Jury selected for Vallow Daybell murder trial
Apr 7, 2023, 11:18 AM | Updated: 11:26 am
A courtroom sketch showing Lori Vallow Daybell sitting in between her attorneys during jury selection. (Pool)
(Pool)
BOISE, Idaho — After a week in court, the final jury has been selected for the murder trial of Lori Vallow Daybell.
The 18 members of the jury, 12 seated and six alternates, were whittled down from a pool of 45 on Friday and from hundreds of possible candidates in the jury process. The 18 will spend the next eight weeks listening to evidence and ultimately deciding the guilt or innocence of Vallow Daybell.
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The jury will not be sequestered, although there was talk of the possibility during the jury selection process. That means that during what is expected to be a two-month trial, the jurors will still be able to go home at the end of each day of court and spend weekends at home.
Judge Steven Boyce said he still reserves the option to sequester the 10 men and eight women during the deliberation process after closing arguments in late May or June. That decision would be made on any pressure the jurors may be feeling from neighbors, family, media or the public regarding the trial.
It was not known Friday how many men and women make up the 12 of the seated jury and which are alternates.
The weeklong effort to select a jury went quickly Friday morning. On Thursday the process selected the wanted 42 candidates and added three more just in case they were needed.
At 10 a.m. Friday, Boyce released three jurors and then read a list of jurors excused by each of the legal teams, quickly cutting the number to the final 18. They were the first actions in closed-court proceedings that started at 8:30 a.m. Friday.
Each morning the jurors will report to court during the trial, they will be required to sign in and declare that they have held their agreement not to discuss the trial in any way.
Boyce said Friday that one of the most difficult parts of the order not to talk about the trial will be within the ranks of the jury. He said he isn’t aware of any other situation where people see the same things and have a shared experience but are asked not to talk about it, even amongst themselves.
Vallow Daybell has been in court with her legal team during the entire week of jury selection. The jury will determine her guilt or innocence on several charges, including the first-degree murder charge for her children JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan.
She faces charges of:
- First-degree murder for the death of Tylee Ryan.
- First-degree murder for the death of JJ Vallow.
- Conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and grand theft by deception for the death of Tylee Ryan.
- Conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and grand theft by deception for the death of J.J. Vallow.
- Conspiracy to commit first-degree murder for the death of Tammy Daybell.
- Grand theft, related to Social Security survivor benefits for JJ and Tylee
In Arizona she is charged with:
- Conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and grand theft by deception for the death of Charles Vallow.
The death penalty is not an option for this jury, removed as an option by Boyce. Jurors have already seen Vallow Daybell during the selection process.
