'Doomsday plot' author Chad Daybell receives death penalty after murder conviction

June 1 (UPI) -- A jury in Idaho on Saturday recommended the death penalty against Chad Daybell, who was found guilty earlier in the week of killing his first wife and his second wife's two children.

"All mitigating circumstances are not sufficiently compelling to make imposition of the death penalty unjust" the court clerk read aloud Saturday in the courtroom, in relation to each of the aggravating circumstances against Daybell.

The jury notified the court around 10:45 a.m. MDT Saturday that it had reached a verdict.

Judge Steve Boyce accepted the jury's "long and complicated" verdict, which found the "defendant exhibited reckless disregard for human life."

Boyce formally imposed the death penalty, accepting the jury's recommendation after a short recess.

Daybell was convicted Thursday on eight felony counts, including the first-degree murders of his then-wife Tammy Daybell and his second wife Lori Vallow's two children, Joshua "J.J." Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 16, in a so-called "doomsday plot."

Vallow was convicted last year and sentenced last July to life in prison without parole for her role in the killings. She also faces an August trial in Arizona where she is charged with first-degree murder for the killing of Charles Vallow and one count of first-degree premeditated murder for allegedly plotting to kill her niece's ex-husband.

The verdict came after seven weeks of highly-publicized testimony, during which prosecutors pointed to a plot to pursue "money, power and sex" as motive.

Daybell, 55, is an author of books about the apocalypse and promoted spiritual beliefs to justify the triple-murder and claimed that all three were possessed and "marked" for death, according to prosecutors.