Law&Crime Sidebar - 6 Key Moments from ‘Doomsday Cult’ Mom’s Son Colby Ryan’s Testimony

Episode Date: April 19, 2023

“Doomsday cult” mom Lori Vallow Daybell’s only surviving son takes the stand in her murder trial Tuesday. From emotional testimony to a heated jailhouse call, the Law&Crime Network���s Jesse Weber breaks down six key moments from Colby Ryan’s testimony.LAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergWriting & Video Editing - Michael DeiningerGuest Booking - Alyssa FisherSocial Media Management - Vanessa Bein & Kiera BronsonSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieObjectionsThey Walk Among AmericaCoptales and CocktailsThe Disturbing TruthSpeaking FreelyLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. for him. You've rid my heart out. You've ridden out everyone in the stand this heart out. Lori Vallow Daybell's only surviving son takes the stand in her murder trial and wait till you hear what the two talked about on a recorded jailhouse call.

Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. A big witness took the stand in the Lori Vallo Daybell trial. Now, a little recap here. The 49-year-old. old doomsday mother, is currently on trial in Idaho and faces life in prison on first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder charges in connection with the deaths of her children, seven-year-old J.J. Valo, and 16-year-old Tiley Ryan. Their bodies found on the

property of her current husband, Chad Daybell. He actually faces similar charges. He's going to be tried separately at a later date. But Lori Valo Daybell's troubles don't end there because she is also charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the death of Chad's now deceased, wife Tammy Daybell. You see, originally Tammy's death was thought to be from natural causes that she died in her sleep. But when the kids' bodies were found and her body was exhumed, authorities realized something else was going on. And that is when prosecutors explained at the beginning of this trial that Tammy Daybell actually died from asphyxiation at the hands of another. Now, the theory put forward by prosecutors is that Lori Valo Daibel did this for several reasons.

One, to be with Chad, who she was having an affair with. Two, for financial gain. In other words, obtain the proceeds of social security and life insurance benefits when these people died. And three, that she and Chad felt justified through their extreme religious beliefs, that there were these dark spirits. There was good versus evil. The kids were possessed.

Stuff like that. Okay. So that brings me now to a major witness who took the stand, as I mentioned, Colby Ryan, the 27-year-old surviving son of Lori Valo DeBell from a previous relationship. He is someone who has spoken out about this case before in interviews. He even wrote a book. By all accounts, he had a very, very close relationship with his sister, Tiley, as well as JJ. Okay, so let's get into some of these significant moments from his testimony.

And he explained how he was contacted by the police in November 2019 about his missing siblings. He said when he called his mom to find out what was going on, Lori wouldn't tell him where she was, but that she was moving somewhere, somewhere cold, and that it was dangerous for her to tell anybody where she had gone. He even tried to contact her during Thanksgiving, but her phone was disconnected. And then he tells the jury this. At that time, had you had cause to be concerned about Tyler Ryan? Yes. What gave rise that concern? My conversations over text with her.

Okay, and what was it about your conversations and text with Tiley that gave you concern? When I first texted her, I had followed up with a few different phone calls and face-times. And then the text I was receiving back were just in different language than Tiley would type and talk and just the way she used her punctuation and things like that. like that. It's just different. Okay. So was it fair to say you felt like it wasn't Tyler you were speaking with? Yes. So was it perhaps Lori pretending to be Tiley? That's something for the jury to consider. And here's something to think about. I've said this before. This is very much a circumstantial evidence case. There's real no smoking gun, arguably. There's no recorded conversation between Lori, Chad, and as well as her deceased brother, Alex Cox, who's been accused of being the

actual killer. There's no recorded conversation when they all agree to kill everyone. There's no real forensic physical evidence tying Lori to the killings. But what we have are strange comments, actions, questionable timeline of events that go towards things like consciousness of guilt or they go towards it's reasonable to perceive Lori as being responsible or involved in what happened. That's the big evidence here. Which brings me now to the big bombshell.

I would say it's Colby Ryan's testimony, but really what it is is a phone call that was played in court for this jury, a recorded phone call between Colby and his mother, Lori, while she was locked up in jail. And as you'll hear, he confronts his mother directly about the deaths of his siblings. I don't know. I used to comment it. Probably because you were my siblings. I'm going to make judgments when you aren't there and you don't know what happened. What happened?

They're not making their own judgments. Mom, you've been shoving the eyes on my throat for a very long time. I'm going to talk to you. Because he's a sweet. Hey, listen to me, I'm not mad. Listen, fine, listen to me. I've sat there and prayed. And I can't tell you my opinion that I have felt from her scenes.

So he comes out and straight up accuses her. Again, this is after the kids are found buried in Chad's backyard. And you hear when she says, you don't know what happened. Doesn't that suggest that she knows what happened? And she once again refers to this religious connotation and seeming justification. And you hear Colby begging her to explore. explain this to him. To know that they're gone,

and you knew, and my phone is being texted by my little sister, who's not even alive, my little brother, who's the sweetest little kid ever for one perfect. And you tell me, this is God's world of my whole family, including stepmother.

Seth, father, to be dead. After everything you try this on you, you can tell me right now that Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world is on your side. You tell me that, with all the condition of your heart, that Jesus Christ is on your side now. Please. I can't tell you that. What did you tell me? What lies would you be? Why would you lie to me if you are so, if you're in with the Lord, and you've seen it?

And I'm just talking purely to you. If you've seen Jesus Christ, where is the fear? Why would you tell me something? Why are you afraid? Why is everyone to get to you? Why is everything to stay in my mom? Okay, you can be engaged in all you want. One day, we will all stand there with Jesus.

We will all stand there with Jesus, and you will know the truth of everything. I mean, this is incredibly heartbreaking to listen to, him trying to get these answers, how he found out what happened to his siblings, how he says he was kept in the dark, you can hear the pain, but you can also hear Lori becoming even more indignant. From a legal point of view, if she really felt justified, why not just come clean about what happened, right? Well, I think an argument could be made that she knows she's in legal trouble. she knows she's in trouble with authorities she doesn't want to admit anything that's called

consciousness of guilt sure a counter argument could be made that maybe she didn't know what happened and she was lied to maybe she was kept in the dark maybe but we really haven't heard anything like that from the defense so far now this part is really interesting this is where lorry goes on to say how much she has been through weren't there. You weren't there. Summer wasn't there. My mom went there. The police weren't there. The FBI weren't there. Nobody was there. I was there. Yeah, and guess what? They know exactly what happened. And they love me and we're still together forever. They love me and they are fine and they do know the truth and I know the truth.

And we're the only people that do. So you can judge me for me all day long. Go ahead. judge me the whole world has the whole world has judged me they don't know and you don't know you know what i've been through and you may even give a crap what they've been through nobody does except for me i am the one that was in the hospital of tiley for hundreds of days watching her suffer i am the one that was there doing everything with j jay every day i was the one who did it all these years you did it all to throw it in the garbage They're not, you don't know what happened. You don't know what happened.

Wow. Few things here. One way of looking at it is she really has these warped beliefs that maybe killing them was for their own benefit and that they still love her. That feeds into the prosecution's narrative of religious justification for the killings. There's also an argument to be made that when she talks about all the kids, all everything that's, everything that they were going through. Ty Lee had pancreatitis, JJ had autism.

Prosecutors have argued that, or leave suggested that these kids were inconveniences in Lori Valo Debel's life, that she wanted to be free, be free with Chad. So she's talking about how much she's been through. But she is fully aware of how everyone perceives her, but she won't come out and exactly say what happened.

But this knowledge that she apparently has of what happened, is why prosecutors say she was a part of these murders and the plot to kill. I'll say it as an aside, as you hear this kind of twisted logic, logic and talking, you can kind of understand why Lori was deemed incompetent for a period of time. She was committed to a state hospital for months until she was deemed competent to stand trial. And to kind of give you an idea of that, this is heavy, heavy stuff in this conversation. But listen to what Lori does next. This is funny?

This is funny? This is funny. You're laughing. Like, this is funny. How come your cameras on my mom? Don't want to look at me in the eye? I can't look at me. It's just to talk to your hopes.

I love you. I love. One day you will see and one day you don't understand. Yeah, you heard it right. She's laughing, laughing as they talk about the deaths of Lori's two children. So when we talk about mental health, something to think about there. Now, in this 12-minute call, I mean, I've tried to give you the highlights, but I just want to end on this one final exchange that is really something to hear.

You're telling me that this was all done in life. Say it. Tell me that this was done in his name. You don't know what happened. Why? Why don't know. Oh, because I was kept in the dark to protect me. You know who needed protecting my little dead siblings?

That's me either protecting mom. This is not what you think you didn't live, but I hadn't killed. A month later, you ran away. I never wanted you guys. I'm just thinking those kids in one second, I would bring them into my home and I would have taken care of her. That's not even a question to me. Everybody said that you know. Everybody says that.

What was my offer? I'm saying, I had everything for them. I have... How about that? If you would offer me, you are snowed. You cannot sit here and life. That is not the truth. Okay?

That's what people are thinking. They were sitting there. You walk away. Well, no. No, you don't know that. No, that is not what happened. That is not what happened. That is not what happened.

You tell me what happened. If you can tell me what happens, then I don't care. If you can actually explain it, then it's different. I would love. But you can't talk to you out. Mom, you've been saying that you've been wanting to tell me for a very long time and you never say it. You have no idea of much pain. I have felt in my body.

I feel like I could die. My own mom. Where were you? What a strong. strange comment. And it is so sad to hear him say that he would have taken these kids in. And Lori basically saying, oh, everyone says that now. They would have been there for the kids, but she was the one for them. Just another weird thing for her to say. And look, I can imagine that this wasn't helpful to her case. Now, in cross-examination, the defense tried to hit

at Colby Ryan's credibility, citing a book that he wrote, him choosing to be part of a Netflix documentary. They also brought up a line that he said in the documentary. where he basically says Lori changed because of Chad. They even asked if he loved his mom. He says yes. He thinks that his mom still loves him. Now, I will end with this highlight. This highlight from G.G. McKelvey, who has been our reporter inside of the Ada County

courthouse. She's been our eyes and ears since there are no cameras allowed. And according to her, at one point, Colby Ryan looked over at his mother, Lori Valo Daybell while he was on the stand, we're getting off the stand, and gave her a look of pure disgust. And that's all we have for you here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us.

Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.