In a triple murder case, Chad Daybell was given the death penalty on Saturday, over a year after his second wife, Lori Vallow Daybell, was found guilty and given a life sentence.
Daybell was found guilty of conspiring to commit the murders, insurance fraud, and the first-degree murders of his first wife, Tammy Daybell, and two of her children, Joshua “JJ” Vallow and Tylee Ryan. Daybell was also the ex-girlfriend of Lori Vallow.
After being found guilty of killing them all three last year, Lori Vallow Daybell received a life sentence without the possibility of release.
When 7-year-old JJ’s grandparents reported him missing in 2019 and detectives discovered Tylee had last been seen around the same time, the case garnered global attention.
Only a few weeks after Tammy Daybell’s death, Daybell and Vallow were first taken into custody by the police while on their Hawaiian honeymoon.
Months later, the bodies of the children were found buried on Daybell’s land.
The case brought attention to the couple’s extreme religious views, which included the notion that a person may become a “zombie” by having bad spirits take over their body.
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The jury that found Chad Daybell guilty also discussed how to punish him for the capital offenses. Daybell and Vallow Daybell’s trials in Idaho were overseen by Judge Steven Boyce, who said on Thursday that Daybell will be sentenced at a later time for the insurance fraud allegations.
Nine people—including the brother of Tammy Daybell, Tylee and JJ’s older brother, and others—offered victim impact statements in front of a packed courtroom on Friday.
Daybell likewise declined to speak during the penalty phase; he had not testified in his own defense.
After being found guilty in Idaho, where she is still awaiting trial for the murder of her husband Charles Vallow, who was shot by her brother Alex Cox in 2019, Vallow Daybell was extradited to Arizona. That year, Cox passed away as well.
