District Judge Steven Boyce denied a directed verdict on Thursday requesting the acquittal of Chad Daybell in his murder trial in Boise. After the jury heard from the final defense witness in the criminal case of the state of Idaho versus Daybell, the prosecution rested its case.
“Without getting into the specifics,” Daybell’s attorney, John Prior, said. “But I am going to move for a directed verdict on the murder charges — specifically with Tylee and JJ — there is no indication that Mr. Daybell was present, took an active part in or facilitated in any way (in) the murder of JJ and then Tylee.”
“In regards to the conspiracy charges, there’s no indication that there was any act that he took in furtherance. There’s reference to religious significance discussions, but that in itself is not an action in furtherance of those charges,” Prior added. “Lastly, judge, in regards to the fraud, the only testimony I recall is that the insurance was upped from $10,000 to $80,000 and that there had already been a longstanding $300,000 policy from 2002. At this point, I don’t think the state has met its burden regarding the fraud” or all other conspiracy charges.
Daybell is being accused of involvement in multiple murders, conspiracy to commit murders, grand theft and two counts of insurance fraud. The charges relate to the deaths of his former wife, Tammy Daybell, and his current wife, Lori Vallow Daybell’s children, Tylee Ryan and Joshua Jackson “JJ” Vallow.
On May 12, 2023, Lori Vallow Daybell was found guilty of her children’s and Tammy Daybell’s death and was given five life sentences with no possibility of parole.
Before Boyce dismissed Prior’s motion, he drew the court’s attention to an error in one count of the prosecution’s amended indictment.
Boyce said the indictment had a material error that stated the wrong date of JJ’s death. The state marked JJ’s death as being between Sept. 8-9, 2019. Boyce noted that JJ was “clearly alive on those days,” as there is photo evidence of him being alive on Sept. 22, 2019, and multiple witnesses attested to it.
“They’ve lost their chance. They don’t get to go back,” Prior said. “Judge, I’m asking the court to dismiss the charge.”
Prosecution attorneys admitted they were unaware of the error and requested they be given until Monday to address the court’s concern. Prior argued that the state had plenty of time to catch the mistake and had already rested its case — the defense is also scheduled to put on its defense beginning Monday in the Boise courtroom.
After a brief recess, Boyce heard arguments from the defense and prosecution and concluded that the mistake in the fourth count in the indictment was a “clerical error” and that the prosecution never received court permission to amend it. Boyce concluded the original language of the count would remain the language of the indictment going forward.
“The court believes that the jurors can be fairly and properly instructed with a curative instruction or some other manner in which to correct what they’ve heard so they can properly be instructed in conformity with the evidence submitted,” Boyce concluded.