Lori Vallow ‘Intended’ For Her Children And Tammy Daybell To Die, Prosecutors Say
Idaho prosecutors say they have evidence that Lori Vallow “intended” for her two children and Tammy Daybell to die and even participated in the deaths of her kids.
Madison County Prosecuting Attorney Rob Wood and Fremont County Prosecuting Attorney Lindsey Blake made the statements in court documents filed Thursday as part of a dispute between prosecutors and Vallow’s defense attorneys about whether the 49-year-old is eligible for the death penalty.
Prosecutors have announced they plan to pursue capital punishment in the case, but earlier this month, Vallow’s defense attorneys filed a motion asking the judge to declare her “not eligible” for the death penalty, arguing she lacks the “requisite culpability to be charged with the death penalty,” according to court records obtained by Oxygen.com.
They also argued that prosecutors had not presented enough evidence to prove why the death penalty should apply in the case against Vallow, who is also referred to as Lori Daybell.
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“There is nothing in the discovery of this case that has put Mrs. Daybell at the threshold of killing anyone,” they argued.
In response, prosecutors said Thursday that “sufficient evidence” had been presented to the Grand Jury to find probable cause that Vallow “intended for her children and Tammy Daybell to die.”
Lori Vallow Daybell, center, sits between her attorneys for a hearing at the Fremont County Courthouse in St. Anthony, Idaho, on Aug. 16, 2022. Photo: AP
“Further, there is sufficient evidence for a jury to conclude that the Defendant participated in the killing of her own children,” prosecutors wrote in the response obtained by Oxygen.com.
Vallow and her fifth husband Chad Daybell are facing multiple counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the deaths of her two children Tylee Ryan, 16, and Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7, along with the 2019 death of Chad’s first wife Tammy Daybell. Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Investigators have previously said in court documents that Vallow’s children disappeared weeks apart in September of 2019. Their bodies were recovered months later buried on Daybell’s property.
Just one month after the children vanished, Tammy Daybell—who had been just 49-years-old—was found dead in her home.
Daybell and Vallow, who allegedly share a set of religious doomsday beliefs, got married in Hawaii weeks afterward.
Attorneys R. James Archibald and John Thomas have alleged in a separate notice of alibi filed in court this month and obtained by Oxygen.com that Vallow’s children died in the apartment of her now-deceased brother Alex Cox, while she was “in her own apartment” in the same Rexburg complex.
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At the time of Tammy’s death, Vallow had been in Hawaii, they stated.
Prosecutors, however, believe Vallow played a role in the deaths.
“The facts of this case are egregious and heinous,” they wrote in the court documents filed Thursday. “The evidence the State will introduce at trial, some of which a grand jury has already reviewed, will establish that the Defendant intended for her children and her boyfriend’s wife to die, and that she affirmatively acted to make those deaths happen.”
Vallow’s defense team filed a motion earlier this month asking the judge to allow her to meet with Daybell and his attorney in a “confidential joint settlement and strategy session.”
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The conversations between the pair would be for “settlement purposes only,” they said.
“With settlement proposals, mediation, motions and trial fast approaching, Lori and Chad would like to be able to talk together in person and on the phone about their options,” the attorneys wrote. “The attorneys for the parties will attend any in person meetings and phone conversations, but will not record the conversations and will not use the conversations as evidence.”
In a motion of their own, however, prosecutors said they had “serious reservations” about allowing the two to meet in person or be given the opportunity to communicate directly.
The trial is currently slated to begin on April 3, according to East Idaho News.
