Lori Vallow Daybell isn’t being released from jail over COVID-19 outbreak despite false report

Lori Vallow Daybell will not be released from jail Thursday because of the COVID-19 outbreak despite a report that she would be.

What’s happening:

• The Sun — a tabloid based in the UK — published a story Monday that said Daybell would “walk free” from prison on April 16 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
• But Sgt. Isaac Payne, a spokesman for the Madison County Sheriff’s Office, told the EastIdahoNews.com that the report is not true. She will not be released from jail over coronavirus fears. No inmates have been released yet. EastIdahoNews.com first reported the story Monday.
• Vallow Daybell is scheduled for a bond reduction hearing Friday. She called fr a bail reduction in court documents last week.
• Vallow Daybell previously had a bond reduction hearing in which her bail was reduced from $5 million to $1 million. She has not posted bail yet, though.

What we learned

• The Madison County jail in Rexburg, Idaho, told the Deseret News back in March that Lori Vallow Daybell’s presence in jail there doesn’t change how they’re preparing for the COVID-19 outbreak, something that could devestate jails across the country.
• The officer Payne told us: “Her presence doesn’t change our preparation in anyway. She gets treated the same as any other inmate we have.”
• He added: “We screen their health anyway. They come into our jail. They get a medical screening when they arrive,” Payne said. “So that’s going to be amped up a bit and that they’re just gonna be watching all the inmates health. Our medical staff is on call 24 hours a day if we need them.”

An update:

• Earlier this week, the Deputy Attorney General Colleen Zahn sent a letter after Fremont County Prosecuting Attorney Marcia Murdoch requested the Idaho attorney general get involved in the death of Tammy Daybell, who passed away two weeks before Lori Vallow was married to Chad Daybell.
• The letter said the Idaho Attorney’s General Office will take over responsibility for the investigation into whether Vallow and Chad Daybell committed conspiracy, attempted murder and/or murder, as I wrote for the Deseret News.