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80 Years Ago Today
On Monday, convicted triple murderer Chad Daybell filed a notice to appeal his death penalty sentence for killing his wife and two stepchildren in Idaho in 2019.
According to East Idaho News, Daybell has asked the state Supreme Court to review his death penalty sentence, which was handed down on Saturday. He has asked the court to consider various issues — including whether the trial erred in denying his motion to dismiss the grand jury indictment.
J.J. Vallow and Tylee Ryan, 7 and 16, were found buried on Chad Daybell’s property nine months after their disappearances; Ryan’s remains were dismembered and charred, while J.J. was in a plastic bag. Madison County Prosecutor Rob Wood said Chad Daybell and Vallow Daybell, who married weeks after Tammy Daybell’s death, created an alternate reality that permitted them to kill anyone who they thought was in their way.
Tammy Daybell’s was initially ruled natural but later deemed a homicide.
In addition to the three first-degree murder charges, Chad Daybell was convicted of grand theft and insurance fraud.
Chad Daybell’s wife, Vallow Daybell was sentenced last July to life without parole for the September 2019 slayings of her two children. She also got a life sentence for conspiring Tammy Daybell’s murder in October 2019. Unlike her husband, Vallow Daybell did not face the death penalty.
Vallow Daybell is awaiting trial in Arizona for killing her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, in July 2019. Vallow Daybell’s brother, Alex Cox, fatally shot Charles Vallow and claimed self-defense. Cox died — reportedly of natural causes — in December 2019, months after J.J. Vallow and Ryan’s disappearances. Idaho prosecutors claimed Cox was also involved in the slayings.
Though the state supreme court reviews every death penalty sentence, East Idaho News reported that Chad Daybell’s motion is separate from this review. Under state law, death penalty appeals must be filed within 42 days of sentencing.
Records indicated that on Monday, Chad Daybell was moved to a maximum-security prison outside Boise.
