is brought in, prosecutors ask for a sidebar meeting with the judge. White noise is played in the courtroom. Lori taking lots of notes.
Rachel Smith hands a big folder full of documents to the bailiff to set on the witness stands. Det. Kunsaitis is entering the room. If you've never seen him, Kunsaitis is a tall, big guy. He's wearing a suit coat, dress shirt and tie.
Rod Wood says the state would like to enter multiple business records and affidavits. He is reading a list of the exhibit numbers.
Wood is reading a long list of exhibit numbers. The defense has not objected to any of the documents thus far. Once admitted, Wood will ask if he can publish for the jury, and the rest of us, to see.
By my count, Wood is asking to admit 32 documents. Some of the files have more than one part. Wood will now show each of the documents and ask Det. Kunsaitis about them.
Kunsaitis has a stock of documents on the witness stand but Wood asks that he not look at them unless they are referenced during questioning.
Kunsaitis has worked as a police officer in Rexburg for 23 years. He has been a detective since 2011. On Nov. 27, 2019, he was aware Det. Hermosillo was issuing search warrants for three different townhomes in Rexburg to locate JJ Vallow.
Kunsaitis arrived in the afternoon to help with the warrants.
Hermosillo asked Kunsaitis to look through the home where Lori was living. The detective found a printer upstairs with an invoice for Self Storage Plus sitting on it. A search warrant was then issued for the storage unit.
Kunsaitis also issued a warrant for a P.O. Box Lori had opened in Sugar City, Idaho. There was around 100 pieces of mail in the box for Lori, Charles Vallow, Alex Cox and her children. There were bills and letters from the Social Security Administration and IRS.
The manager of the apartment complex where Lori was living told detectives he also had mail for Lori and Alex. Police obtained a warrant for the mail and Kunsaitis says there were bills and other financial letters.
Kunsaitis has a list of financial institutions associated with Lori Vallow and Tylee Ryan.
Wood shows the list of accounts on the screen for the jury. They include:
- JP Morgan Chase account with Charles Vallow
- A JP Morgan Chase account shared with Tylee Ryan
- A JP Morgan Chase account shared with Charles Vallow
- A BBVA personal account for Lori Vallow
A BBVA shared account for Lori and Tylee
- A Barclays Hawaiian account shared with Charles Vallow
- A Barclays account shared with Alex Cox
- A First Hawaiian bank account for Lori Vallow
- A Chase Southwest joint account
- A national life insurance account for Lori Vallow
Kunsaitis now showing sample portions of account activity on some of Lori's bank accounts.
The last deposit in the shared account with Charles and Lori was in July shortly after Charles died. Money from the account was withdrawn until it went into overdraft status in November 2019.
Wood admits a document showing a years worth of banking statements for Tylee from January 2019 – October 2019. There is a lot activity on the account and Tylee is making monthly car payments for a Jeep from the account.
Kunsaitis says Tylee made a lot of brick-and-mortar type purchases - fast food restaurants, convenience stores, etc.
Kunsaitis now describing the final bank statement from Tylee's account. There are multiple transactions on multiple days. It shows their travels as they moved from Arizona to Idaho.
The final in-person purchase was on Sept. 1 at McDonald's in St. George, Utah. The last payment for Tylee's social security in this account was the previous July so deposits had stopped into this account.
The final transaction on Tylee's account was on Sept. 20. The balance on the account was $10.04 and an online transfer was made on Sept. 20 to Lori Vallow's JP Morgan Chase account. Nothing else was done on this account.
Kunsaitis says the Rexburg Police Department has determined the last proof of life for Tylee Ryan was on Sept. 8 or 9, 2019.
Next exhibit shows an online administration tool for Tylee Ryan's JP Morgan Chase account. Tylee and Lori both had profiles on the account.
Kunsaitis says the different profiles show a "digital footprint" of who is using the account and when. The detective shows the jury that $10.04 was transfered from Lori Vallow to her other bank account on Sept. 20, 2019.
Next document shows Tylee Ryan's bank account had a zero balance in October 2019.
Next exhibit shows the banking account application Lori Vallow made at BBVA Bank. It was opened on Oct. 20, 2018. This is the account that ended up receiving all the social security deposits.
Next exhibit shows a sample of activity on Lori Vallow's BBVA account from Aug. 2019 through Jan. 2020. A deposit for $1,859 from the Social Security Administration was made on Aug. 28 on behalf of Tylee Ryan.
Kunsaitis says Tylee had been receiving her social security money in her account but this deposit in Lori's account was new. Lori Vallow contacted the SS Administration around Aug. 20 and requested to have the money deposit changed to her account.
Kunsaitis now discussing a social security deposit made for JJ Vallow on Sept. 18. "Based on our investigation, JJ was killed five days later," the detective says.
Wood asks to admit an exhibit showing a summary document Kunsaitis compiled. It shows deposits made to Tylee Ryan's and Lori Vallow's accounts.
Kunsaitis lays out when deposits were made to the accounts and then, when he mentions the bodies were found on June 9, his voice cracks. Court is taking an afternoon break until 2:25 p.m.
We are back from the recess and jurors are being brought into the courtroom.
Kunsaitis remains on the stand and is talking about another bank statement. It's a joint BBVA bank account application for Tylee and Lori.
Archibald asks for a sidebar conference with the judge. All attorneys are gathered as white noise is played overhead.
Boyce says some personal identifying information may be displayed on the exhibits which jurors can see but should not be displayed to the public. Kunsaitis shows a bank statement showing Tylee's spending from this account as the family is moving from Arizona to Idaho.
Three purchases were made on Sept. 1 - one in Perry, Utah, another in Fillmore, Utah and another in Wikieup, Arizona.
Kunsaitis says most of Tylee's purchases were in brick-and-mortar stores but after Sept. 1, almost everything switched to online purchases. There were two exceptions - one at Costa Vida in Rexburg around Sept. 8 and one at Costa Vida in Idaho Falls.
Kunsaitis says deposits were made on Sept. 10 and Sept. 16 into Tylee's account from her mother's account. "The money that was coming in from Lori's account is immediately Venmoed out and we were able to show those Venmos went to Colby Ryan, Lori's son."
Kunsaitis says there were 29 deposits into Tylee's account from Lori's account and then the money was immediately turned around and sent to Colby on those same days.
Kunsaitis says the spending between Tylee's original bank account and the new account was dramatically different. Everything shifted from in-person purchases to online spending.
Next exhibit is an application for Charles and Lori Vallow to Barclay’s Bank for a Hawaiian Airlines credit card. The application was dated 2015.
Next exhibit is a monthly statement for the Barclay's credit card account. A transaction was recorded on July 12 - the day after Charles was killed. A payment for around $3,000 was made to Valley of the Sun Mortuary.
Another transaction was recorded on July 20 for an Allegiant Airlines flight from Provo to Arizona for Chad Daybell.
Next document shows the statement for a credit card Lori shared with Alex Cox. It's from March 2019 and Lori made purchases for Tylee and her friend to go to Hawaii. Another roundtrip flight is purchased for Chad Daybell from Idaho Falls to Mesa.
Chad was married to Tammy and Lori was married to Charles at the time.
There is some confusion over the numbers on the documents (as far as how they are being admitted to the court). Defense and prosecutors working to get things straight.
Next exhibit shows a rental application Lori Vallow completed for a town home in Rexburg. It was completed in August 2020 and Lori put her income as around $5,000. The amount is equal to the SS benefits combined for Tylee, JJ and Lori.
Lori put on the application that her reason for moving into the complex was her daughter had graduated high school and they were moving to Rexburg so Tylee could attend BYU-Idaho.
Next exhibit is a list Kunsaitis compiled showing Alex Cox's bank accounts and financials:
- Desert Financial Credit Union personal account
- Barclay's joint account with Lori Vallow
- Lending Club loan
- Mercury Mastercard
- Wells Fargo personal account
- Two Capital One credit cards
- Mountain America Credit Union account
Kunsaitis says Alex's bank account information shows he was receiving three paychecks a month from his job in Arizona. The payments stopped in August 2019 when Alex quit his job and moved to Idaho with Lori, JJ and Tylee.
Alex received a $21,000 deposit into his account from Lending Club in early August 2019. His bank account shows he began purchasing a lot of ammunition and guns around the same time.
Next document shows the loan application Alex completed for Lending Club on Aug. 8, 2019. The $21,000 was deposited into his Desert Financial account. Alex wrote that the loan was for "medical expenses."
Kunsaitis says police never found any indication of financial issues between that time and when Alex died.
Wood continues to show credit card applications and other banking details associated with Alex Cox. These documents were analyzed by someone at the FBI.
Kunsaitis prepared a chart and timeline showing Alex Cox's spending and financials. It shows between February - August 2019. It shows a steady income and Alex is very active with the account. On Sept. 1, he quit his job and moved to Idaho. Alex had no regular income after that.
The $21,000 loan hit the account in September. From August 10 - October 24, the account shows Alex purchased 46 guns. He then opened a Mountain America Credit Union account and deposited $4,000 in it.
Kunsaitis has prepared a chart detailing Chad Daybell's finances. He had the following accounts"
- Mountain America Credit Union joint account with Tammy Daybell
- An account for Spring Creek Book Company
- An account with First Hawaiian Bank
- Citibank Credit Card
- Wells Fargo Visa
- Joint Capital One Credit Card account for Chad and Tammy
Wood shows the jury the bank and credit card applications Chad filled out for his different accounts.
Lots of bank documents being discussed. Boyce calls for a sidebar conference with the attorneys. Several jurors and audience members stand to stretch their legs.
Boyce on the bench and we are dismissing for the day. Court resumes tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. Tonight at 7:30 p.m., join me for Courtroom Insider. I'll break down what happened today in court and have audio clips from the proceedings.
Three more sketches from the trial today. Zulema Pastenes, Rexburg Det. Chuck Kunsaitis and Social Security Agent Mark Saari.
link:
https://twitter.com/NateNewsNow
