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Chad Daybell Sentenced To Death For Killing Wife And Girlfriend’s 2 Children In Jury Decision
BOISE, Idaho – After a tragic trial that started in 2019 with a search for two missing children, an Idaho jury on Saturday unanimously decided that convicted killer Chad Daybell should be executed for the horrific murders of his wife and her two youngest children.
Daybell, 55, sat at the defense table with his hands in his lap while sporting a formal shirt and tie. When he found out that he would be executed for the killings of Tammy Daybell, 16, Tylee Ryan, and 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow, he displayed no emotion.
Lori Vallow Daybell, whom Chad Daybell married soon after his wife passed away, is the children’s mother. After being found guilty of the three murders last year, Vallow Daybell is currently awaiting trial in Arizona on charges of murder about the shooting death of her fourth husband, Charles Vallow. JJ’s father was Charles Vallow.
2019 saw the start of the case when a family member called the police. After quickly realizing both kids were gone, investigators launched a multistate search. Their corpses were discovered and buried on Chad Daybell’s land about a year later. Prosecutors claim that Tylee’s DNA was later discovered on a pickaxe and shovel in a shed on the property and that JJ’s body was covered with duct tape and trash bags.
Prosecutors claimed that throughout Chad Daybell’s nearly two-month trial, the self-published author of fiction tinged with doomsday propagated strange spiritual beliefs such as tales of evil spirits possessing people and apocalyptic prophecies to excuse the crimes.
Chad Daybell | Fox News Image
Chad Daybell Sentenced To Death For Killing Wife And Girlfriend’s 2 Children In Jury Decision
During the trial, Daybell’s defense lawyer, John Prior, contended that there was insufficient evidence linking Daybell to the murders and proposed that Alex Cox, Vallow Daybell’s older brother, was the murderer. Vallow Daybell was found guilty last year and given a life sentence without the possibility of release, while Cox passed away in late 2019 without ever being charged.
Prior asked the jury to evaluate Daybell on his life before meeting Vallow Daybell during the sentencing hearing, characterizing her as a bomb that blasted him off the trajectory of an otherwise wholesome existence. However, Daybell neglected to present any mitigating circumstances at the sentencing hearing. Evidence aimed at mitigating the case is frequently used to persuade jurors that a life sentence would be a more fitting punishment than the death penalty.
Chad Daybell | CBS News Image
Chad Daybell Sentenced To Death For Killing Wife And Girlfriend’s 2 Children In Jury Decision
The victims’ relatives addressed the jury in tearful words. Kay Woodcock, JJ Vallow’s grandmother, spoke movingly about how the 7-year-old would constantly inquire about the well-being of individuals in his immediate vicinity and demonstrate understanding and compassion with gentle touches. She added that Tylee was a loving big sister and that watching them together made her heart smile.
Colby Ryan, the eldest child of Vallow Daybell, talked about what it was like to lose his whole family. Years have passed since his father’s death.
“JJ’s quirky and wacky personality and Tylee’s goodness of heart will never be known to my three kids… “I can only compare the effect of their deaths to the detonation of a nuclear bomb,” he remarked. “To say that I lost everything is not an exaggeration.”
Chad Daybell | NBC News image
Chad Daybell Sentenced To Death For Killing Wife And Girlfriend’s 2 Children In Jury Decision
The jury had to come to a unanimous decision that Daybell fit the definition of at least one of the “aggravating circumstances” under state law to carry out the death penalty. Additionally, they had to concur that no mitigating circumstances would have reduced his guilt or called for a lesser punishment that exceeded those aggravating circumstances.
Although firing squad executions have never been carried out in the state, Idaho law permits both lethal injection and firing squad methods of execution.
SOURCE – (AP)
