Idaho prosecutors urge jurors to convict slain kids’ mom

By REBECCA BOONE
Associated Press

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho prosecutors have spent the last four weeks painstakingly detailing their case against a woman accused of killing her two youngest children and a romantic rival in a bizarre doomsday-focused plot.

On Thursday morning, Madison County Prosecutor Rob Wood gave an impassioned speech to jurors, urging them to convict Lori Vallow Daybell for the deaths of 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, and her fifth husband’s previous wife Tammy Daybell.

“Money, power and sex,” Wood told jurors, reprising the opening arguments they heard last month. “Beginning in October of 2018, Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell set in motion a series of events that led to three horrific murders in the state of Idaho.”

Vallow Daybell wanted to be “unencumbered by obstacles,” Wood said, so that she could have what she truly desired: money, power and sex.

“The plan that she set in motion must end today in the verdicts you render in this trial,” Wood said.

Both defendants have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, murder and grand theft. Vallow Daybell faces up to life in prison if she is convicted. Chad Daybell’s trial is still months away.

At times, the testimony in the case has been heartbreaking — such as when Vallow Daybell’s only surviving child, Colby Ryan, accused her of murdering his siblings in a recorded jailhouse phone call.

Other testimony has been strange, such as when Vallow Daybell’s former friend Melanie Gibb testified that Vallow Daybell believed people in her life had been taken over by evil spirits and turned into “zombies” — including her two youngest kids. Four of the people the defendant described as “zombies” were later killed or shot at, according to the testimony.

It has also been gruesome, such as when law enforcement officers testified about finding JJ and Tylee’s remains buried in Chad Daybell’s yard. JJ’s body had been wrapped in duct tape and plastic, and Tylee’s remains had been destroyed and burned with her bones showing evidence of chopping or stabbing marks, the witnesses said. Hair belonging to Vallow Daybell was found on a piece of duct tape used to wrap JJ, a DNA analyst testified.

Vallow Daybell’s defense attorneys, meanwhile, did not call any witnesses, and Vallow Daybell declined to testify. Instead, defense attorney Jim Archibald asserted that they did not believe prosecutors had proven their case, suggesting that there was not enough evidence to find beyond a reasonable doubt that Vallow Daybell committed a crime.

The case began in July 2019, when Vallow Daybell’s then-husband, Charles Vallow, was shot and killed by her brother, Alex Cox, at his home in a Phoenix suburb. Lori and Charles were estranged, and he had filed divorce documents claiming that she believed she was a goddess sent to usher in the Biblical apocalypse.

At the time, Cox told police he acted in self-defense, and he was never charged in connection with the death. Cox died later that year of what authorities determined were natural causes. Lori Vallow Daybell was later charged in Arizona in connection with Charles Vallow’s death; she has not yet had the opportunity to enter a plea in that case.

According to prosecutors, Vallow Daybell was already in a relationship with Chad Daybell, who was still married to his wife, Tammy Daybell, at the time. She moved to eastern Idaho with her brother and kids to be closer to Chad Daybell.

The children were last seen alive in September of 2019. Police discovered they were missing a month later after an extended family member became worried that she wasn’t able to get ahold of JJ. Their bodies were found the following summer.

The case has garnered widespread interest not just in Idaho but around the world, and the judge banned cameras from the courtroom in an effort to limit pretrial publicity. The trial was also moved to the capital city of Boise, where 1,800 potential jurors were called and winnowed to a panel of 18 people.

Before they can begin deliberations, six members of the panel will be excused, leaving 12 people to decide Vallow Daybell’s fate. The other six people were alternates, there to fill in if one of the primary jurors became unable to serve.

So many people wanted to attend the proceedings that court administrators created a seating reservation system and designated a separate hearing room for the overflow of would-be viewers who couldn’t fit in the courtroom. The first day of the trial had about 40 people watching the courthouse-only livestream of the proceedings from the overflow room; on Thursday, more than 120 people filled the overflow room.