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BOISE, Idaho — Opening statements will begin Monday in the Lori Vallow Daybell case as jury selection is expected to wrap up this week.
Twelve jurors will ultimately be picked along with six alternates. Three groups of 15 men and women were questioned by District Judge Steven Boyce, prosecutors and Daybell's defense attorneys Wednesday and at the end of the day, 39 potential jurors remained in the pool.
The court needs 42 jurors before the defense and prosecution will begin peremptory challenges until 18 remain. The defense and prosecution each get to eliminate 12 people in the pool.
Jury selection is scheduled to continue at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday. Boyce has scheduled opening arguments to begin at the Ada County Courthouse on Monday at 8:30 a.m.
Daybell is charged with murder, conspiracy and grand theft in connection to the deaths of her children, 7-year-old Joshua "JJ" Vallow, and Tylee Ryan, who was last seen a few days before her 17th birthday.
Her husband, Chad Daybell, faces the same charges and both are also charged in the death of Daybell's former wife, Tammy Daybell. EastIdahoNews.com is providing live updates throughout each day.
Judge Steven Boyce on Wednesday asked jurors —as he has done for all potential jurors — whether they'd seen documentaries from Dateline, or Netflix, related to the Vallow Daybell case.
In some instances, the potential juror said yes. Others mentioned they'd heard bits and pieces of the story from the media.
However, admitting this was not an automatic ticket to being excused as a juror.
Another potential juror excused.
— Aimee Cobabe (@aims_babe) April 5, 2023
Defense "You probably formed an opinion that hey, she probably killed these kids."
Juror "I did not form an opinion."
"Any [media] exposure before you came into jury duty?"
"I completely forgot about this case."
"Completely forgot?"
"Completely."
"They were in some part of Hawaii, and not being able to answer where the kids are, that's just a suspicious thing, guardianship-wise, right? That's just weird," one juror said, according to KSL-TV reporter Lauren Steinbrecher, who attended the proceeding on Wednesday.
Steinbrecher said the judge didn't think that comment rose to the level of excusing the juror and that juror passed.
But another juror, who admitted knowing the Daybells had been in Hawaii, described what they knew about the case in another way.
"The kids were missing," Steinbrecher reported the potential juror saying. "When I first became aware, they — Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell — were in Hawaii, my thing there is if your child is missing why would you go to Hawaii unless you know something … I do think she knew what happened because she went to Hawaii."
According to Steinbrecher, that juror was excused for implied bias.
Contributing: Simone Seikaly, Lauren Steinbrecher and Aimee Cobabe, KSL
