On Monday, an Idaho judge sentenced Lori Vallow Daybell to life in prison without parole for murdering her two children in 2019, and plotting the murder of her current husband’s late wife.
Vallow Daybell received the following sentences, to be served consecutively:
- Tylee Ryan’s first-degree murder: Life without parole
- conspiracy: Life without parole
- J.J. Vallow’s first-degree murder: Life without parole
- conspiracy: Life without parole
- Conspiring Tammy Daybell’s first-degree murder: Life without parole
- Grand theft by deception (2 counts): 5-10 years in prison
Vallow Daybell’s fifth husband, Chad Daybell, is facing the same charges but he has not yet stood trial.
Several family members of the victims took the stand to deliver victim impact statements Monday morning prior to sentencing, including Tammy Daybell’s sister, Samantha Gwilliam.
“You are a liar, an adulteress and a murderer,” Samantha said, in part. “My family has been ripped apart…Everyone now knows what liars you are; you are not an exalted being.”
Vallow, who spoke on her own behalf before sentencing, read a Bible quote, breaking out in tears momentarily as she claimed to mourn her children who “rest safely in the arms of Jesus.”
“Jesus Christ knows the truth of what happened here,” she said, adding that “no one was murdered in this case” and she has “access to the spirit world,” where she communicates with Jesus and her deceased children.
“I know for a fact that my children are busy and happy in the spirit world…I know where they are now and what they are doing.”
Vallow Daybell was convicted in May. She did not take the stand, nor did her legal team call any witnesses. The defense abruptly rested their case after claiming that they wanted the charges dismissed because prosecutors failed to prove their case. Judge Steven Boyce denied the motion, meaning the jury weighed the case without any testimony from the defense’s witnesses.
Prosecutors said that Vallow Daybell killed her two kids in September 2019 but never reported them missing so she could still receive their Social Security payments. Within weeks of Tammy Daybell’s death in October 2019, she and Chad Daybell got married in Hawaii.
J.J. Vallow and Tylee Ryan, 7 and 16, were found buried on Chad Daybell’s property in June 2020, nine months after they vanished J.J. Vallow, who was found in a plastic bag, was suffocated with a plastic bag and duct tape. Tylee Ryan remains were charred and dismembered, making it impossible to confirm how she died.
“Well, make it count for Lori Vallow that Tylee Ryan will never go to college. That her remains were buried and put in a bucket. Make it count for Lori Vallow that JJ Vallow, a boy with special needs, had a plastic bag over his head and fought for his life,” prosecutor Rob Wood said during closing arguments. “And make it count for Lori that Tammy Daybell had to die so Lori could get to that money.”
Tammy Daybell’s initial cause of death was listed as pulmonary edema with the manner being ruled as natural. However, officials now believe she was asphyxiated and her death was a homicide.
Vallow Daybell has said she was with Melanie Gibb, David Warwick, or her husband when her son and daughter died in her brother’s apartment in Rexburg, Idaho. She allegedly said she was at her residence, also in Rexburg. She claimed she was in Hawaii when Tammy was killed at her husband’s home in Salem, Idaho. She stated she was with two other people at the time.
The defense claimed in closing arguments that Vallow Daybell’s brother, Alex Cox, and Chad Daybell were responsible for the slayings. Cox fatally shot Vallow Daybell’s fourth husband (and J.J. Vallow’s adoptive father), Charles Vallow in July 2019. Cox died, reportedly of natural causes, in December 2019.
Cox and Vallow Daybell’s DNA was found at the crime scene. Cox’s phone data also placed him near where the remains were buried on Chad Daybell’s property.
Defense attorney Jim Archibald said, “Was it proven who killed J.J.? No, but Chad got in a scratch fight with JJ the day before. Maybe those were the scratches on J.J.’s neck. Alex was only at the gravesite for J.J. for 17 minutes.”
“That’s not enough time to find a board, find rocks and line them up. I’m guessing Alex had help from Chad. Of the 15,000 texts you have in evidence, show me one where Lori is part of that conspiracy. ‘When are you killing J.J. by the way?’ There is no such text.”
Vallow Daybell underwent psychiatric treatment twice before she was deemed fit to stand trial in Idaho. She is not facing the death penalty. She still faces charges in Arizona for Charles Vallow’s slayings and conspiring to kill her nephew-in-law who testified against her at her latest trial.
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[Featured image: Tony Blakeslee/East Idaho News via AP, Pool, File]
