(CN) — The theme of “money, sex and power” was ever-present Wednesday as prosecuting attorneys made closing arguments at end of a two-month murder trial of doomsday author Chad Daybell in Boise, Idaho.
“Three dead bodies on the defendant Chad Daybell’s property and or in the residence. Two of them children. His mistress’ kids,” said Fremont County Prosecuting Attorney Lindsey Blake at the beginning of a lengthy closing argument at the Ada County Courthouse.
Blake reminded the jury that the children were found buried in Daybell’s backyard while his wife of 29 years was found dead in their marital bed.
“And for what?” Blake said. “Money, power and sex. That’s what the defendant cared about.”
Daybell, 55, faces several counts of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, grand theft by deception and insurance fraud involving the deaths of 7-year-old Joshua Jackson “JJ” Vallow, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and his late wife, 49-year-old Tammy Daybell.
The charges stem from a bizarre series of events involving Daybell’s religious doomsday writings and his extramarital affair with Lori Vallow Daybell, who he married in Hawaii mere weeks after Tammy’s death on Oct. 19, 2019.
Vallow, 50, was convicted of murder, conspiracy and grand theft charges arising from the same deaths in 2023. Vallow is now serving three life sentences without parole and faces additional murder charges in the death of her former husband, Charles Vallow, and the attempted murder of Brandon Boudreaux, Vallow's niece's former husband.
Central to both trials is the involvement of Vallow’s brother Alex Cox, who died of natural causes in 2019. Since Daybell’s trial began in early April, new details have painted a fuller picture of Cox’s involvement in Charles Vallow’s death, his suspected involvement with burying the children on Daybell’s property and his suspected attempt to shoot Tammy Daybell outside her house 10 days before her suspicious death.
A few law enforcement officers and data specialists have testified regarding the whereabouts of both Cox and Daybell during the burials of the children. Those testimonies indicated that Cox had been on Daybell’s property on the days that investigators believe the children were buried and that, among other suspicious evidence, Daybell had searched the direction of wind for the day that Tylee would be burned in the fire pit on his property.
The GPS location of Daybell’s phone had been turned off on the days that the children were buried on his property. What Daybell did leave behind, however, was a trove of religious fantasy writings that he shared with Vallow — the “James and Elena story.”
Throughout Daybell’s trial, the jury learned how the couple went by different names or identities they claimed to be in prior lives.
“James and Elena were two of those names,” Blake said. “Rafael and Lily — all really Chad and Lori.”
Blake explained how the James and Elena story “is essentially an autobiography outlining the defendant’s sexual affair with Lori under the façade of having a spiritual undertone or being spiritually sanctioned.”
“But let’s call it what it was,” Blake said. “Chad’s graphic description of his boundless lust for Lori Vallow, who deemed to have perfect proportions and to be a goddess. Again, Chad is still married as he is writing this story for Lori.”
Daybell also frequently wrote about dark spirits that could possess humans, turning them “zombies” that required cleansing through death. Daybell believed dark spirits inhabited Vallow’s late husband, her two youngest children and Daybell’s wife, among others. And only he could decipher how “dark” or close to death these spirits were according to their “death percentages.”
“Chad tells Lori we are surrounded by telestial relatives that are simply obstacles,” Blake said.
But despite the vast evidence around Daybell’s strange beliefs and text messages to Vallow — or even how they coincide with all of the suspicious deaths — Daybell’s attorney John Prior emphasized that Daybell must be presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Prior explained that the state exclusively bears the burden of proving that Daybell participated in murder and that he entered an agreement with Vallow, Cox or other co-conspirators to kill the two children and Daybell’s wife.
“You can hear all the testimony in the world about dark spirits,” Prior said, who repeated similar statements about “light and dark” and “death percentages” — all of which Prior described as common, traditional concepts within The Church of Jesus Chris of Latter-day Saints.
The state, Prior said, has been twisting Daybell’s religious writings — including those about being the “gatherer of the 144,000 in Rexburg” — and misconstruing them into admissions of murder.
“Now, whether you think it’s crazy or not, it doesn’t matter,” Prior said, adding that everyone has certain beliefs and pursuits that may or may not be rational.
“He strayed. He had an affair. The affair doesn’t mean he killed anybody,” Prior later added.
Before closing, Prior noted that the lack of DNA evidence against Daybell was a failure on the part of the investigators while searching for facts.
“Folks, if there is reasonable doubt — and there is reasonable doubt — you must, according to the judge’s instructions, return a verdict of not guilty,” Prior said before concluding.
Blake, too, emphasized certain jury instructions during the state’s rebuttal.
“On June 9, 2020, the bodies of Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow were discovered on Chad’s property,” Blake said. “Chad’s response: ‘I’m not coming back.’ Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you to hold the state to our burden. Review the jury instructions. Apply your common sense.”
Follow @alannamayhampdx
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