The judge overseeing the case of Chad Daybell this week denied the state’s motion to reconsider his earlier decision to move the trial hours away from Fremont County to Ada County.
Judge Steven Boyce made that decision earlier this year, when Daybell’s case was still tied to that of his wife, Lori Vallow Daybell, as CrimeOnline reported. Both were charged with the murders of 7-year-old JJ Vallow and 16-year-old Tyler Ryan, two of Vallow Daybell’s children, and Daybell’s first wife, Tammy Daybell.
When Daybell waived his right to a speedy trial and Vallow Daybell did not, Boyce severed the trials. Vallow Daybell’s was still delayed, as she was twice declared incompetent to stand trial and sent to a state institution for treatment.
120823 Order on States Motion to Reconsider Change of Venue by kc wildmoon on Scribd
She finally stood trial last spring and was found guilty, then sentenced in July to three life sentences without parole.
Last month, prosecutors asked Boyce to reconsider the change of venue and bring the case back to Fremont County, where most of the witnesses and family live, arguing that the publicity surrounding Vallow Daybell’s trial had made it as difficult to find an unbiased jury in Ada County and it would have been in Fremont County.
Boyce addressed the prosecutors’ concerns in his eight-page ruling, saying that the request was “not unreasonable.”
“The Court recognizes the sacrifices that are required given this difficult decision,” Boyce wrote. “For local prosecutors, there is a burden of having to relocate away from family and community for an extended time. That burden extends to others, including witnesses, victims’ families, and law enforcement involved in security, and staff. The Court’s decision allowing the live-streaming of the trial will serve to lessen that burden to some extent.”
Ultimately, the judge said, “the proper venue for trial remains Ada County and that a fair and impartial trial will take place there, as was accomplished in the companion case earlier this year.”
Daybell’s trial is set to begin on April 1, 2024. His wife, meanwhile, has been extradited to Arizona, where she will stand trial for conspiracy in the death of her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, and the attempted murder of her niece’s ex-husband, Brandon Boudreaux. That trial is currently set to begin three days after Daybell’s, on April 4.
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