Chad Daybell’s homicide trial with claims about zombies and doomsday plot follows Lori Vallow Daybell’s 2023 conviction

Opening statements are anticipated Wednesday within the trial of Chad Daybell, who’s charged in Idaho with killing his spouse and the 2 youngest youngsters of his then-girlfriend, Lori Vallow Daybell, in an uncommon case rooted in extremist spiritual beliefs. The trial comes almost a yr after Vallow Daybell was convicted of murdering her youngsters.

The pair was initially set to be tried collectively, however a choose severed their trials after Daybell waived his proper to a speedy trial.

Daybell, 55, is dealing with fees of first diploma homicide, insurance coverage fraud, and conspiracy to commit homicide and grand theft in reference to the deaths of Tammy Daybell, 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan. Vallow Daybell acquired a life sentence with out parole for the killings.

Prosecutors say the couple justified the three killings with doomsday beliefs, a part of an elaborate scheme to get rid of any obstacles to their relationship and to acquire cash from survivor advantages and life insurance coverage. Vallow Daybell referred to her two youngest youngsters as zombies, one buddy testified throughout her trial.

Who’s Chad Daybell?

Chad Daybell was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and self-published fiction loosely based mostly on its teachings.

In 2019, he tried to fraudulently accumulate on his late spouse’s life insurance coverage coverage, and Vallow Daybell continued to gather each youngsters’s Social Safety advantages after they died.

Chad Daybell has pleaded not responsible to the fees, and the trial is anticipated to take greater than two months. Prosecutors mentioned they may search the demise penalty if Daybell is convicted.

The grim story started within the fall of 2019, when prolonged members of the family reported the 2 youngsters lacking and regulation enforcement officers launched a search that spanned a number of states. The following investigation took a number of sudden turns.

Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell had been having an affair when each of their spouses died unexpectedly, investigators mentioned. Vallow Daybell’s husband was shot to demise by her brother in Arizona in July 2019; the brother informed police it was in self-defense.

A number of months later, in October 2019, Tammy Daybell died. Chad Daybell initially informed police she was battling an sickness and died in her sleep, however an post-mortem later decided she died of asphyxiation. Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell married simply two weeks after Tammy Daybell died, shocking members of the family and drawing suspicion from authorities.

Buddies later informed detectives that Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell believed they’d been reincarnated and had been tasked with gathering folks earlier than a biblical apocalypse.