An Idaho judge will hear a case to disqualify Special Prosecutor Rob Wood, who is leading the conspiracy and obstruction case against Lori Vallow and her husband Chad Daybell, who are accused to hiding the deaths of Vallow’s two children, who were found dead in Daybell’s Salem, Idaho backyard this summer.
Attorneys for both defendants have filed a motion to dismiss Wood, alleging that he behaved inappropriately in interviews with Vallow’s sister Summer Shiflet and the wife of Vallow’s deceased brother Alex Cox, who died in December 2019 of what investigators determined was natural causes.
Neither Vallow or Daybell have been charged with the murder of Vallow’s children, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old JJ Vallow. Arrest affidavits show that police trace Cox’s cell phone to Daybell’s property on two separate dates in September 2019, hours after each of the children were last seen alive.
According to a motion obtained by Law&Crime, Vallow’s attorney Mark Means has accused Wood of witness intimidation.
“Said motion is based upon a recently received audio recording between Mr. Robert Wood and the material witness, Summer Shiflet (biological sister of said Defendant) that occurred in October 2020,” Means wrote in the motion obtained by Law&Crime.
“The recording clearly illustrates Mr. Wood’s attempt to coerce, unduly influence, coach, and or intimidate a said material witness to this case. In addition, an audio recording of Mr. Wood interviewing another material witness, Zulema Pastenes [Cox’s widow], also at or around the same time (October 2020) discussing matters that support the state’s position of the case, etc.”
It is not known at this time if Vallow or Daybell will appear at the hearing, but as Fox 10 News reporter Justin Lum indicated in a Twitter post on Tuesday, it is possible the court will play the audio recordings at the center of the allegations at the hearing, which is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. MT/11 a.m. ET.
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