A jury in Boise has ruled that Chad Daybell deserves the death penalty for the murder of his ex-wife and his new wife’s two children.
After deliberating for nearly six hours on Friday and two on Saturday, the same 12 jurors who found Chad Daybell guilty of all the crimes against him on Thursday determined that his crimes were especially heinous and deserving of the death penalty.
He was found guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of 7-year-old JJ Vallow, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and his ex-wife, 49-year-old Tammy Daybell, on Thursday.
Chad Daybell received the news the same way he received the conviction – without emotion.
Kay Woodcock, Tylee and JJ’s grandmother, burst into tears when the sentence was read, with her grandfather Larry Woodcock hugging her.
The jury unanimously determined that the murders were “especially heinous, atrocious or cruel, manifesting exceptional depravity,” raising the sentence to the level of death, and that “all extenuating circumstances are not sufficiently compelling to render the imposition of the death penalty unjust.” ”. .”
Judge Steven Boyce, to those present, explained in layman’s terms: “The jury concluded that it would be appropriate to impose the death penalty.”
Tammy Daybell’s cousin, Patricia Later, released a statement to East Idaho News, saying “we can all begin to heal from the terrible losses we have suffered. We will miss Tammy every day of our lives, but we take some comfort in knowing we will see her again.”
Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador also released a statement, saying, “I am grateful for the incredibly diligent work of prosecutors and investigators in this complex case, and I am grateful for the partnerships we have to support the pursuit of justice. I hope Chad Daybell’s conviction and the jury’s sentence provide a measure of peace to the families of the victims, Tylee Ryan, JJ Vallow and Tammy Daybell.”
Idaho’s first execution since 2011 was attempted in February, but corrections department medical staff were unable to find 73-year-old Thomas Creech’s vein for a lethal injection, according to Idaho Gov. Brad Little. Little signed a bill in 2023 authorizing a firing squad as a method of execution following a national shortage of drugs used in lethal injections.
According to the corrections department, there are currently eight inmates on death row in Idaho. Creech received the death penalty in January 1983. Daybell will be the ninth.
On Friday, jurors heard powerful statements from family members of each of the victims, including JJ’s grandmother, Tylee’s older brother and aunt, Tammy Daybell’s father and several of Tammy Daybell’s siblings.
The statements brought some jurors to tears after weeks of hearing about the three deaths from witnesses.
Colby Ryan, Tylee’s older brother, said he lost his entire family and is now without a mother, father, sister or brother. He said the impact of losing his brothers is “like dropping a nuclear bomb.”
“I lost the ability to watch Tylee and JJ grow up. I lost my relationship with my younger brother, which had been years in the making. (…) I lost the ability to sit with my younger sister, talk and share our lives. So, in short, I lost everything I knew,” he said.
Matthew Douglas, Tammy Daybell’s brother, said she was her siblings’ “emotional heart and glue,” and these events destroyed the family as they knew it.
He called it a “never-ending nightmare” and said that every time he felt some control over his grief over his sister’s death, something new happened — Chad Daybell remarried, Tammy Daybell’s body was exhumed, or children were missing.
He said he felt like he was being thrown into a “cheap vacation snow globe” where everything was loose.
Douglas also said it hurt that some of Chad and Tammy Daybell’s children cut ties with the Douglas family, choosing to defend their father.
Chad Daybell chose not to present any evidence of mitigation during the sentencing phase of his trial and confirmed that he understood that his attorney, John Prior, had prepared for it. He also chose not to make an allocution statement. An allocution statement occurs when a defendant is given the chance to speak before their sentence is decided.
It is not known whether he made this decision against the advice of Prior, who was still defending his client.
Prior argued that Lori Daybell changed who Chad Daybell was and called her a “bombshell” who brought chaos to his life. He said that after meeting her was when the “crazy thoughts” and “amplification of these religious beliefs” in Chad Daybell began.
Prior said most of the allegations in the indictments pertain to her, and those that pertain to Chad Daybell’s actions are all about religious beliefs. Prior said Chad Daybell was not present when the children were killed, but that other people were.
Fremont County Prosecutor Lindsay Blake said each of the deaths occurred shortly after a source of money was created, Social Security payments for the children and life insurance for Tammy Daybell.
She said Chad Daybell manipulated the people around him with the goal of living on a tropical island with Lori Daybell. He taught others that he could mark people for death and determine when they would die.
“It didn’t matter how old the victim was or who trusted and loved her. If they were in the way of Chad and his plan…or if there was money to be made for Lori and Chad, these individuals would be marked for death,” she said.
