Doomsday author labeled anyone who got in the way of his dreams as ‘zombies,’ prosecutor says

Prosecutors described Chad Daybell as any individual with a “desire for sex, money and power” and mentioned he labeled folks who stood in the way of his dreams as “zombies” and “dark spirits.”

The remarks had been made right through opening statements Wednesday in Daybell’s triple-murder trial. He and his present spouse, Lori Vallow, had been charged in reference to the deaths of Daybell’s ex-wife, Tammy Daybell, and Vallow’s youngsters, Joshua ‘JJ” Vallow and Tylee Ryan.

“You’ll pay attention in the global Chad and Lori deliberate for themselves, they known the ones who stood in the way of their dream as darkish,” Madison County Prosecutor Rob Wood mentioned.

“Their spouses, Lori’s own children and anyone who opposed them were labeled sometimes as dark spirits or even zombies. The evidence will show that it was a convenient narrative that dehumanized people who stood in their way,” Wood added.

Daybell’s legal professional, John Prior, requested the jury to concentrate on the info of the case and to go back a verdict of now not accountable.

“Don’t be distracted by speculation. Don’t be distracted by guesses or assumptions or hunches,” he mentioned in his opening commentary. “It all comes down to facts and evidence.”

Daybell used to be arrested in June 2020 after police exposed the stays of  Joshua and Tylee on his assets in Fremont County, Idaho.

His trial is anticipated to closing 10 weeks.

Authorities have mentioned they consider Daybell concealed his stepchildren’s stays someday between September 2019 and June 2020. A proper seek for Joshua, 7, and Tylee, 16, started in November 2019 after involved members of the family contacted government as a result of they’d now not noticed or spoken to the youngsters, the Rexburg Police Department mentioned.

Court paperwork later published that Joshua’s stays were buried in a puppy cemetery and Tylee were dismembered and burned in a fireplace pit. 

Daybell and Vallow had been indicted in 2021 on fees of first-degree homicide, conspiracy to dedicate first-degree homicide and grand robbery by way of deception.

They had been additionally charged with insurance coverage fraud and conspiracy to dedicate first-degree homicide in reference to the 2019 loss of life of Tammy Daybell. In addition, Chad Daybell used to be charged with first-degree homicide in her loss of life.

He has pleaded now not accountable to the fees. Prosecutors have mentioned they plan to hunt the loss of life penalty.

Vallow used to be convicted in May in the murders of her youngsters as neatly as conspiracy to dedicate homicide in the loss of life of Tammy Daybell.

In July, Vallow won more than one lifestyles sentences in jail with out the chance of parole in the deaths.

Authorities had accused Daybell and Vallow of failing to cooperate with the investigation into the youngsters’s disappearance and mendacity to officials about their whereabouts. They to start with instructed officials that Joshua, who used to be followed and had particular wishes, used to be in Arizona with a circle of relatives pal however police made up our minds that used to be now not true.

The couple later hastily left Rexburg. They had been discovered in Hawaii in January 2020, when Vallow used to be taken into custody.

As police endured their investigation into the youngsters, a number of mysterious deaths attached to the couple started to floor.

On July 11, 2019, Vallow’s fourth husband, Charles Vallow, used to be shot and killed by way of her brother, Alex Cox, a couple of months after he filed for divorce. Lori Vallow and her brother had been puzzled by way of police at the time and claimed self-defense.

A grand jury in Arizona, the place Lori and Charles Vallow lived, charged her with conspiracy to dedicate homicide in the first diploma just about two years after his loss of life. Cox used to be by no means charged. He died in 2019 from a pulmonary embolism, a situation that reasons a number of arteries in the lungs to turn out to be blocked by way of a blood clot.

In October 2019, a couple of months after Charles Vallow died, Tammy Daybell used to be discovered useless as a outcome of what used to be believed to be herbal reasons at the time. Investigators later exhumed her frame and carried out an post-mortem that dominated it a murder.

Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow married simply two weeks after Tammy’s funeral, NBC affiliate KSL of Salt Lake City reported.

Prosecutors have mentioned they consider Daybell, a self-published author of greater than two dozen books about near-death and doomsday occasions, and Vallow turned into obsessive about apocalyptic ideals that led them to dedicate the murders.

The indictments say the pair recommended and espoused “religious beliefs for the purpose of encouraging and/or justifying the homicides” of Tylee, Joshua and Tammy.