Judge Rules Cameras Can Document Trial of Lori Vallow Daybell

PHOENIX, AZ — A judge ruled Monday that cameras will be present in the trials of former Phoenix resident Lori Vallow Daybell and her husband, Chad Daybell. Prosecutor Rob Wood had argued that allowing broadcasting or livestreaming of the case would make it harder to select an unbiased jury in Fremont County, Idaho, where both face charges in connection with the deaths of her children.

Judge Faren Eddins ruled otherwise, allowing one television and one photography outlet to document the court proceedings in Idaho.

"I'm denying the state's motion to reconsider my order governing courtroom conduct," said Eddins, according to local news outlet CBS2. "Things will proceed as outlined in my July 8, 2020 order governing courtroom conduct and the subsequent order."

The Daybells were charged with destroying or concealing two sets of human remains, which were discovered on the couple’s rural Idaho property. Police confirmed the remains were that of Vallow’s missing minor children, 7-year-old Joshua "JJ" Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan. Previously, Vallow Daybell had been charged with abandonment and obstructing the investigation into her children's whereabouts. The children had not been seen since September 2019.

Court documents claim that the couple believed dark spirits, or "zombies," would possess people. Vallow Daybell reportedly told her friend Melanie Gibb at different times in 2019 that both JJ and Tylee had become zombies. According to those documents, Gibb said the Daybells also believed the only way to rid a person of a dark spirit was by killing them so they could be at rest in the afterlife,

The married couple has also raised police suspicions due to the mysterious deaths of their former spouses. Idaho police have exhumed the body of Daybell’s late wife Tammy, who died suddenly in her sleep in November. Daybell married Lori two weeks later. Charles Vallow, Vallow Daybell's estranged husband, was found fatally shot by her brother, Alex Cox, in Vallow's Chandler home last summer. Police originally said Cox acted in self-defense but are now are taking a second look at the case.

Cox died of natural causes in December.

Daybell’s preliminary hearing will occur on Aug. 3 and 4, while Vallow Daybell will appear on Aug. 10.