Judge Steven Boyce heard several motions from Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell in the ongoing preparations for their murder trials. One of the significant developments from the Feb. 8 hearing in St. Anthony, Idaho, was that Boyce moved the deadline for when all evidence and witnesses needs to be submitted, according to East Idaho News.
J.J. Vallow and Tylee Ryan, Vallow’s children, went missing in September 2019. Their bodies were later found on June 9, 2020, in the yard of Vallow’s husband, Daybell.
Vallow and Daybell were investigated for the children’s deaths, along with the deaths of their former spouses. They were both charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and grand theft by deception for the deaths of Tylee Ryan and J.J. Vallow. They were additionally charged with first-degree murder for the deaths of Tylee Ryan and J.J. Vallow.
Previously, Daybell’s attorney John Prior had requested that the trial be delayed. Prior requested this because he said that they did not have enough time to go through the evidence. At this hearing, Prior said that he recently received 1,100 pages of documents in addition to GPS evidence, per East Idaho News. He said that it would take him longer to evalutate.
While Boyce moved the deadline to submit evidence and witnesses to March 13, he did not respond to Prior’s motion to sever Daybell’s trial from Vallow’s. He said that he will issue a response on Feb. 23, per East Idaho News. Additionally, the judge granted a motion from Vallow to have instructions given to the jury and to examine the jury based on the amount of religious matters that will surface during the case.
Boyce didn’t respond to a motion from Vallow to dismiss the trial and instead said that he would respond to these motions in writing. Vallow’s attorneys had filed a motion to dismiss the case because the attorney argued that her rights had been violated as the trial had taken a long time to materialize as Deseret News reported earlier.
The next hearing is on Feb. 23.