IDAHO — Lori Vallow Daybell—the woman convicted of killing her two children, Joshua Jaxson “JJ” Vallow and Tylee Vallow and conspiring to kill Tammy Daybell—was sentenced to three consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole, July 31.
The sentencing hearing concluded just after 12:30 p.m. Prior to sentencing Vallow Daybell, Judge Steven Boyce said, “The most unimaginable type of murder is a mother murdering their children, and that’s what you did.”
“You killed those children to remove them as obstacles and benefit financially,” Boyce said.
In May, Vallow Daybell was found guilty of killing her children and conspiring to kill Tammy Daybell, the wife of Chad Daybell to make way for “a new life.”
The children went missing in September 2019, just one month after moving to Idaho from Arizona. By October, Chad Daybell’s wife, Tammy Daybell, died of what her obituary said were natural causes. When Chad Daybell married Vallow roughly two weeks after Tammy’s death, law enforcement became suspicious and had her remains exhumed.
The couple fled to Hawaii after the children went missing and were arrested in February 2020. The bodies of Tylee and JJ were found on Chad Daybell’s property in June of 2020.
Daybell was allowed to give a pre-sentencing statement after the prosecution and defense shared recommendations. She said, “Jesus Christ knows the truth of what happened here. Jesus Christ knows that no one was murdered. Accidental deaths happen, suicides happen, fatal deaths from medications happen.”
She then recounted an alleged near-death experience that she had in 2002 when she was giving birth to Tylee, “because of this experience I have had connections with the spirit world.”
She said that her children and “her friend” Tammy are “busy” and happy in the spirit world.
“I do not fear death, but I look forward to it,” Vallow said.
Judge Boyce said, “I don’t believe that any god in any religion would want what happened here, to happen.”
“You brought them here to murder them, you had so many other options,” Boyce said. “You haven’t said you are sorry, you haven’t done anything to seek leniency.”
Judge Boyce opted to sentence Vallow Daybell to three consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole because “you need to be held accountable for each murder separately,” he said.
Chad Daybell’s trial is set for April 1, 2024.
