TRIAL OF CHAD DAYBELL CHARGED WITH MURDER OF JJ VALLOW, TYLEE RYAN AND TAMMY DAYBELL

[Niner]

Friday, April 5th:
*Final Jury Selection continues (Day 5) (@ 9am MT) – ID – Joshua Jaxon (JJ) Vallow (7) & Tylee Ashlyn Ryan (16) (JJ last seen Sept. 23, 2019 & Tylee on Sept. 9, 2019, Rexburg; found June 9, 2020 buried in Daybell’s yard in Salem, ID) & Tamara “Tammy” Michelle Douglas Daybell (49) (died on Oct. 19, 2019 at her residence in Salem, ID; dob 5/4/70). – *Chad Guy Daybell (53/now 55) arrested (6/9/20) & indicted (5/25/21) & charged (5/26/21) & arraigned (6/9/21) with Count 1 (for Tylee): Conspiracy to commit 1st degree murder & grand theft by deception (for Daybell, Vallow & Alex Cox) & other co-conspirators. Count 2 (for Tylee): 1st degree murder. Count 3 (for JJ): Conspiracy to commit 1st degree murder & grand theft by deception. Count 4 (for JJ): 1st degree murder. Count 5 (for Tammy, 49, died 10/19/19): Conspiracy to commit 1st degree murder. Count 6 (for Tammy): 1st degree murder. Count 8 & 9: Insurance Fraud (Two counts of insurance fraud related to 2 different life insurance policies he had on Tammy). Plead not guilty. No bond. DA will seek DP. (Judge denied removing DP 3/14/24).
Trial began on 4/1/24 with final jury selection. Trial will be held in Ada County. Court hours are 8:30am to 3pm Monday-Friday.
Jury selection Day 1 (4/1/24): 16 to final 50. Day 2 (4/2): 4 to final 50. Day 3 (4/3): 17 to final 50. Day 4 (4/4): 15 to final 50. Total = 52. [There will be 12 jurors & 6 alternates]
Jury will be sequestered during deliberations in the guilt phase thru the penalty phase.
Judge Steven W. Boyce presiding. Prosecutors: Lindsey Blake & Rachel Smith & defense attorney John Prior.
Court info from 6/10/20 thru 3/29/24 & Jury Selection Day 1-3 (4/1-4/3/24) reference post #81 here:
https://www.websleuths.com/forums/t...ow-tylee-ryan-and-tammy-daybell.708820/page-4
4/2/24 Docket update: Order-On non-party Motion to Intervene. [Motion was temporarily sealed by Judge, pending further review & will call for a hearing to determine whether the motion will remain sealed or be unsealed & set the substance of motion for hearing].
4/4/24 Thursday, Jury Selection Day 4: Jury selection continues. 13 potential jurors were called in the morning session. 7 jurors advance. 2nd group of 16 jurors in the afternoon session. 8 jurors advance. Total of 52 potential jurors selected. Friday morning prosecution & defense use peremptory strikes to narrow pool down to 18 jurors. Jury selection continues on Friday, 4/5/24.

 

[watergirl62]

Will the remainder of the jury selection process be in camera or just some portions of it?

https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/isc.coi/CR22-21-1623/2024/031524-Order-1.pdf

 

[Ruminations]

I went on a deep dive here into some legal sites and was surprised to discover that yes, co-conspirators are legally allowed to testify FOR or AGAINST the defense. Even if the co-conspirator plead guilty or were found guilty of the crime, though, they could still plead the Fifth, which is why often the State won't subpoena a co-conspirator unless they know for sure that they will testify against the defense (ie In this case, the State would look bad if they called LVD as a witness and LVD refused to testify against CD).

IMO, the defense would be seriously playing with fire by allow LVD to testify. The State would absolutely tear her apart on cross-examination, and based on her closing statement at her own trial, I don't think it would do CD any favors.

Exactly. Interesting dive.

Co-conspirators are often unpredictable and/or vulnerable on cross. So often neither side wants to call them. One obvious vulnerability is that such a witness is a criminal. too. So they come off as lying- such as lying to get a lesser charge- lying to keep the attention on them- lying just because they are angry at the defendant for getting them caught. Think of all the petty reasons the co conspirators in this case seem to relish lying and fantasy and attention. They make lousy witnesses for or against themselves or each other.

Prosecutors often go for the bigger fish and use lesser players as witnesses. But it is double edged, because the witnesses come off as liars minimizing their role, or faking remorse and regret. It's better than no witness, but not perfect.

In this case, there are a lot of witnesses not charged as co conspirators, but have a similar vulnerabilities to co-conspirator witnesses. Obviously, people willing to be friends with these murderers, and thus become witnesses, are not going to be people with exceptional abilities to sniff out charlatans. Or they are the type to wish they had the "gifts" the charlatans have.

MOO

 

[Ruminations]

Tammy Daybell's death was a homicide, coroner in Lori Vallow Daybell trial says

Testimony on Friday in the trial of Lori Vallow Daybell focused on the events leading up to, and directly following the death of 49-year-old Tammy Daybell.

kslnewsradio.com

I can't believe that Brenda Dye, the county coroner who signed off on "no autopsy" for Tammy Daybell, is still the coroner in Fremont County.

Her testimony is going to be critical for this trial. One would hope that Tammy's relatives could support changing the law in Idaho, that if a healthy person dies at home, to have an autopsy be mandatory. Not determined by an elected official, with a high school diploma. Zero background in crime.

She was hardly a crime scene investigator in 2019. I agree with that.

I find myself feeling bad for her- i guess if she hadn't taken that job for which she was qualified on paper but not on the ground, some one else would have, probably with similar horrible investigative/justice-obtaining outcomes. And most of the time, dead people are surrounded by survivors in grief, not murderers in cover-up mode. It was not expected that she would come across a suspicious death ever.

I guess the reason I feel bad for her is I forgive her taking a job that was given to her, don't blame her for the lack of training, and she obviously feels deeply how things went very wrong.

I imagine if she knew when she was hired how badly things could go with her level of training and experience, she'd have insisted on training or not taken the job. But she didn't know, things went badly in terms of evidence gathering, and she feels awful about that.

And, of course, now she has had some brutal on the job training.

I forgive Brenda Dye.

MOO

 

[mickey2942]

@Ruminations the real issue is the State of Idaho, there should be a law, unattended death, autopsy. That law is in place in Utah. It takes the burden off of an elected official. And moves it to the clinical level, as it should be. And I would hope, that someone initiates this, to call it, "Tammy's Law".

 

[aafromaa]

So once again I am confused I’m just tuning in this morning and expected to see the peremptory challenges but am seeing more of the voir dire on hardships and prior knowledge and such with a new group of potential jurors. But we had 52 at the end of the day yesterday and the Judge said we need to get a pool of 50 when this all began. Is anyone else confused about why we are adding to that pool?

Is it possible that these potential jurors were already scheduled to appear today and the judge just decided to increase the size of the pool to however many are advanced today rather than trying to contact them after the court yesterday and risk not reaching some of them?

I might think it was a good idea to have more than a pool of 50 going into peremptory challenges if the lawyers had unlimited challenges but since they are limited to a certain number of those, I’m not sure that I understand the purpose of increasing the size of the pool - unless there was going to be an increased number of alternates because of the expected length of the trial and the possibility of losing some along the way - but isn’t the number of alternates determined by law?

Perhaps confused is not the right word - perhaps I am just puzzled

 

[Niner]

So once again I am confused I’m just tuning in this morning and expected to see the peremptory challenges but am seeing more of the voir dire on hardships and prior knowledge and such with a new group of potential jurors. But we had 52 at the end of the day yesterday and the Judge said we need to get a pool of 50 when this all began. Is anyone else confused about why we are adding to that pool?

Is it possible that these potential jurors were already scheduled to appear today and the judge just decided to increase the size of the pool to however many are advanced today rather than trying to contact them after the court yesterday and risk not reaching some of them?

I might think it was a good idea to have more than a pool of 50 going into peremptory challenges if the lawyers had unlimited challenges but since they are limited to a certain number of those, I’m not sure that I understand the purpose of increasing the size of the pool - unless there was going to be an increased number of alternates because of the expected length of the trial and the possibility of losing some along the way - but isn’t the number of alternates determined by law?

Perhaps confused is not the right word - perhaps I am just puzzled

I did read one of the tweets - and it said the rest of yesterday's potential jurors were going to come in - in the morning. So maybe the Judge wants to make sure he has enough going into the final selection. Maybe Nate will straighten out for us once it starts again.

 

[Ruminations]

Jay-sus!

Is anyone listening to Prior <mod edit> explain "agreement" (part of the definition of conspiracy) to the potential jurors?

He says just because Prior's girlfriend thinks they are getting married, doesn't mean he entered an agreement! Going head-first into blame-the-crazy- girlfriend defense.

There is probably a woman out there who is thinking, "Dude, just because I answered you when you asked for directions does not mean I entered into an agreement to be your girlfriend!"

One of the commenters on HTC, who seems to think it is possible that Prior really has a girlfriend, commented something like, "Is he going to bring her home to Chad's house?"



MOO

 

[lightofmine99]

He says just because Prior's girlfriend thinks they are getting married, doesn't mean he entered an agreement! Going head-first into blame-the-crazy- girlfriend defense.

Just about to come and comment about this. Real WTF moment.

How is this going to work when they had a Hawaii wedding ceremony that was professionally photographed?

 

[ReadySet]

LIVE UPDATES | Jury selection continues on day 5 in Chad Daybell trial - East Idaho News

LIVE UPDATES FROM THE CHAD DAYBELL TRIAL CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE LIVE VIDEO FEED 12:40 p.m. Boyce and attorneys are back in the courtroom. The judge says enough jurors have been secured for preemptory challenges. That will happen at 10 a.m. Monday. Court is dismissed for the day. Will recap...

www.eastidahonews.com

10:05 a.m. Update on why this new group was brought in this morning. I’ve learned that it’s common to go above the number and add additional jurors. It has been several days since the first group was brought in. If there was an issue with anyone in the previous groups and jurors needed to be dismissed (maybe they went home and researched the case, etc.), the number could drop below 50 – causing a problem before peremptory strikes. If several of members of this group pass through today, Boyce may feel comfortable stopping. Guess we will see!

 

[Ruminations]

Just about to come and comment about this. Real WTF moment.

How is this going to work when they had a Hawaii wedding ceremony that was professionally photographed?

It's just....dripping with condensation towards woman.

Are people going to believe he was dazed and confused and, well, horny, while Lori was being a female. The "wimin, amirite?" Defense.

The nerve of this charming man standing up in live feed court saying my girlfriend thinks I agreed to marry her, but I didn't enter that agreement. The implication is he is being led around by his storm, and then, poor him, he is faced with being falsely accused of making an agreement to marry. Just like his poor client who just wanted to get laid is now being accused of making an agreement to murder.

Poor men, have to live in a world where a discussion with a woman has any other goal than you-know-what. And as a corollary concept, men actually are supposed to mean what they say to women.

I guess Prior is hoping for one juror who will believe Chad was led by lust to text messages about torturing children. Because that's just so sexy.

MOO

 

[fred&edna]

There's no 'She was so hot, I couldn't help myself' defense.

RSBM

I didn't mean it as a literal defense, lol. But, thank you

 

[Ruminations]

RSBM

I didn't mean it as a literal defense, lol. But, thank you

It's the defense Prior seems to be going for.

But...is NOTHING a buzz kill? He was talking about torturing defenseless children, and you still can identify with his wanting to get all carnal, Mr. Prior?

YUCK!

MOO

 

[indicolite22]

It's just....dripping with condensation towards woman.

Are people going to believe he was dazed and confused and, well, horny, while Lori was being a female. The "wimin, amirite?" Defense.

The nerve of this charming man standing up in live feed court saying my girlfriend thinks I agreed to marry her, but I didn't enter that agreement. The implication is he is being led around by his storm, and then, poor him, he is faced with being falsely accused of making an agreement to marry. Just like his poor client who just wanted to get laid is now being accused of making an agreement to murder.

Poor men, have to live in a world where a discussion with a woman has any other goal than you-know-what. And as a corollary concept, men actually are supposed to mean what they say to women.

I guess Prior is hoping for one juror who will believe Chad was led by lust to text messages about torturing children. Because that's just so sexy.

MOO

JP will claim that Chad really didn't have murder on his mind when he introduced zombies to Lori. It was all in her imagination.

ETA: Chad's defense will also deny Chad's involvement in the failed shooting attempt at Tammy.

 

[BUF]

12:40 p.m. Boyce and attorneys are back in the courtroom. The judge says enough jurors have been secured for preemptory challenges. That will happen at 10 a.m. Monday. Court is dismissed for the day. Will recap everything tonight on ‘Courtroom Insider.’

12:33 p.m. Correction – we have 57 jurors, not 58. One of the jurors who originally advanced did not come back with the group. So it’s 57 in the pool.

LIVE UPDATES | Jury selection continues on day 5 in Chad Daybell trial - East Idaho News

LIVE UPDATES FROM THE CHAD DAYBELL TRIAL CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE LIVE VIDEO FEED 12:40 p.m. Boyce and attorneys are back in the courtroom. The judge says enough jurors have been secured for preemptory challenges. That will happen at 10 a.m. Monday. Court is dismissed for the day. Will recap...

www.eastidahonews.com

 

[mickey2942]

Just about to come and comment about this. Real WTF moment.

How is this going to work when they had a Hawaii wedding ceremony that was professionally photographed?

After the kids were safely buried in his backyard.

Normal person, when your GF's brother shows up at your house with a dead body to bury, tells him to leave, and calls the police.

Chad Daybell, invites him in, and escorts him to the backyard. That is conspiracy.

 

[Kemug]

After the kids were safely buried in his backyard.

Normal person, when your GF's brother shows up at your house with a dead body to bury, tells him to leave, and calls the police.

Chad Daybell, invites him in, and escorts him to the backyard. That is conspiracy.

And don't forget that mine host was certainly expecting him.

 

[Cedars]

JP will claim that Chad really didn't have murder on his mind when he introduced zombies to Lori. It was all in her imagination.

ETA: Chad's defense will also deny Chad's involvement in the failed shooting attempt at Tammy.

Well, the plea is not guilty, so yes, the defense is denying the charges made by the prosecution.

However, defense doesn't get to just say, 'Your honour, my client didn't mean zombies should be murdered', or 'my client wasn't involved with the shooting': Prior would have to put Chad on the witness stand and ask Chad to answer what he meant about zombies, or answer whether he knew about Alex shooting Tammy. Because only Chad can swear to those things. But then, that means the prosecution can ask Chad all sorts of questions, which he must answer truthfully, having sworn on the Bible, and Prior and Chad really might not want to do that.

ETA: what Prior can say is 'prosecution has failed to prove' the allegations.

JMO

 

[Kemug]

After the kids were safely buried in his backyard.

Normal person, when your GF's brother shows up at your house with a dead body to bury, tells him to leave, and calls the police.

Chad Daybell, invites him in, and escorts him to the backyard. That is conspiracy.

Both Lori and Alex were then living in apartments, right? In fact the same apartment complex IIRC. Which meant that Chad was the only one with space for burials. So no discussion needed.

 

[indicolite22]

Well, the plea is not guilty, so yes, the defense is denying the charges made by the prosecution.

However, defense doesn't get to just say, 'Your honour, my client didn't mean zombies should be murdered', or 'my client wasn't involved with the shooting': Prior would have to put Chad on the witness stand and ask Chad to answer what he meant about zombies, or answer whether he knew about Alex shooting Tammy. Because only Chad can swear to those things. But then, that means the prosecution can ask Chad all sorts of questions, which he must answer truthfully, having sworn on the Bible, and Prior and Chad really might not want to do that.

ETA: what Prior can say is 'prosecution has failed to prove' the allegations.

JMO

I don't expect Chad to take the stand. Of course his attorney will claim that the prosecution failed to prove Chad's involvement in the murders. We know that he declared the victims zombies and reported to Lori on their "death percentage". He predicted Tammy would die young, even talking about her dying in an car accident. But actively making the deaths happen is a step further. Googling wind direction a day before Tylee was killed and burned on the bonfire in his backyard is just one detail that points to his active involvement. Alex's short stay in his backyard in JJ's case also points to a pre-dug grave.