Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell Will Be Tried Together: Judge
PHOENIX — A judge has ruled that Lori Vallow and her husband, Chad Daybell, will stand trial together. The remains of her children were found on his Idaho property in June after a months-long search for their whereabouts.
Judge Steven Boyce made his ruling Thursday due to coronavirus restrictions and the current difficulties of getting a jury together.
Prosecutor Rob Wood had advocated for the joint trial because Vallow and Daybell are charged with the same crime but Daybell's attorney worried that trying the married couple together would introduce unfair prejudice against his client. Boyce disagreed, but did not eliminate the possibility of separate trials if that changes.
17-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old J.J. Vallow went missing in September 2019. Police in Rexburg, Idaho, began investigating the whereabouts of the children after relatives expressed alarm they hadn't heard from them. Vallow never reported them missing and traveled to Hawaii with Daybell amid the investigation.Their remains were later found buried on Daybell's rural Idaho property.
Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell have since been charged with conspiracy to destroy, alter or conceal evidence in connection with the children's deaths. Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The Chandler Police Department confirmed to Patch in August that Vallow will likely be charged in the death of her estranged husband. Charles Vallow was killed by Lori's brother, Alex Cox, in July 2019. Cox claimed self-defense before he died of natural causes in December 2019. Lori moved with her children to eastern Idaho just weeks after Charles' shooting.
"An estimate of sending the case over to the prosecution is four to six months, but that could come and go," Sgt. Jason McClimans said, indicating the wait could be longer. "We are in no rush to send it over there."
While Vallow did not shoot her estranged husband, if Chandler police determine she had a connection to his death, state law dictates that the correct charge would be conspiracy to commit murder, McClimans said. But the Maricopa County prosecutor will get the final say in what charges are ultimately filed, he said.
Worried his wife would kill him after he filed for divorce, Charles Vallow had filed for an order of protection, according to court documents that paint a picture of a woman who believed she was a "translated being" and "a god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ's second coming in July 2020."
Police in Rexburg, Idaho, are also investigating the death of Daybell's wife Tammy, who died two weeks before he and Lori Vallow were married in Hawaii.
Daybell is a doomsday prepper who has written several apocalyptic novels loosely based on Mormon religious theology. Both he and Vallow had been involved in a group that promotes preparedness for biblical Armageddon.
This article originally appeared on the Phoenix Patch
