“Doomsday prophet” Chad Daybell has been sentenced to death for killing the two children of his ex-wife and co-conspirator Lori Vallow in a chilling triple murder case that rocked the state of Idaho.
Daybell, 55, was speechless as the sentence was handed down Saturday in which the Idaho jury unanimously agreed to impose the death penalty.
After a nearly two-month trial, he was found guilty of murdering Tammy Daybell, Joshua ‘JJ’ Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 16, on Thursday.
Expressionless, he refused to make a statement after becoming the ninth person on Idaho’s death row.
The judge imposed a 15-year prison sentence on each of the two counts of insurance fraud, concurrent with his sentence for murder.
Daybell, 55, was stoned as the verdict was read on Saturday (pictured) that he should be sentenced to death
No fine will be added to the sentence for insurance fraud, as Chad was found indigent.
Before the jury began deliberating the sentence, family members made statements to the court, 12News reported.
“It’s not an exaggeration to say I lost everything, but more importantly, we all lost Tylee and JJ,” said Colby Ryan, the brother of Tylee and JJ, Lori’s only living child.
“I stand here today without a mother, without a father, without a sister and without a brother.”
Tylee Ryan’s aunt, Annie Cushing, said: “She was smart, intelligent, funny, sarcastic and had the voice of an angel.”
JJ Vallow’s grandmother, Kay Woodcock, noted that he would have turned 12 earlier in the week if he were still alive.
“Would he have been the next Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, Tim Burton, Elon Musk? We’ll never know,” Woodcock said.
Tammy Daybell’s younger sister, Samantha Gwilliam, said: “My sister was taken from our lives, because of her murder we lost a mother, a grandmother, a sister, an aunt and a much-loved daughter. loved. She is irreplaceable.
During the summer of 2020, the children’s remains were discovered on Daybell’s property in Fremont County, Idaho.
Police said they believe the bodies were buried by Daybell between September 2019 and June 2020.
Tammy Daybell died in 2019, just weeks before Chad and Lori Vallow’s wedding.
The jury returned its verdict on Thursday in the bizarre and horrific case of the apocalyptic perpetrator (pictured) who was accused of murdering his ex-wife and two youngest children.
Last year, Lori Vallow Daybell, pictured here in February 2024, the mother of the deceased children, was sentenced to life without parole for the murders.
Although her death was initially thought to be due to natural causes, her corpse was later exhumed and, after an autopsy, it was determined that she had died of suffocation.
Daybell and Lori Vallow were charged in 2021 with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and grand theft by deception in the children’s deaths.
Both men were charged with a handful of additional charges related to Tammy’s death.
Last year, Vallow was convicted and sentenced to multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole.
During his trial, Daybell was accused of creating an alternate reality so he could satisfy “his desire for sex, money and power.”
“When he had the chance to fulfill what he saw as his rightful destiny, he made sure that no one and no law would stand in his way,” prosecutor Rob Wood said.
Prosecutors, who called 67 witnesses throughout the trial, said the couple justified the three killings by creating a detailed, apocalyptic belief system, part of an elaborate plan to remove any obstacles to their relationship and to get money from survivor benefits and life insurance.
Joshua Vallow, 7, left, and Tylee Ryan, 17. They were last seen on September 23, 2019, in Rexburg, Idaho, before their remains were discovered on Daybell’s property nine months later.
Tammy Daybell with a grandchild in a photo from her Facebook page. Tammy Daybell died mysteriously in her sleep in Idaho on October 19, 2019. Her death was initially thought to be from natural causes, but after an autopsy it was determined that she died of asphyxiation.
Lori Vallow Daybell, center, sits between her attorneys for a hearing at the Fremont County Courthouse in St. Anthony, Idaho, August 16, 2022. She was sentenced last year to life in prison without parole .
In this aerial photo, investigators search for human remains at the residence of Chad Daybell in Salem, Idaho, on June 9, 2020. They found the remains of Vallow’s two youngest children, JJ and Tylee.
Daybell’s defense attorney, John Prior, presented a different picture to jurors – pointing out that Chad Daybell was a religious person, but suggested that his belief in things like premonitions was quite common.
Prior also told jurors that Lori Vallow Daybell’s brother, Alex Cox, had a violent past. He had previously been convicted of attacking Vallow Daybell’s third husband, and he had shot her fourth husband.
“Whenever there was a problem with Lori Vallow, Alex Cox ran to the rescue,” Prior said in his opening speech.
Daybell’s attorney also argued that his client led a normal, faith-oriented life before meeting Lori Vallow Daybell, who he said showered Daybell with attention.
Her legal team described her as a “beautiful and vivacious person” who lured Daybell into an extramarital affair.
Daybell’s attorney also said he would present several DNA, forensics and pathology experts who would testify that it is impossible to determine the cause of Tammy Daybell’s death and that no DNA from Chad Daybell was found. found with the bodies of the children.
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