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April 10 (UPI) -- During opening arguments Wednesday in the Chad Daybell murder trial in Boise, Idaho, the prosecutor said Daybell killed his late wife and two children of his current wife in a what was described as a doomsday cult. He is charged in the deaths of 7-year-old Joshua "JJ" Vallow, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and Tammy Daybell, his former wife, in late 2019.
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Prosecutor Rob Wood said, "Two dead children buried in this defendant's backyard. The next month his wife dead in their bed. Seventeen days later, the defendant marries Lori Vallow."
Wood said in opening arguments that Chad Daybell and Vallow saw their children and spouses as "obstacles" and asserted Chad Daybell's desire to pursue "sex, money and power" led to the murders.
Defense attorney John Prior said in his opening arguments the defense would call four expert witnesses to testify there was no DNA from Chad Daybell found on the children's bodies.
Prior also said expert defense witness will show there's no evidence Tammy Daybell's death was a homicide.
Chad Daybell is a 55-year-old Mormon novelist.
Daybell and Lori Vallow were both charged in the murders in 2021. Vallow was convicted last July and sentenced to life in prison.
She was also extradited to Arizona late last year, during which she pleaded not guilty in the first-degree murder of her fourth husband, who was shot to death in 2019 at her home.
During her trial, Vallow said the killings were justified by her religious beliefs.
Both Daybell and Vallow belonged to a sect of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Wood said that both Chad Daybell and Vallow referred to people who opposed them as "dark spirits" or "zombies." He said that included the three murder victims.
