The judge overseeing Chad Daybell’s murder trial has denied his attorney’s motion to withdraw from the case, apparently agreeing with prosecutors that the motion was an attempt to delay a trial that has been in preparation since 2021.
John Prior, who has been Daybell’s sole attorney since he was arrested for the murders of his first wife and two of his second wife’s children, abruptly filed to withdraw from the case last week, just weeks before the scheduled April 1 start of the trial, as CrimeOnline reported.
Prior argued that he didn’t have enough time to prepare for the death penalty trial, that Daybell had been declared indigent and couldn’t pay him, and that he was not a death penalty-qualified attorney.
“Mr. Daybell agrees with me that it’s not fair to me if I don’t get paid,” Prior told Judge Steven Boyce at Thursday’s hearing on the matter, EastIdahoNews.com reported. “If the court denies my motion, I’m prepared to go forward and push this case to the end, and I’m committed to that. Do I think it’s fair I don’t get paid? No. Do I want to get paid? I absolutely want to get paid for the work that I do.”
Prior said he “came to realize in late December” that he couldn’t be prepared for the trial by April 1, despite knowing the state was seeking the death penalty since August 2021.
In Idaho, a defendant can hire the attorney of their choosing, even in death penalty cases and if the attorney is not certified for them. But public defenders appointed for death penalty cases must be certified. Prior used that as another excuse for his withdrawal — that “there is no mechanism that allows Mr. Daybell to get additional assistance unless I withdraw.”
After a brief closed hearing, Fremont County Prosecuting Attorney Lindsey Blake noted that the court said a year ago that public funding would be available to assist Daybell’s defense, but that Prior had not taken advantage of that.
“Here we are a year later, and for the first time, this issue is being brought up that, ‘Hey, I want to withdraw because I’m not getting paid and I’d have to work all the time to get it done,’” Blake said. “Now the victims’ families have to wait much longer, and the state has to absorb additional cost.”
Blake also pointed out that Prior sat in the courtroom during Lori Vallow Daybell’s entire trial and was well aware of evidence that would be presented.
“He was able to watch the trial and got a year-long continuance to test the DNA and then after the trial said, ‘I’m not going to test the DNA,’” Blake said. “It was very frustrating that we ended up having a continuance for something that never ended up being tested.”
In a motion objecting to Prior’s withdrawal, the prosecutors also said that the motion to withdraw was the first they’d heard of Daybell’s indigence.
“The Motion to Withdraw relies in part on the Defendant having been found indigent by this Court on January 19, 2023,” the state wrote in its objection. “The State was not present, or privy, to any such finding by this Court.
Before his ruling, Boyce appeared unlikely to agree to Prior’s withdrawal.
“None of this is new at all. The co-defendant (Lori Daybell) went through an entire trial that you observed. We talked about these concerns a year ago, and here we are on the doorstep of trial and you’re saying you’re not prepared,” Boyce said. “During a hearing a year ago, you said, ‘There is going to be no continuance because I’m asking to get out of this case — that will not happen.’”
After a break to consider the arguments, Boyce returned and denied the motion, noting that allowing the withdrawal “would absolutely require a continuance of the trial and not just a brief continuance.”
Dayell has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, as Vallow Daybell did before her trial last year. She was found guilty of the murders of Tammy Daybell, JJ Vallow, and Tylee Ryan and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole. She is currently in Arizona awaiting trial on conspiracy charges in the murder of her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, and her niece’s ex-husband, Brandon Boudreaux.
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[Featured image: John Prior, Chad Daybell’s attorney, and Daybell at a hearing last year/Nate Eaton/EastIdahoNews.com]
