The brother and sister-in-law of slain Arizona man Charles Vallow said the woman charged with plotting his murder, wife Lori Daybell, should not get the death penalty if convicted for related charges in Idaho.
A death penalty could sometimes be the “easy way out,” sister-in-law Melanie Vallow said in an interview published Friday by East Idaho News. That’s quite the turn for her, as she described herself as a proponent of the death penalty.
Charles’ brother Gerry Vallow agreed. He would rather see Daybell “rot in prison.”
Daybell is at the center of sprawling criminal allegations linking two states. She (then known only as Lori Vallow) conspired with her brother Alex Cox to murder Charles in July 2019, said police in Arizona. Cox, the gunman, was not charged at the time, claiming self-defense and eventually dying the following December of what investigators called a blood clot.
Soon after Cox killed Charles, Daybell moved to Idaho with her children, Charles’ adopted son Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7, as well as Tylee Ryan, 16, her daughter from a previous marriage. The children would go missing on separate dates in September 2019, but Daybell allegedly did not report this to police. Instead, she went on to marry new husband Chad Daybell in Hawaii on November 5, 2019, and police only learned about the children’s’ disappearances later that month when Charles’ sister, who lived outside of the state, requested a welfare check. The newly married couple Lori and Chad fled town, police said.
Cops said the following June that they discovered JJ and Tylee in gravesites in Chad’s property, Fremont County, Idaho. The couple were indicted on charges, including for allegedly murdering the children. Chad is also charged with murdering his previous wife Tammy Daybell, who died in October 2019. Bizarre religious beliefs allegedly motivated the murders of JJ, Tylee, Tammy, and Charles.
Gerry was candid about his struggles since his brother died, saying he lost it about three or four months before when on his back porch thinking about what had happened.
“It just hit me,” he said. “I’m not a mad guy or angry, but I went into a rage. An anger got to me that I didn’t understand. I’ve never felt that mad before. I called a friend, and she told me I have to talk about it. I always hold things in, but she said to let people hear about my brother and start talking about it.”
When asked if he would forgive his former sister-in-law, Gerry said it is up to God to forgive her, not him. He also called Chad Daybell “motherf**ker,” and had some choice diction when doubting if Lori is really incompetent to stand trial.
“She ain’t crazy,” he said. “That b**** knew exactly what she was doing. And that’s the truth.”
[Screengrab via KTVB]