Judge Splits Trials of Couple Charged in Triple Murder Case

ST. ANTHONY, Idaho—A married couple accused in a bizarre doomsday-focused triple murder case will be tried separately, an Idaho judge ruled Thursday.

Steven Boyce, Seventh Circuit Judge, determined Lori Vallow Daybell would face trial on April 3rd. However, Chad Daybell will be facing trial at a later time, EastIdahoNews.com reported.

Chad Daybell waived his right for a speedy trial. His attorneys stated that they needed more time to examine DNA evidence recently returned from testing. Boyce said that Vallow Daybell has not waived the right to a speedy case and that her case should proceed as planned.

“I have to balance these rights of these defendants in this case,” Boyce stated. “Severance is the only option I see.”

Both defendants have pleaded guilty to conspiracy, murder, and grand theft in connection with the deaths Vallow Daybell’s children, Joshua, 7, and Joshua, at the Vallow Daybell home. “JJ” Tylee Ryan and Vallow, who were last seen on Tylee’s 17th Birthday. They are also accused in the October 2019 deaths of Chad Daybell and Tammy Daybell. If convicted, they could be sentenced to death.

Prosecutors previously requested that the couple be tried together. This was partly due to the high cost of two trials which are expected to take several weeks each. But the judge noted the prosecutors didn’t give the DNA evidence—a hair found at the crime scene—to the defense attorneys in a timely matter. John Prior, Chad Daybell’s lawyer, stated that Daybell should have his hair tested because these results could be vital to Daybell’s defense.

“That evidence provides, at least from my perspective, an explanation potentially of where Mr. Daybell and I are going to go in this particular case,” Prior. “I need to have an opportunity to test that evidence.”

Prosecutors allege that the couple used doomsday focused religious beliefs to support a plan to murder Lori Vallow Daybell’s children and Chad Daybell’s ex-wife as part of an attempt to steal social insurance funds and money.

Idaho law enforcement officers began investigating the couple after extended family members reported the children missing in November 2019. The police claimed the couple lied to them about their children’s whereabouts during that time. Later, the bodies of the children were found on Chad Daybell’s property in rural Idaho.

Two weeks after Chad Daybell’s unexpected death, Tammy Daybell, Tammy Daybell was married to the couple. Although Tammy Daybell’s death was originally reported to be due to natural causes investigators exhumed her body after becoming suspicious that Chad Daybell had remarried.

Separately, Lori Vallow Daybell was also charged with conspiracy in Arizona to commit murder in connection to the July 2019 death her former husband, Charles Vallow. Alex Cox, Vallow Daybell’s brother, shot him and killed him. He claimed that it was self-defense.

The Arizona case is currently in progress, while the Idaho legal proceedings are being held.