Prosecution has to get Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell to betray each other, says expert: 'Else, DA's in trouble'
The prosecution and investigators involved in the case of the disappearance and death of Tylee Ryan and Joshua 'JJ' Vallow may try to get the defendants, Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow, to turn on each other, a legal expert has claimed. The couple, who tied the knot just a few months after Tylee and Joshua went missing in September 2019, has been constantly in the national headlines over the past year over allegations that they belonged to a doomsday cult and killed the children over a still unknown motive.
The children were reported missing not by Daybell or Vallow but by concerned relatives who told the authorities they had not heard from them for months. In November 2019, after police opened an investigation into the matter, both Daybell and Vallow went on the run. Vallow was eventually arrested in February and charged with two felony counts of desertion and non-support of dependent children, as well as resisting or obstructing officers, criminal solicitation to commit a crime, and contempt of court. During an emotional hearing in July, she was also charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence.
Daybell, on the other hand, was arrested this June when Fremont County Sheriff's deputies, Rexburg Police officers, and FBI agents who raided his Salem, Idaho, home found the children's' remains in his backyard. He was subsequently charged with two felony counts of destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence. While neither has been charged in the children's' murder, Los Angeles civil litigator and criminal defense lawyer Joseph H Low IV explained to MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) that prosecutors may try getting Daybell or Vallow to turn on each other for evidence linking them to the deaths.
"The [more] likely scenario is that the prosecution will put pressure on both of them so that one will roll over on the other," Low said. "Then, they can get murder charges filed because that is where they ultimately want this case to go.”
"The present charges, minuscule under the circumstances, were filed to create enough pressure, stress, and divisiveness to separate the two," he continued. "Likely, right now, the DA is working on both to make one of them disclose the details that will support murder charges. If one does, the DA wins. If they both keep their mouths shut and force the DA to prove his case, the DA’s in trouble."
However, he conceded that doing so would be much harder than it looks because, under the current charges, neither is looking at a lengthy sentence behind bars. "Would it be advantageous for Chad to turn on Lori? That depends on whether Chad gets one hell of a deal cut by the prosecutor. But that is unlikely to happen because the charges he is facing right now are not that serious," he said.
Low, from his experience as a criminal defense lawyer, explained what Vallow's attorney will have to do if he wants his client to have a fighting chance, including how a jury should be picked. "Picking an unbiased jury will be a challenge," he conceded. "No possible narrative or story makes Lori look endearing in any way. The facts continue to make her look unhinged. The defense’s greatest challenges are public perception and picking an unbiased jury. If he’s smart, her lawyer will bring in a jury selection expert or a trial lawyer who specializes in this type of case and knows how to pick the ‘right’ jury.”
He also outlined what he felt was happening behind the scenes between the prosecution and the defense as the case heads towards an explosive trial. "A police officer plans to testify with incriminating evidence against Lori," he shared. "Mark Means [Vallow's defense attorney] is trying to cut a deal by keeping his client out of the public eye. He’s more than likely doing that because he doesn’t want his client to look worse than she already does, but he doesn’t quite know yet how to stop that from happening."
"Means is going to have to go on offense. In these types of criminal cases, you have to do more than defend; you have to go on the offense. I don’t see any of that happening yet, but if Means doesn’t make that commitment soon, the outcome will be very predictable."