Daybell was convicted Thursday of first-degree murder and conspiracy charges in the deaths of his first wife, Tammy Daybell, and two of his second wife’s children – 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow – in a case prosecutors claim was fueled by power, sex, money and apocalyptic spiritual beliefs.
The sentencing phase of Daybell’s trial began shortly after the guilty verdict was delivered, with state Judge Steven Boyce giving jurors preliminary instructions. Proceedings are scheduled to resume Friday morning. The state is seeking the death penalty.
The verdict came about a year after Daybell’s second wife, Lori Vallow Daybell, was also convicted of the murder of her children and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. She was also convicted of conspiring to kill Tammy Daybell. Vallow Daybell has appealed her convictions to the state Supreme Court, with her legal team raising the issue of whether she was mentally competent to stand trial.
Authorities have said they believe Tylee and JJ were killed in September 2019 – the month they were last reported to have been seen – and that Tammy Daybell was found dead in her Idaho home on October 19, 2019, a few weeks before Chad Daybell married Vallow Daybell.
Law enforcement found the remains of Tylee and JJ on Chad Daybell’s Fremont County property in June 2020, authorities said.
“It’s a sad day. JJ would have been 12 years old,” JJ’s grandfather, Larry Woodcock, said after the verdict Thursday.
Woodcock remembered the victims, and asked the same question, over and over.
“What did they accomplish? Nothing. What did they do? They destroyed families,” Woodcock said of Daybell and Lori Vallow Daybell.
But the defendants, Woodcock said, could not destroy the memories relatives have of the victims. “They can’t take that,” he added, growing emotional at one point. When he heard the jury verdict in court, he said, he felt like he couldn’t breathe.
