Chad Daybell: Closing arguments begin in trial of Idaho man charged with triple murder

BOISE, Idaho - An Idaho man charged with murdering his wife and his girlfriend’s two youngest children was driven to commit the crimes by money, power and sex, a prosecutor told jurors during closing arguments on Wednesday.

"Three dead bodies ... and for what?" prosecutor Lindsey Blake told jurors in the trial of Chad Daybell. "Money, power and sex — that’s what the defendant cared about."

Daybell, 55, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder, insurance fraud, and conspiracy to commit murder and grand theft in connection with the deaths of Tammy Daybell, 7-year-old Joshua "JJ" Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty if Daybell is convicted.

Daybell’s defense attorney, John Prior, contends there simply isn’t enough evidence to conclusively tie Daybell to the deaths, or even to prove that his wife, Tammy Daybell, was killed instead of dying from natural causes. Several witnesses, including Chad and Tammy Daybell’s adult children, testified for the defense.

Mugshot for Chad Daybell (Photo Courtesy: Ada County Sheriffs Office)

Last year, the children’s mother and Daybell’s girlfriend, Lori Vallow Daybell, received a life sentence without parole for the killings.

Prosecutors have called dozens of witnesses to bolster their claims that Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow Daybell conspired to kill the two children and Tammy Daybell because they wanted to get rid of any obstacles to their relationship and to obtain money from survivor benefits and life insurance. Prosecutors say the couple justified the killings by creating a detailed and apocalyptic-focused belief system involving claims that people could be possessed by evil spirits and turned into "zombies," and that the only way to save a possessed person’s soul was for the possessed body to die.

Blake said Wednesday that Daybell styled himself as a leader of something he called "The Church of the Firstborn," and told his girlfriend, Vallow Daybell, and others that he could determine if someone had become a "zombie." Daybell also claimed to be able to determine how close a person was to death by reading what he called their "death percentage," Blake said.

Daybell followed a pattern for each of the three people who were killed, Blake said.

"They would be labeled as ‘dark’ by Chad Daybell. Their ‘death percentage’ would drop. Then they would have to die," she said.

Blake also said Daybell manipulated Vallow Daybell and her brother, Alex Cox, into helping with the plan, at times bestowing ‘spiritual blessings’ on Cox and warning Vallow Daybell that the angels were angry because she was ignoring him.

Chad Daybell and Vallow Daybell married just two weeks after Tammy Daybell’s death in October 2019, raising suspicion among law enforcement officials. Tammy Daybell’s body was later exhumed, and officials say an autopsy showed she died of asphyxiation. Chad Daybell had told officials that Tammy Daybell had been sick, and that she died in her sleep.

Witnesses for both sides agreed that Chad Daybell and Vallow Daybell were having an affair that began well before Tammy Daybell died, and that the two young children were missing for months before their remains were found buried in Chad Daybell’s backyard.

The case began in the fall of 2019, when Lori Vallow Daybell’s then-estranged husband, Charles Vallow, was shot to death by Cox at his home in a Phoenix, Arizona suburb. Cox told police it was in self-defense and was never charged.

Vallow Daybell, her kids JJ and Tylee, and Cox all moved to eastern Idaho, settling in a town not far from the rural area where Chad Daybell lived. Just a few months later, extended family reported the two children missing and law enforcement launched a search that spanned several states.

The children’s remains were found nearly a year later, buried on Chad Daybell’s property. Investigators later determined both children died in September 2019. Prosecutors say Cox conspired with Chad Daybell and Vallow Daybell in all three deaths, but Cox died of natural causes during the investigation and was never charged.

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Chad Daybell trial: Defense rests its case after 11 witnesses called to testify

The Chad Daybell defense rests its case after 11 witnesses were called to the stand. Several rebuttals by the prosecution attempted to poke holes in the testimony of the Daybell children.

During the trial, prosecutors presented testimony from Lori Vallow Daybell’s niece, who said the couple believed that people could be possessed by evil spirits, rendering the person a "zombie." They said that zombies would eventually be overcome by the dark spirit and die, Melani Pawlowski told jurors. Her testimony echoed that given last year by another friend of the couple, Melanie Gibb. Gibb testified during Lori Vallow Daybell’s trial that she heard Vallow Daybell call the two kids "zombies" before they vanished.

Jurors heard grim testimony from law enforcement officers who described finding the children’s bodies in Daybell’s yard. They were also presented with dozens of cellphone records and messages between Daybell and Vallow Daybell, including some that showed she called him the day Charles Vallow died. Daybell allegedly told Vallow Daybell in one message that JJ was "barely attached to his body" and that there "is a plan being orchestrated for the children."

Defense witnesses included Dr. Kathy Raven, a forensic pathologist who reviewed reports from Tammy Daybell’s autopsy and said she believed the cause of death should have been classified as "undetermined."

Chad Daybell’s son, Garth Daybell, testified that his mother had been fatigued and sickly before she died. He told jurors he was home the night his mother died and that he heard no disturbances from his bedroom next to his parents’ room. He said he later felt like police officers and prosecutors were trying to pressure him to change his story, even threatening him with perjury charges at one point.

Blake said Daybell acted with callousness, treating Vallow Daybell’s children and his late wife like mere obstacles to his future.

"They left a wake of destruction and tears for those who had trusted them," Blake said.

Prior was expected to give his closing arguments for the defense later Wednesday.