Idaho seeks death penalty for Lori Vallow, charged with killing her 2 children

Brad Dress
·2 min read
2

Idaho is pushing for the death penalty against Lori Vallow Daybell, who is charged in connection to four separate deaths, including two of her own children.

In court filings on Monday in the 7th Judicial District Court in Bonneville County, state prosecutors said that if Vallow is convicted on charges of first-degree murder or conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, they would seek the death penalty during sentencing.

Attorneys wrote that the murders that Vallow is accused of are “especially heinous, atrocious or cruel, manifesting exceptional depravity.”

“The defendant exhibited utter disregard for human life,” attorneys argued. “The defendant, by her conduct, whether such conduct was before, during or after the commission or the murder(s) at hand, has exhibited a propensity to commit murder which will probably constitute a continuing threat to society.”

Prosecutors are also seeking the death penalty against Vallow’s husband, Chad Daybell. Both have pleaded not guilty in court and face separate trials, though attorneys have requested they combine the two cases into one trial in January 2023, EastIdahoNews.com reported.

The pair are accused of murdering Vallow’s children, 7-year-old Joshua Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, both of whom went missing around September 2019.

They are also accused of murdering Chad Daybell’s first wife, Tammy Daybell, who is said to have died of natural causes in October 2019.

Authorities are suspicious of her death because Vallow moved to Idaho with her children and married Chad Daybell a few weeks later, according to The Associated Press.

Vallow is also separately accused of working with her brother, Alex Cox, who killed Vallow’s estranged husband, Charles Vallow, in Phoenix in July 2019.

Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow believed unusual theories about zombies, teleportation and communication with spiritual realms, the AP noted, which they used to justify and encourage murders.

The death penalty has come under increased scrutiny this year following South Carolina’s approval of a firing squad to execute its first inmate in more than a decade.

The Vallow case also follows the recent news of Melissa Lucio in Texas, who last month had her death sentence paused amid questions about her guilt in the 2007 murder of her daughter.

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