Lori Vallow Daybell won’t be getting a cellphone while she’s in jail, District Judge Steven Boyce ruled this week, per EastIdahoNews.com.
What’s going on?
Boyce ruled Wednesday that Vallow won’t receive her cell phone after her attorneys argued Lori should be given one so she could communicate with her attorney, Mark Means, according to EastIdahoNews.com.
- The judge said the COVID-19 pandemic has made it harder for attorneys and clients to speak. He said he would allow Vallow and Means to use an attorney-client room to talk unless the room is unavailable.
- Still, the judge ruled against giving Vallow a cellphone or turning off the cameras in the attorney-client room.
- “That goes way outside the scope of what the jail policies would be,” Boyce said, according to EastIdahoNews.com. “An electronic telecommunication device is considered a major contraband item.”
Context
Vallow and her husband, Chad Daybell, are charged in Idaho in connection to the deaths of their children, Joshua “J.J.” Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 17, according to Fox News.
- The Daybells have been accused of keeping the children’s bodies hidden from authorities, per the Deseret News. An Idaho judge recently ruled that a single trial would be more efficient and less of a burden on the families.