Chad Daybell was sentenced to death for first-degree murder and conspiracy charges involving the killings of his first wife and two of his second wife’s children.
The jury recommended the death penalty, citing the severity of the crimes, and the judge formally imposed it along with a 15-year prison sentence for insurance fraud charges.
Chad Daybell remained expressionless as Judge Boyce delivered the death sentence. The judge emphasized that the jury had determined, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating factors, justifying the imposition of the death penalty.
The sequestered jury deliberated for six hours on Friday and resumed deliberations on Saturday morning, ultimately reaching a verdict by late morning.
During the trial, jurors were presented with contrasting portrayals of Chad Daybell by the lawyers. The case garnered national attention, partly due to the couple’s “doomsday” religious beliefs, as described by prosecutors.
The sensational triple murder was highlighted in a Netflix true-crime documentary in 2022.
Prosecutor Rob Wood urged the jury to consider aggravating factors that would make Chad Daybell eligible for the death penalty during his opening statement on Friday.
He highlighted three key points: the murders were committed for financial gain, as evidenced by insurance policies and Social Security benefits; Daybell’s involvement in insurance fraud related to his first wife’s death; and his second wife’s complicity in grand theft by continuing to receive Social Security benefits for her deceased children.
Additionally, Wood told the jury, the murders of the three victims were “especially heinous, atrocious or cruel, manifesting exceptional depravity.”
“This defendant exhibited utter disregard for human life,” Wood added. “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.”
The prosecutor concluded,
“It is your decision whether one or more of these aggravators has been proven. And if it has been, you must decide if, under these circumstances, imposition of the death penalty would be just or unjust.”
The verdict in Chad Daybell’s case arrived approximately a year after his second wife, Lori Vallow Daybell, was convicted of murdering her children and conspiring to kill Tammy Daybell.
She received a life sentence without parole. Vallow Daybell has appealed her convictions to the state Supreme Court, with her legal team raising concerns about her mental competency to stand trial.
Authorities have stated that they believe Tylee and JJ were killed in September 2019, the month they were last seen, while Tammy Daybell was found dead in her Idaho home on October 19, 2019, just a few weeks before Chad Daybell married Lori Vallow Daybell.
In his address to the jury, defense lawyer John Prior depicted Chad Daybell as a previously quiet and reserved individual from Springville, Utah, emphasizing his deep roots in faith and family values.
Prior highlighted Daybell’s long marriage to his first wife, Tammy, during which they raised five children deeply committed to their faith and family.
However, Prior noted that Daybell’s life took a turn in late 2018 when he met Lori Vallow Daybell, who had a history of multiple marriages.
“Everything that glitters is not gold,” he told jurors. “Lori Vallow glittered. She was not gold. She was the trajectory that changed the plan… Chaos hits and all of these things start cascading and this thing becomes very complicated and difficult.”
Prior said the new relationship with Vallow was like “this bomb dropped” on the life of “the small town boy from Springville.”
“We have to look back at that,” he said. “You examine what Chad Daybell’s past was prior to the bomb being dropped, the Lori Vallow bomb being dropped… If it wasn’t for that trajectory coming in and changing the path, is this where we would be going? It’s not where we’d be going.”
