Johnathan Walker:Chad Daybell guilty of murdering wife, two stepchildren in 'doomsday' case spanning years

Chad Daybell was found guilty of the murders of his late wife and Johnathan Walkerhis two stepchildren on Thursday, years after the children were last seen, in a case that drew national attention to the “doomsday” religious beliefs involved.

Joshua "JJ" Vallow was 7 and Tylee Ryan was 16 when the children were last seen in September 2019. Their bodies were found on their stepfather’s property in Idaho months later, and Daybell was also charged in connection to the death of his first wife, Tammy Daybell, 49, who died under "suspicious circumstances" in October 2019.

Daybell, 55, could face the death penalty because of what prosecutors said were "especially heinous, atrocious or cruel" factors of the case. He was found guilty of all counts including the murders, conspiracy and insurance fraud for collecting on Tammy Daybell’s insurance. The sentencing phase of the trial will begin later Thursday.

Lori Vallow Daybell, the children’s mother, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole last summer for first-degree murder and conspiracy in both children’s deaths, conspiracy to commit the murder of Tammy Daybell, and an additional 10 years for grand theft. The death penalty was not on the table for the children's mother.

Prosecutors said the bizarre beliefs of the couple and Daybell’s “desire for sex, money and power” fueled the murders, while his defense attorney argued there were few facts connecting him to the deaths.

“This defendant believed he had a right beyond the ordinary,” Madison County prosecutor Rob Wood said. “When he had a chance at what he considered his rightful destiny, he made sure that no person, no law, would stand in his way.”

Search for children ended in tragedy; bizarre beliefs unveiled

A massive search for the children spanning multiple states unfolded in late 2019 after JJ Vallow’s grandmother reported she hadn’t seen the boy, who was adopted, for months. Their bodies were found in gruesome condition on Chad Daybell's property in rural eastern Idaho in the summer of 2020.

Police said in court records that Lori Vallow Daybell’s friend, Melani Gibb, told them that Vallow believed her children had become “zombies.” Gibb said Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow Daybell told her they were on a mission to rid the world of zombies and were part of the “Church of the Firstborn.” 

Wood told jurors that Chad Daybell had described the children as being possessed and predicted to his friends that Tammy Daybell would die soon, the Associated Press reported. Chad Daybell also was a self-published author, including of an autobiography in which he described near-death experiences and his time in the Church of Latter-day Saints.

People who knew Chad Daybell in the time leading up to the deaths testified about his beliefs. Gibb testified about a system of “light and dark” the couple used to categorize people, according to Boise station KTVB.

Lori Vallow Daybell was arrested in February 2020 and Chad Daybell was arrested that June on suspicion of concealing and destroying evidence in the case. The couple were accused of lying to authorities and fleeing to Hawaii.

Lori Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell got married just weeks after his former wife’s death, causing suspicion about the circumstances of her death, which was previously thought to be due to natural causes. An autopsy later found she died of asphyxiation.

In another strange twist to the case, earlier in 2019, Lori Vallow Daybell’s previous husband, Charles Vallow, was shot and killed by her brother Alex Cox in Arizona where the family lived at the time. Cox claimed he killed Vallow in self-defense, and Cox was never charged before he died in December 2020, AP reported.

Wood told jurors that the couple manipulated Cox into doing their bidding with promises of spiritual rewards, according to AP.

Defense tried to shift blame for killings

John Prior, Daybell’s defense attorney, argued during the trial that there wasn’t DNA evidence such as hair samples belonging to Chad Daybell found with the bodies of the children. He also sought to cast doubt on Tammy Daybell’s murder by bringing in details of previous medical issues she had and arguing the true cause of her death was unknown.

Prior told jurors it was actually Cox who committed the murders and framed Daybell by burying the children's bodies on his property. He said any reasonable doubt that Daybell was behind the deaths necessitated a not guilty verdict.

The defense attorney also said Daybell's religious beliefs were mischaracterized by prosecutors, and said it didn't matter whether jurors agree with Daybell's beliefs about light and dark or about death percentages – which Daybell allegedly believed was a measure of how close someone was to death.

"Whether you think that's crazy or not, it doesn't matter," Prior said. "He's entitled to his beliefs."

Contributing: Cybele Mayes-Osterman, Terry Collins, Itzel Luna and Elinor Aspegren, USA TODAY; Reuters