Chad Daybell to appeal to verdict and death penalty, gets public defender
Jun 6, 2024, 11:58 AM | Updated: 1:42 pm
Chad Daybell sits and closes his eyes after the jury's verdict in his murder trial was read at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho, on Thursday, May 30, 2024. Daybell was convicted of killing his wife and his new girlfriend's two youngest kids in a strange triple murder case that included claims of apocalyptic prophesies, zombie children and illicit affairs. (AP Photo/Kyle Green, Pool)
(AP Photo/Kyle Green, Pool)
BOISE — While former Utahn Chad Guy Daybell begins his expected life-long stay in Idaho’s prison system, his attorney filed a notice of appeal and also filed a motion to appoint a public defender after his conviction for three murders. The motion for a public defender was granted by a Judge Steven Boyce on Thursday.
Daybell was found guilty of first-degree murder of his late wife, Tammy Daybell, and for the two children of his current wife Lori Vallow Daybell, who is also incarcerated for the same killings. Paperwork filed in Idaho’s 7th District Court lists the intention to appeal both his guilty verdict and his sentence of death for the three killings.
Click here for complete coverage of the Chad Daybell trial
The children, Joshua “JJ” Vallow and Tylee Ryan, were found buried in his backyard after Vallow Daybell was extradited to Rexburg, Idaho from Hawaii, while her children were still officially missing but were already dead and buried. As his new wife was in court receiving national media attention, Chad Daybell was in the courtroom watching court proceedings. He was arrested the day the children’s bodies were found.
After he was sentenced to death, court documents show Chad Daybell was immediately taken by the Idaho Department of Correction, according to a court document of transfer. The system’s maximum security institution houses close custody and segregation residents and operates the state’s mental health facility for residents under the sentence of death.
In a preliminary statement on appeals, court documents ask:
- If the court erred on dismissing the grand jury indictment on the case
- If the court ruling a doctor’s report and testimony would be inadmissible
- If the court erred in denying defense’s Rule 29 motion to dismiss
- If the court erred in allowing the state to amend its indictment after closing its court case
- If the court was in error in not providing the most current jury instructions
The notice of appeal said counsel reserves the right to appeal other items.
It also raises an issue with a sealed reporter’s transcript and requests the full transcript.
A separate motion asks the state to appoint a public defender for post-conviction representation because Chad Daybell is indigent, meaning he has no money to pay for an attorney.
“Immediate appointment is necessary to protect Mr. Daybell’s right to seek appellate relief, to pursue any post-conviction remedy … and to protect his rights under the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eight, and Fourteenth Ammendments to the United States Constitution,” and the Idaho Constitution.
“Two qualified attorneys with the State Appellate Public Defender shall be appointed to represent Daybell on appeal and the pursuit of any post-conviction relief,” Boyce wrote.
Chad Daybell’s current address is listed as the Boise Correctional Facility.
