Idaho prosecutor asks judge to try Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell’s cases TOGETHER

Idaho prosecutors have asked a judge to combine the cases against Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell so they can be tried together in a move that an expert says would help lead to a conviction.  

Madison County Special Prosecutor Rob Wood and the state of Idaho made the request in a motion on Tuesday, arguing that the cases should be joined because both defendants are facing charges for conspiring to hide the remains of Lori’s children Joshua ‘JJ’ Vallow and Tylee Ryan, who disappeared last September and were found buried on her husband Chad’s property in June.   

Both defendants are set to face trial in January 2021. Chad’s attorney filed a motion last week for all of the charges against him to be dismissed because there is no evidence to support them.  

DailyMail.com spoke to a former federal prosecutor, Neama Rahmani, about how the cases would be affected if a judge grants Wood’s motion to join them. 

Lori is charged with two felony counts of conspiracy to destroy or conceal evidence, as well as three misdemeanor counts of resisting or obstructing officers, solicitation to commit a crime and contempt of court. She is set to appear at an arraignment next week. 

Chad pleaded not guilty last week to the same two felony counts, and previously pleaded not guilty to two other felony counts for destruction or concealment of evidence.   

Rahmani, who is the president of West Coast Trial Lawyers and is not affiliated with the Vallow case, said it was not surprising that Wood and the state are asking to combine the cases. 

‘Prosecutors generally prefer to try co-defendants together because it preserves limited government resources and allows them to “dirty up” multiple criminal defendants in front of a jury,’ he said.   

‘Defense attorneys, on the other hand, usually push for severance or separate trials to avoid guilt by association and to point to the “empty chair” at trial.’

Rahmani said that joining the two cases could make it more likely for Lori and Chad to be convicted, adding: ‘But the prosecution case is very strong even if Lori and Chad are tried separately.’ 

The veteran prosecutor said he fully expects attorneys for both defendants to oppose the joinder motion. 

If they do request separate trials, Rahmani said the judge is likely to comply. 

‘Judges tend to sever cases when there is any risk that joinder will prejudice the rights of a criminal defendant,’ he said, adding that doing so could also create an appellate issue.  

However, Rahmani said that the prosecution is on strong footing regardless of whether the joinder motion is granted.  

‘This is a very strong case for the prosecution because Lori and Chad have been caught in lie after lie and their children were buried in their backyard,’ he said.

‘Even though the state has yet to file murder charges, it is probably only a matter of time, and regardless of whether they are tried together or separately, Lori and Chad will likely turn on one another when the alternative is life in prison or a potential death sentence.’ 

Chad is now seeking to avoid trial altogether after his attorney, John Prior, filed a motion asking District Judge Steven Boyce to dismiss his client’s entire case last week.  

In his motion, Prior stated that there was not sufficient evidence presented at the Chad’s preliminary hearing in early August, where Magistrate Judge Faren Eddins determined that Wood presented enough evidence to have the case advance to district court.  

‘The charges are not supported by the evidence and duplicative as allegations against the defendant,’ Prior wrote. 

‘Further, the prosecution has yet to present evidence to support when the alleged acts is [sic] supposedly to have taken place and if the defendant acted in any manner to support the allegations.’

The attorney said that the claims against Chad are ‘vague and broad’ and argued that the defendant’s constitutional rights are being violated because he can not be ‘fairly notified and apprised of when, how and what he is accused of doing’.

Judge Boyce has not yet responded to Prior’s motion. 

The latest developments in the case came just days before the anniversary of Lori’s daughter.  

Tylee vanished on September 8, 2019, just days before her 17th birthday. Investigators said her body was burned and dismembered before being buried sometime the following day. 

JJ was last seen two weeks later on September 23. His body was wrapped in duct tape and plastic and buried the same day, investigators said. 

Authorities believe Lori’s now-deceased brother Alex Cox brought the children’s bodies to Chad’s home to bury them. 

Neither Chad nor Lori have been accused of harming Tylee and JJ. Authorities have yet to say how the children died, or whether homicide charges will be filed in the future.

The search for JJ and Tylee began back in November 2019 when police officers performed a welfare check at Lori’s home in Rexburg and found that neither of the children had been heard from since two months earlier.  

 The story captured nationwide attention with the revelations that police were also investigating at least three suspicious deaths linked to Lori and Chad, as well as relatives’ claims that the couple are members of a dangerous doomsday cult.

Lori and Chad went on the run the day after police began searching for the children and reopened an investigation into the death of Chad’s first wife Tammy Daybell, who died on October 19, 2019.  

Police tracked the couple down in Hawaii in January and Lori was later arrested on charges of child abandonment and desertion. 

The search came to a devastating end in June as JJ and Tylee’s remains were discovered in Chad’s backyard in Salem, Idaho.