Summary of tweets for Wednesday, April 19th - State witness:
April Raymond, friend of Lori's in Hawaii.
Nate Eaton
@NateNewsNow
·
8h
We are back from the break. John Prior is sitting in front of me and just leaned over the court sketch artist. He jokingly asked that when she sketches him she make him 30 lbs. lighter and younger.
Next witness called to the stand is April Raymond. She was very good friends with Lori Daybell in Hawaii.
An issue is being discussed outside of the presence of the jury because Raymond received a Facebook message showing an interview @jlumfox10 did with Lori Daybell's cousin.
Raymond says she watched about two minutes of the interview but turned it off. She says the story had nothing to do with the case or interviews. Raymond says she read some of the comments on the story.
Witnesses were told not to watch any stories or read anything about the trial. Archibald asks Raymond about the comments she read on the story. She says in general it was about the LDS Church's influence on the trial.
Archibald asks Raymond if she has been contacted by reporters about doing interviews. She says she has given them the directive from the prosector's office that she can not participate in any interviews at this time without the promise of any future interviews.
Boyce says there is no evidence that Raymond violated the exclusionary rules and she will be able to remain on the stand. Jurors are brought in. Lori has been looking at her former friend but I have not seen Raymond looks at Lori once.
Raymond lives in Hawaii and has two children. She says they met at church in Hawaii in 2016. They were introduced at church. Lori was the primary president and she asked Raymond to be one of her counselors.
They were friends outside of church, celebrated holidays together and their kids played together.
Raymond says she knew Charles Vallow. He worked from home a lot. Raymond would visit Lori at their home and Charles was a constant presence. Lori and Raymond got together a few times a week.
They would go on walks, Lori would color Raymond's hair, they would shop and planned activities for the kids at church.
Lori and Charles eventually moved from Hawaii but in Feb. 2019, the weekend before Valentine's Day, Raymond unexpectedly received a call from Lori. Lori said she was in Hawaii with Tylee and that Lori was leaving Charles.
Lori reached out again saying they needed a place to stay. Lori and Tylee went to stay with Raymond.
Lori told Raymond that Charles had an affair, he was no longer Charles and that he had turned into a demon named Ned Schneider. Lori said they were getting a divorce. Tylee was with Lori but JJ was with Charles.
Lori told Raymond she didn't bring JJ because "she was done with him" and Charles and Kay would need to figure it out.
Raymond took "done with JJ" to mean that because Lori and Charles were getting a divorce, Charles would need to take care of JJ because Lori wasn't going to care for him anymore. Lori said "Charles was already dead and a demon was using his body as a host.
The demon's name was Ned Schneider." When asked how she knew he wasn't Charles, Lori said, "He's shorter."
Raymond says later in the week, Lori told Raymond that Charles did not know she was in Hawaii. Lori said if Charles reached out, don't tell him where she was.
Lori said Charles hired a private investigator who was following her and she had told Charles she was going to Idaho for a conference. She thought that Charles was going to serve her with divorce papers.
Lori left Raymond's house and went to the Kauai Beach Resort. Melanie Gibb joined Lori in Hawaii and the three women went out for lunch and a few evenings for dinner. Tylee was back in Arizona working at her aunt's chiropractic clinic. Raymond never saw JJ.
During a lunch at Calypso, Lori said Charles had sent an email to her family pleading for help. Lori showed Raymond the email and asked her not to respond to Charles if he reached out.
During a dinner with Lori and Melanie Gibb, Lori told Raymond about Charles being on a business trip. Lori said she discovered evidence of him having an affair so she canceled his flight and credit card and moved his truck from the airport parking lot.
Raymond says the first night Lori stayed with her, Lori said she had been appointed the leader of the 144,000 and she was in Hawaii to "gather" Raymond.
She wanted Raymond to join her and she would need to be separated from her children because "she had fulfilled her role in their lives" and Raymond had a great mission to now fulfill. Lori told Raymond to leave the kids with their father.
Smith has no further questions for Raymond. Archibald will be conducting cross-examination.
Archibald asks Raymond if she noticed a change in Lori's belief system between the time Lori served in the primary and the time she visited Hawaii in 2019. Raymond says her belief system changed because of a group she had recently become a part of.
Raymond says Lori's beliefs about Jesus started to change a little when Lori visited Hawaii in July 2018. In 2019, the beliefs were more amplified than before.
Raymond says she did not believe in multiple lives/probations and the church Lori and Raymond attended together did not teach this. Raymond did not hear anything about zombies in 2018 but Lori talked about it in 2019. It was a new teaching.
Archibald asking a light and dark scale. Raymond says Lori spoke with her about that in 2019 at Raymond's home. Raymond said it was an unusual teaching that they had never talked about when Lori lived in Hawaii in 2016.
Lori told Raymond in 2019 that she was a goddess. Raymond said she tried to not react and just listen to her.
Raymond asked Lori why she started to change her beliefs. Lori responded that she experienced things in the temple that had changed her life and she found a group of like-minded people who had similar experiences. Raymond told Lori she didn't believe this.
Archibald asks Raymond what she and Lori taught to the primary children in 2016-2017. Raymond says they taught scriptures, Lori did a lot of musical activities and holiday parties along with the Sunday services.
Archibald asks if the kids were taught about Jesus. "Yes." Were they taught that Jesus was good. "Yes." Were they taught Jesus healed sick people. "Yes." Were they taught Jesus cast out evil spirits. "Perhaps. I don't recall specifically."
Were they taught simple lessons about the love of God and how we need to be good people. "Yes."
Raymond says she had never met Melanie Gibb before this Hawaii visit. She says Gibb and Lori were on the same page concerning their new beliefs.
Raymond says it was a "subtly grooming" to get reaction and could "feel their ultimate goal was to include me." Raymond was not interested.
Archibald is finished with cross-examination. Rachel Smith is following up with questions. She asks who was in Lori's podcast group. Raymond says Gibb, Zulema Pastenes, Jason Mow, Thor and Chad Daybell.
Smith has no further questions for April Raymond. Raymond is excused from her subpoena and witness testimony is done for the day. I'll break everything down tonight at 7:30 p.m. on 'Courtroom Insider.'
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