Chad Daybell’s trial date in Boise has been set. He could face the death penalty
Chad Daybell’s trial has officially been scheduled for next spring, and it’s expected to last a long time.
The 54-year-old Rexburg father — accused of espousing religious beliefs to justify or encourage the killing of three people — has a jury trial set for April 1 at the Ada County Courthouse, according to a notice of hearing. It’s scheduled to last up to nine weeks.
Chad Daybell was indicted in Fremont and Madison counties on eight felonies, including first-degree murder in the death of his then-wife Tammy Daybell. He’s also charged with murder in the killing of 7-year-old Joshua Jaxon “JJ” Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, who were two of wife Lori Vallow Daybell’s children.
He’s also charged with three counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in Tammy, Tylee and JJ’s deaths, and two counts of insurance fraud.
He’s pleaded not guilty to all counts, online court records showed.
Lori Daybell was convicted by a 12-person jury last month after a six-week trial. She was found guilty on all six counts she faced, including murder in JJ and Tylee’s deaths, and she is expected to be sentenced July 31.
Lori Daybell could spend up to life in prison after 7th District Judge Steven Boyce removed the death penalty as an option just weeks before her trial started in Boise.
If convicted, Chad Daybell still could get the death penalty.
Chad Daybell’s trial is expected to mirror Vallow Daybell’s trial, which had roughly 60 witnesses. If he is found guilty of any murder charges, his trial could include an additional portion to decide punishment, since a death sentence is possible.
Almost four years ago, the Rexburg Police Department announced the disappearance of JJ and Tylee, which set off a series of events that led to the Daybells being accused of several crimes. The children’s remains were found in shallow graves in Chad Daybell’s backyard.
Throughout Lori Daybell’s trial, investigators on the case presented messages, recordings and corroborating witnesses who discussed the couple’s religious beliefs about the children being “demons” who needed to be “cast out.”
The Daybells — who were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — held extremist beliefs that the world was going to end in July 2020 and that they were a part of the 144,000 people who, according to the Book of Revelations, would be saved during the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, according to evidence presented at Lori’s trial.
Chad Daybell authored several doomsday books, which he characterized as fictional, but they reflected his alleged personal beliefs.
Boyce, who will also oversee Chad Daybell’s trial, set various deadlines throughout the next 11 months for both Chad Daybell’s defense team and the prosecution, according to the notice of trial. This includes a deadline for the attorneys to discuss a potential settlement, which is in late February 2024, because Chad Daybell has a pretrial conference set for 9:30 a.m. Feb. 22.
At that hearing, Boyce expects the attorneys to be prepared to inform him “whether the case is going to trial,” the notice stated.
The notice also set a deadline for discovery — sharing of evidence — at 5 p.m. Feb. 1. Boyce’s decision for removing the death penalty in Vallow Daybell’s trial partly centered on a request made by the defense, which argued that the prosecution made “multiple discovery violations” by submitting thousands of documents and pieces of evidence past deadline in her case.
Boyce agreed, and even said that the items disclosed were “inarguably” and “inexcusably” late. Boyce also noted during a March hearing that before the Daybells’ trials were separated, both Chad and Lori complained about delays in receiving evidence and argued that “large volumes” of information were being disclosed too close to the impending trial.
The Daybells’ cases were severed after test results on a potential piece of DNA evidence — a hair sample found at the crime scene — was submitted too close to the joint April trial date, according to a recording of the hearing published by East Idaho News.
Lori Daybell’s trial moved forward because her attorneys said those were her wishes.
