Catherine Rusoff
An Idaho jury found Chad Daybell guilty of all charges in a murder case involving fringe religious beliefs, an affair and the deaths of three people.
Because the prosecution requested the death penalty in the case, the case will proceed to the sentencing phase after a one-hour recess.
The jury, which received the case late Wednesday afternoon, reached a verdict at 1pm local time on Thursday. They found Daybell guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of his first wife, Tammy Daybell, 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, two children of his current wife, Lori Vallow Daybell.
He was also found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder in the death of his wife, conspiracy to commit murder in the deaths of JJ and Tylee, and insurance fraud.
The children’s bodies were found buried on Daybell property months after they were last seen. The case first gained national attention after JJ was reported missing by his grandparents in 2019.
Daybell, 55, has pleaded not guilty to all charges. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.
Jurors heard from more than 75 witnesses during the trial, which began in early April. Prosecutors argued that Daybell and Vallow Daybell, who were involved in a case, conspired in the three murders for what prosecutor Lindsey Blake described as “money, power and sex” – and justified their deaths based on religious beliefs focused on the Last Judgment which described people as “dark” or “light”, said that evil spirits could possess people, and viewed possessed people as “zombies”.
Defense lawyer John Prior argued that it was the children’s late uncle, Alex Cox, who was behind the children’s murders. Two of Daybell’s five adult children testified in her defense, saying their mother had health problems. The Daybell children have maintained that their father is innocent, including in a 2021 interview with “48 Hours.”
The jury returned to the courtroom after a few hours of deliberation Thursday to ask about the lack of a jury instruction before returning to deliberations.
The jury took just a few hours to condemn Lori Vallow Daybell’s assassination in 2023. She was sentenced to life in prison without parole and was extradited to Arizona to face charges in the death of her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, who was shot by Cox in 2019.
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