T wo different versions of Chad Daybell are being portrayed at the accused killer’s death penalty trial. One is a religious leader in charge of his household and business, and the mastermind behind the murders of his wife and his lover’s children. The other is a submissive man who was helpless to the women around him.
Prosecutors say Daybell’s “desire for sex, money and power” led to killings of his first wife Tammy, 49, and his current wife Lori Vallow ’s children, Tylee Ryan, 16, and JJ Vallow, seven. But throughout the weeks-long trial currently underway in Boise , Idaho , Daybell’s defense attorney John Prior has attempted to paint his client as a man who was at the mercy of Vallow, who he described as a voracious and “very sexual” woman who lured him to do his bidding. “This beautifully stunning woman named Lori Vallow comes up and she starts giving him a lot of attention,” Prior said of the couple’s first meeting at a religious convention in October 2019.
“She pursued him. She encouraged him.” The tragic and shocking case has horrified America for the last five years not only because of the brutality of the murders, but also the unanswered questions around the role their extreme beliefs played in what happened.
The pair believed they had been chosen for a religious mission to lead “the 144,000” cult followers – and that Daybell was a prophet and Vallow was a goddess. Last year, Vallow was convicted in the three murders and sentenced to .
