![Local – Idaho man sentenced to death for killing wife and girlfriend’s 2 children in doomsday plot | KeynoteUSA Local – Idaho man sentenced to death for killing wife and girlfriend’s 2 children in doomsday plot | KeynoteUSA](https://i3.wp.com/d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2021/11/Gavel-trial-court-stock-GettyImages-970562566-1024x683.jpg?w=1200&resize=1200,0&ssl=1)
File photo provided by /Keynote USA/Getty Images
BOISE, Idaho (KeynoteUSA) — Chad Daybell was sentenced to death for the murder of his wife and his girlfriend’s two young children in Idaho.
The sentence was handed down Saturday after an Idaho jury unanimously agreed that imposing the death penalty would be a fair resolution to the triple murder case. The sentencing marks the end of a grim investigation that began with the search for two missing children in 2019. The following year, their bodies were found buried in Daybell’s yard in eastern Idaho.
Both Daybell and his new wife, Lori Vallow Daybell, were charged with multiple counts of murder, conspiracy and grand larceny in connection with the deaths of Vallow Daybell’s two youngest children, 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow and Tylee Ryan. They were also charged with conspiracy and murder in the death of Daybell’s first wife, Tammy Daybell.
During a trial that lasted nearly two months, prosecutors said Chad Daybell promoted unusual spiritual beliefs, including apocalyptic prophecies and stories of possession by evil spirits, to justify the murders.
Daybell’s defense attorney, John Prior, argued during the trial that there was insufficient evidence to link Daybell to the murders and suggested that Vallow Daybell’s older brother, Alex Cox, was the culprit. Cox died in late 2019 and was never charged, and Vallow Daybell was convicted last year and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
During the sentencing hearing, Prior asked jurors to judge Daybell on his life before he met Vallow Daybell, describing her as a bombshell that threw him off the trajectory of an otherwise healthy life. But Daybell also refused to offer mitigating evidence during the sentencing hearing. Mitigating evidence is often used to encourage jurors to sympathize with the defendant in an effort to demonstrate that a sentence of life imprisonment would be more appropriate than capital punishment.
Relatives of the victims gave emotional statements to the jurors. JJ Vallow’s grandmother, Kay Woodcock, tearfully described how the 7-year-old showed empathy and compassion toward others through gentle caresses and frequently asking if those around him were okay. She also said that Tylee was a loving older sister and it warmed her heart to see them together.
“I can’t express how much I wish I had more time to make memories,” Woodcock said, beginning to cry.
Idaho law allows execution by lethal injection or firing squad, although firing squad executions have never been used in the state.
Keynote USA
For the Latest Local News, Follow Keynote USA Local on Twitter.