Prosecutors described Chad Daybell as a man with a “lust for sex, money and power” and said he labeled people who got in the way of his dreams as “zombies” and “dark spirits.”
The remarks were made Wednesday during opening statements in Daybell's triple murder trial. He and his current wife, Lori Vallow, were charged in connection with the deaths of Daybell's ex-wife, Tammy Daybell, and Vallow's children, Joshua 'JJ' Vallow and Tylee Ryan.
“In the world that Chad and Lori planned for themselves, they considered anyone who stood in the way of their dreams to be 'dark,'” said Madison County Attorney Rob Wood.
“Their spouses, Lori's own children, and those who opposed them were sometimes referred to as 'dark spirits' or even 'zombies.' Evidence suggests that it condemns those who stand in their way. “It would show that it was a convenient humanizing narrative,” Wood added.
Daybell's attorney, John Pryor, urged the jury to focus on the facts of the case and return a not guilty verdict.
“Don't be fooled by speculation. Don't be fooled by assumptions, assumptions or hunches,” he said in his opening statement. “It all comes down to facts and evidence.”
Daybell was arrested in June 2020 after police discovered the bodies of Joshua and Tyree on a property in Fremont County, Idaho.
His trial is scheduled to last 10 weeks.
Authorities said they believe Daybell hid his stepson's remains between September 2019 and June 2020. The formal search for 7-year-old Joshua and 16-year-old Tylee began in November 2019 after their concerned families contacted authorities, as the two had never met or spoken. According to the Rexburg Police Department, they are children.
Court documents later revealed that Joshua's body was buried in a pet cemetery, while Tyree's was dismembered and burned in a bonfire.
Daybell and Vallow were charged in 2021 with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and grand larceny by deception.
They were also charged with insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in connection with the 2019 death of Tammy Daybell. In addition, Chad Daybell was charged with first-degree murder in the death.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Prosecutors said they plan to seek the death penalty.
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Authorities had accused Daybell and Vallow of not cooperating with the investigation into the children's disappearances and of lying to police about the children's whereabouts. Police initially told officers that her adopted son, Joshua, who has special needs, was in Arizona with a family friend of hers, but police determined that was not true.
Then the couple abruptly left Rexburg. They were discovered in Hawaii in January 2020, and Vallow was taken into custody.
As police continued to search for the children, several mysterious deaths related to the couple began to surface.
On July 11, 2019, Vallow's fourth husband, Charles Vallow, was shot and killed by her brother Alex Cox, months after they filed for divorce. Lori Vallow and her brother were questioned by police at the time and claimed self-defense.
A grand jury in Arizona, where Lori and Charles Vallow lived, indicted her on charges of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder nearly two years after Lori's death. Mr. Cox was not charged. He died in 2019 from a pulmonary embolism. Pulmonary embolism is a disease in which one or more arteries in the lungs become blocked by a blood clot.
In October 2019, several months after Charles Vallow's death, Tammy Daybell was found dead of what was believed to be natural causes at the time. Investigators later exhumed her body and conducted an autopsy, which determined that her death was a homicide.
Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow married just two weeks after Tammy's funeral, NBC affiliate KSL in Salt Lake City reported.
Prosecutors have said they believe Daybell, who has self-published more than 20 books on near-death and end-of-life events, and that Vallow was obsessed with apocalyptic beliefs that led him to commit the murders. .
The indictment says the two espoused and espoused “religious beliefs for the purpose of encouraging and/or justifying the murders” of Tyree, Joshua and Tammy.