Chad Daybell verdict in zombie murder trial : NPR

A jury in Boise, Idaho, has discovered Chad Daybell responsible of homicide and conspiracy costs within the deaths of his former spouse, Tammy Daybell, and two youngsters of his present spouse, Lori Vallow Daybell.

Prosecutors have mentioned they’ll search the demise penalty for Daybell if he’s convicted. In such circumstances, the jury would then hear from the 2 sides about any aggravating and mitigating circumstances, earlier than deciding whether or not a demise sentence is suitable.

Prosecutors mentioned Daybell concocted wild, religion-tinged fantasies about individuals changing into zombies to justify grisly crimes — with the purpose, they mentioned, of beginning a brand new life with Lori Vallow after having an affair along with her. In addition they accused Daybell of insurance coverage fraud in his former spouse’s demise.

Daybell, 55, was discovered responsible of first-degree homicide in Tammy Daybell’s demise in late 2019. He was additionally discovered responsible of conspiracy costs within the deaths of Vallow Daybell’s two youngest youngsters, Tylee Ryan and Joshua Jaxon “JJ” Vallow. Tylee was practically 17 when she and JJ, 7, have been final seen alive in September 2019 — the identical month they’d moved with their mom from Chandler, Ariz., to Rexburg, Idaho.

Prosecutor mentioned texts present Tammy was “in the best way”

Tammy Daybell, Chad’s then-wife, was discovered useless in her dwelling in October 2019. The librarian and educator was 49. A coroner didn’t initially carry out an post-mortem, saying a coronary heart assault was the obvious reason for demise. However suspicions later led Tammy’s physique to be exhumed, and the reason for demise was modified to murder: asphyxiation by suffocation.

In her closing argument this week, Fremont County Prosecutor Lindsey Blake mentioned Chad Daybell influenced the coroner’s preliminary ruling by fabricating particulars about Tammy’s medical situation. It was all a part of a plan, Blake mentioned, for Chad to get rid of his spouse so he might be with Lori Vallow. Months earlier, Vallow’s brother had shot and killed her husband, Charles.

“Just a little over 24 hours from reporting his spouse’s demise,” Blake mentioned in her closing argument, “Chad messages Lori: ‘I do know precisely how you are feeling. I am feeling unhappy, but it surely is not for the explanation everybody thinks!'”

On the time, Vallow was on a visit to Hawaii. Blake mentioned Vallow had grown pissed off with Daybell, sending him a textual content saying they could not be collectively till issues modified.

“What wants to vary?” the prosecutor requested the jurors. “Tammy’s in the best way.”

Daybell responded to Vallow’s message, Blake added, by saying that being with Vallow was the one factor that mattered to him.

“Lori manipulates Chad with intercourse,” Blake mentioned. “From the minute he met her, he wished to be along with her — and she or he knew it.”

Two youngsters have been discovered buried on Daybell’s property

Blake additionally described how Vallow started asking Daybell about doable plans involving Tylee and JJ.

“A couple of month after Charles’ passing, Lori’s asking Chad, ‘Do you assume there’s a completely orchestrated plan to take the youngsters?'” Blake mentioned, displaying a picture of Vallow’s textual content message to Daybell in courtroom.

“There’s a plan being orchestrated for the youngsters,” Daybell replied within the change of messages. “I used to be proven final night time the way it match collectively once more.”

The youngsters’s our bodies have been present in June 2020 and buried on property in Rexburg owned by Daybell. Horrific and heart-wrenching photographs from the scene have been proven to the jury early within the trial.

“Tylee’s DNA was discovered on a pickax and a shovel that have been within the defendant’s storage,” Blake instructed the jury as she reviewed the proof in her closing argument on Wednesday.

Blake mentioned Daybell used a numerical system to price members of his and Vallow Daybell’s household, with larger numbers reserved for individuals whom he assessed as being overtaken by darkish forces.

“Chad mentioned if somebody’s a zombie, the physique has to die,” Blake instructed the jury.

Chad Daybell additionally was charged with two counts of insurance coverage fraud. Prosecutors say he maxed out Tammy’s life insurance coverage coverage the month earlier than she died, with himself as a beneficiary. Lower than a month after Tammy’s demise, he married Lori Vallow in Hawaii.

Couple was pushed by odd beliefs, witnesses mentioned

Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow Daybell have been indicted collectively on the homicide costs in Could 2021; their circumstances have been cut up at Daybell’s request.

Vallow Daybell was sentenced to a number of life phrases in jail final yr for the three deaths in Idaho.

Melanie Gibb, a confidante of Vallow Daybell’s, testified final yr that she noticed her pal change into more and more concerned with Chad Daybell, with the pair telling her that they’d been married in a earlier life. They spoke of being joined for eternity and main 144,000 individuals ultimately occasions, as described within the Guide of Revelation, Gibb mentioned.

Gibb mentioned the couple additionally shared beliefs about individuals being overtaken by darkish, evil power. The prison indictment cites textual content messages between the pair “relating to demise percentages for Tammy” Daybell, in addition to messages about her being in limbo, and Tammy “being possessed by a spirit named Viola.”

Along with the costs in Idaho, Vallow Daybell has been extradited to Arizona to face chargesrelated to her former husband’s demise in July 2019 and an try on the lifetime of her niece’s ex-husband.