An Idaho judge heard testimony Wednesday in a hearing on a motion by Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell’s attorney to remove the attorney prosecuting he case against him, KTVB reported.
At issue, as CrimeOnline previously reported, is an interview between Prosecutor Rob Wood and Vallow’s biological sister, Summer Shiflett in October.
Shiftlett’s attorney, Garrett Smith, recorded the interview, conducted in Arizona, without telling anyone else in the room and sent the recording to Vallow’s defense attorney. Both Arizona and Idaho are one-party consent states, meaning that Smith had no obligation to tell anyone else he was recording.
Vallow and Daybell have been charged in the disappearance of two of Vallow’s children, 9-year-old JJ Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, who were eventually found dead and buried on Daybell’s property. Neither have been charged in the children’s deaths.
Smith told the judge that he began recording when he became uncomfortable with the interview.
“There were several things in the conversation that were said that made the buzzers go off in my head,” he said.
Wood was too open in telling Shiftlett his theories about the case, Smith said. The prosecutor appeared to blame Daybell for the disappearances, telling Shiftlett he used “spiritual abuse, spiritual manipulation” against her sister.
“He did not care who died, who got hurt, he did not care at all. And the thing is that your sister truly believes that everything she’s done has been done in righteousness,” Wood said. “She believes it.”
Shiftlett told Wood that Vallow had been a great mother but made a mistake with Daybell and “got sucked into the vortex of this man.”
“I know that’s not what she would have done on her own,” she said.
Wood told Shiftlett that Daybell had talked Vallow out of talking with investigators while the children were still missing and called him “highly manipulative.”
Smith told the judge Wednesday that while he did not raise any objections during the interview, the converstation “just felt awkward and unprofessional to me. It was something I probably would have steered clear of.”
No decision was made Wednesday, and the hearing will resume Friday with closing arguments.
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[Featured image: Lori Vallow]
