During opening statements on Wednesday, Chad Daybell’s lawyer suggested Lori Vallow Daybell was responsible for the three 2019 slayings, not him.
Defense attorney John Prior also implicated Alex Cox — Vallow Daybell’s late brother who fatally shot her husband, Charles Vallow, in July 2019. Months later, Vallow Daybell’s two children, J.J. Vallow and Tylee Ryan, 7 and 16, went missing — and Daybell’s then-wife Tammy Daybell died under suspicious circumstances a month after their disappearances.
Prior explained how Chad Daybell had no involvement in Charles Vallow’s shooting death or a shooting targeting Vallow Daybell’s nephew-in-law Brandon Boudreaux. Prior also alleged that in 2007, Cox used a Taser on Joseph Ryan, who was Vallow Daybell’s third husband and Tylee Ryan’s father. Joseph Ryan died of natural causes in 2018.
“It set the pattern for what we are dealing with with Alex Cox. Whenever there was a problem with Lori Vallow, Alex Cox ran to the rescue,” Prior commented, according to East Idaho News.
Prior said Vallow Daybell — who he described as a “very sexual person” — came into his client’s life, which led to a murder and burial.
Before Wednesday’s hearing, J.J. Vallow’s aunt, Kresha Easton, told The Sun that she believed Chad Daybell’s camp would blame Vallow Daybell for the slayings by suggesting he was tricked into participating in the murders.
“He’s been throwing her under the bus since all this started,” she said.
“He’s been trying to distance himself from her and back away for some time…But this idea of creating separation has become more and more apparent over the years while watching the court hearings, and hearing the arguments made by his attorneys.”
Chad Daybell is currently on trial for killing his first wife, Tammy Daybell, and Vallow Daybell’s two children in 2019. J.J. Vallow and Tylee Ryan were reportedly 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.
The defense is claiming Chad Daybell’s DNA was not found on Ryan or J.J. Vallow’s remains, and there is no indication Tammy Daybell’s death was a homicide.
Madison County Prosecutor Rob Wood said the couple, 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.
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. Her death was initially ruled natural but later deemed a homicide.
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.
During opening statements, Wood showed texts from Cox in which he mentioned being “afraid he was going to be Chad and Lori’s fall guy.”
Testimony continues…
For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast.
[Feature Photo: Lori Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell/KTVB screenshot]
