Jurors in Idaho on Friday were deciding whether to deliver the death sentence to Chad Daybell, the 55-year-old man convicted of killing his wife and his then girlfriend’s two children over beliefs in the extremist religious concept of doomsday.
Deliberations began a day after jurors found Daybell guilty of murdering 49-year-old Tammy Daybell, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and seven-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow in 2019.
Prosecutors asked jurors to consider various factors that would merit a death sentence for Daybell – including the reasons for his crimes, one of which they argue was to obtain financial benefits from insurance policies.
Jurors are tasked with deciding if Daybell should receive a death sentence – Idaho law allows execution by lethal injection or firing squad – or life imprisonment.
JJ’s grandfather Larry Woodcock told the Associated Press he would be satisfied with either option.
“That’s what you get for murdering children. That’s what you get for murdering your wife. Chad made his decision – he knew it was wrong,” Woodcock said.
Prosecutors say Daybell exhibited “utter disregard for human life”. In his opening remarks on Friday, prosecutor Rob Wood said the killings were “especially heinous, atrocious or cruel, manifesting exceptional depravity”, CNN reported.
“The defendant, by his conduct, whether such conduct was before, during or after the commission of the murders at hand, has exhibited a propensity to commit murder, which will probably constitute a continuing threat to society,” Wood said.
Daybell’s lawyers are attempting to persuade jurors to render a lighter sentence by framing him as having been led astray by his second wife, Lori Vallow Daybell.
Vallow Daybell was convicted last year of the murders of Tylee and JJ and of conspiracy in the murder of Tammy Daybell.
Describing him as a “quiet, reserved, shy young man” from Springville, Utah, lawyers for Chad Daybell allege it was Vallow Daybell who changed him.
She married Chad Daybell two weeks after Tammy was killed. Lori Vallow Daybell is awaiting trial in Arizona, charged with murder in connection with the shooting death of her fourth husband, Charles Vallow. Charles Vallow was JJ’s father.
The judge in the case has issued a gag order prohibiting attorneys on both sides from talking to the media until the trial is complete.
The case has drawn widespread media attention, and the judge moved the trial from the rural Idaho community where the killings occurred to Boise in an effort to ensure a fair and impartial jury.
Prosecutors called dozens of witnesses to bolster their claims that Chad Daybell and Vallow Daybell conspired to kill the children and Tammy because they wanted to remove any obstacles to their relationship and obtain money from survivor benefits and life insurance.
Prosecutors say the couple justified the killings by creating an apocalyptic belief system that people could be possessed by evil spirits and turned into “zombies” – and that the only way to save a possessed person’s soul was for the possessed body to die.
Associated Press contributed reporting
• This article was amended on 31 May 2024 to correct a spelling of Lori Vallow Daybell’s name.
