The medical examiner who performed an autopsy on Charles Vallow, the fourth husband of “doomsday mom” Lori Vallow Daybell, testified Monday that he could have been lying on a floor when he was shot — after a bullet had already gone through his heart.
Vallow Daybell, who is on trial in the death of her fourth husband, claims her brother, Alex Cox, fatally shot Charles Vallow in self-defense on July 11, 2019. Cox died later that year from a pulmonary embolism and was never charged.
Derek Bumgarner, a medical examiner with the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office, said that Charles Vallow died from multiple gunshot wounds. The fatal wound went through his heart.
One wound was to the chest and was slightly downward, Bumgarner testified in Maricopa County Superior Court. The second wound was to the abdomen and was upward, the medical examiner said.
Bumgarner testified that the first shot came at a short range of between 2 and 4 feet. The second shot, Bumgarner said, had a “shored” exit wound, meaning Charles Vallow could have been lying on a firm surface like a floor when he was shot.
Charles Vallow also had abrasions on his knees that Bumgarner said could have happened when he fell to the ground after being shot.
Vallow Daybell, who is representing herself, briefly cross-examined the medical examiner. She asked if the abrasions on Charles Vallow’s knees, as well as abrasions on his hands, could have occurred during a scuffle before he was shot.
“Yes,” Bumgarner told Vallow Daybell.
She also asked if the “shored” exit wound could have occurred while he was still falling.
“Not really,” Bumgarner said. “If he was still falling and still passing through air, not yet having hit the ground, that would not have caused a shored wound.”
“So, if he had hit the ground and bounced on the ground from the first shot as the second shot was traveling, that could not be possible?” she asked. “That he hit the ground as the shot was exiting the shoulder?”
“He would have had to have been on a firm surface to create that shored wound,” Bumgarner said.
Vallow Daybell then asked if that type of exit wound could occur from tight clothing, such as bamboo clothing.
“How tough that material would be?” Vallow Daybell said.
Bumgarner said he was not familiar with that type of clothing.
During a short redirect, prosecutor Treena Kay asked the medical examiner if he would expect to see two shored exit wounds if a person was wearing bamboo clothing.
“If both the exits were covered with that shirt, yes,” he responded.
The jury also heard from Chandler police officer Cassandra Ynclan and saw recordings of Vallow Daybell’s interview with police on the day that Charles Vallow was shot.
Ynclan said Vallow Daybell didn’t appear to be emotional at the scene.
“Just seemed very kind of ordinary and kind of nonchalant,” Ynclan testified.
The recordings showed Vallow Daybell laughing at times as she casually told Ynclan in an interview room about the moments leading up to Charles Vallow being shot. She said there was an argument after she refused to give her husband back his cell phone and that she was outside when she heard a gunshot come from inside her home.
Vallow Daybell was sentenced in 2023 to life in prison without the possibility of parole after she was convicted in a separate trial for the murders of her two children, Joshua “JJ” Vallow and Tylee Ryan, as well as conspiracy to commit murder in the death of Tammy Daybell.
She is also charged with conspiring to kill Brandon Boudreaux, her niece’s estranged husband. A trial date has not been set, and she has pleaded not guilty.
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