Estimated read time: 8-9 minutes
BOISE — "Two dead children" and "three dead bodies."
Prosecutor Rob Wood told the 10 men and eight women assigned to be jurors in Chad Daybell's murder trial a story, separating his opening statements Wednesday into chapters after telling them Daybell ran a publishing company. He said the story is real and is about a "seemingly ordinary man."
"Two dead children buried in this defendant's backyard. The next month his wife dead in their bed. Seventeen days later, the defendant marries Lori Vallow," he said.
Opening statements in the trial began Wednesday.
Chad Daybell is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Lori Vallow Daybell's children — 7-year-old Joshua "JJ" Vallow, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan — and the death of his former wife, Tammy Daybell, in late 2019. He is also charged with conspiracy to murder each of the victims, grand theft and insurance fraud. Lori Daybell has already been convicted of the three deaths.
The bodies of the two children were found in shallow graves in Chad Daybell's Idaho backyard over six months after officials began searching for them. Tammy Daybell died at home and her death was initially reported to be from natural causes, but investigators later determined her death was a homicide after her body was exhumed from a Utah County cemetery.
The trial is being streamed live on Idaho 7th District Judge Steven Boyce's official YouTube channel. KSL.com is streaming the proceedings each day.
Defense attorney John Prior has repeatedly said his client wants a "public trial" and pushed for cameras to be allowed in the courtroom.
A 'very unfortunate' relationship
Prior contrasted his client's history — a church mission to New Jersey, a long marriage to Tammy Daybell, five children and no criminal history except one speeding ticket — with Lori Daybell's history of multiple husbands, some "very short-lived."
After meeting at a conference, Lori Vallow "pursued" Chad Daybell, "and she encouraged him," Prior said, conceding that it turned into an "inappropriate relationship."
Prior said the testimony in the trial will show that Lori Daybell was a "beautiful, vivacious woman, very sexual person and very manipulative, and she knows how to get what she wants" and drove Chad Daybell into a "very unfortunate" relationship.
He said Lori Daybell's brother, Alex Cox, who died in 2019, would have done anything for her — including assaulting her previous husband with a Taser, which Cox was put in jail for.
"Whenever there was a problem or a threat with Lori Vallow … Alex Cox came to the rescue," Prior said.
He said Cox was the person who shot Lori Daybell's husband Charles Vallow, and said Chad Daybell was not involved.
Prior also said evidence will show DNA and fingerprints from Lori Daybell and Alex Cox were found on the plastic around JJ's body, but there was no DNA from Chad Daybell. He also contested that the bodies were found in Daybell's "backyard," saying the bodies were in "the pasture." The property was a 4.5-acre farm.
He also told jurors an expert witness will testify there is no indication Tammy Daybell's death was a homicide, and three or four of Chad Daybell's children will say she had multiple health problems but refused to go to the doctor.
Prior urged the jury to pay attention to facts and evidence.
"Don't be distracted by speculation, don't be distracted by guesses, or assumptions or hunches," he said.
'No person, and no law, would stand in his way'
During Lori Daybell's murder trial last year, prosecutors said "money, power and sex" led her to participate in the killing of her children and husband's ex-wife.
Wood repeated the same thing on Wednesday, saying Chad Daybell called their spouses and her children "obstacles" during conversations with Lori Daybell. He said his desire to pursue "sex, money and power" led to the three deaths.
"He made sure that no person, and no law, would stand in his way," Wood said.
The prosecutor said text messages between Lori and Chad Daybell show a story of lust and a plan for a future. They created names from past lives and spoke about sexual encounters. They also referred to people who opposed them — including the three victims — as "dark spirits" or "zombies," Wood said.
"The evidence will show that it was a convenient narrative that dehumanized people who stood in their way," he said.
Wood said the couple spoke about the $1 million in life insurance Lori Daybell thought she would receive after her husband Charles Vallow's death, and he said although Lori Daybell was no longer the beneficiary on that plan, she would still get $4,000 a month from Social Security because of her children. He said Tammy Daybell's life insurance increased to $400,000 shortly before her death.
A slide presentation showed jurors photos of the three children during one chapter, and then photos of Chad and Lori Daybell's wedding in Hawaii in the next chapter of Wood's story — just 17 days after Chad's previous wife's death. He said the wedding was planned before Tammy Daybell died.
Unfortunately for Chad Daybell, Wood said, reality brought an end to his plans. After a shooting in Arizona aimed at Lori Daybell's nephew-in-law, Brandon Boudreaux, from what looked like Tylee's Jeep, law enforcement began looking for that vehicle in Idaho. JJ Vallow's grandmother also reached out for help from officers and on Nov. 26, 2019, showed up at Lori Daybell's door looking for the children.
Wood said a text message from Chad Daybell to Tammy Daybell on Sept. 9, 2018 — the day after Tylee was last seen — is what led police to find the children's bodies. The text was about shooting a "raccoon" and burying it in the pet cemetery in his backyard. Tylee's body was found in the graveyard and JJ's body was also found nearby under a tree.
Wood told the jurors they would have the opportunity to write the final chapter of the story, the one that "delivers justice" for Tammy Daybell, JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan.
Wood said the trial will be lengthy and told jurors they will hear from law enforcement, learn of forensic evidence and location data, and learn about texts and recorded phone calls between Lori and Chad Daybell.
The trial could last as long as eight weeks, or more.
'A small body wrapped in dark plastic'
Rexburg police detective Ray Hermosillo was the trial's first witness Monday. He testified about going to find Lori Daybell while searching for JJ after reports from his grandmother, Kay Woodcock, that she had not heard from him in months.
He said investigators found Alex Cox and Chad Daybell and both claimed they did not have Lori Daybell's phone number. Chad Daybell, who officers knew was her husband, claimed he "had only met her a couple of times" and "didn't know her very well."
Hermosillo spoke about getting a search warrant and going back to search the homes of Lori Daybell, Alex Cox, and Lori Daybell's niece Melanie Boudreaux, which were all in the same townhome complex. He said Cox's home was empty, and Daybell's home looked normal except the closets did not have clothes, just empty hangers. He also said they found a contract for a storage unit for a "Lori Ryan" where they found children's bikes, clothing and a blanket with family photos of JJ, Tylee and Lori's older son Colby Ryan.
At this point, Hermosillo said they were not looking for Tylee and had no reports that she was missing.
Hermosillo also spoke about serving search warrants on Chad Daybell's home months later in June 2020. He said his son answered the door and led them to where Chad Daybell was sleeping. Officers woke him up and allowed him to read the search warrant and call his attorney.
He said while standing outside, he noticed Chad Daybell, who was on the phone in his truck, "intently looking over his right shoulder" toward a pond on his property behind his house.
The detective then spoke about excavating a small area near the pond under the direction of the FBI's evidence recovery team. He said they removed a shrub, soil and top layer of dirt and then found some large white rocks.
As soon as they removed the rocks, Hermosillo said, "We could start to smell the odor that in my training experience is a decomposing body." He said as they removed some wood the smell got stronger, and they could see the dirt was discolored — like a wet, moist-type dirt."
Kay Woodcock left the courtroom before Hermosillo talked about uncovering the plastic bag that contained JJ's body.
Hermosillo said at first it looked like a black round object and then it took the shape of "the crown of a human head." He said officials made a split in the black plastic, and in the white plastic they found underneath they were able to see what looked like human hair.
It was at this point that the detective said they learned Daybell was driving back to the home "at a high rate of speed" and officers pulled him over and arrested him.
After the arrest, he said they continued excavating the burial site and found "what appeared to be a small body wrapped in dark plastic with duct tape around it."
Hermosillo is expected to continue testifying about the excavation on Thursday.
In Lori Daybell's trial, Hermosillo testified that once it was unwrapped he easily identified the small body as JJ.
Lori Daybell was convicted last year of what the judge then called "heinous crimes," including murdering her children and conspiring to murder Tammy Daybell. She was ordered to serve five consecutive life sentences, without the possibility of parole.
In Chad Daybell's case, the death penalty is a possibility. If he is convicted of first-degree murder, the same jury would hear testimony during a penalty phase of the trial and determine whether he would receive the death penalty or another sentence.
