Chad Daybell sentenced to death in triple murder of family

Written by on June 1, 2024

Chad Daybell sentenced to death in triple murder of family
Catherine McQueen/Getty Images

(IDAHO) — An Idaho jury sentenced Chad Daybell, the man who was convicted this week for the 2019 murders of his first wife and second wife’s two children, to death.

Daybell did not show any emotion when the judge read the jury’s verdict.

It took two days for the jury to come to their decision.

On Thursday, the jury found him guilty on all counts Thursday in what prosecutors said was a plot to pursue “money, power and sex.”

Daybell, 55, was charged with murder and conspiracy in the deaths of the two children, Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 16, as well as his former wife of nearly 30 years, Tamara “Tammy” Daybell, 49, with whom he had five children. She died in their home on Oct. 19, 2019, with the cause of death determined to be asphyxiation, according to investigators.

Prosecutors said Daybell, the author of books about the apocalypse, promoted spiritual beliefs to justify the murders and had claimed that all three were possessed and “marked” them for death so that he and his new girlfriend Lori Vallow could be together “unencumbered by earthly relatives, earthly obstacles.”

Daybell and Vallow were married in Hawaii two weeks after the killings, according to prosecutors.

Daybell’s guilty verdict came more than a year after Vallow was also convicted of murdering her two youngest children. She was sentenced to life in prison.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

ABC News’ Meredith Deliso contributed to this report.

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