In opening statements Wednesday, prosecutors said Chad Daybell was obsessed with Lori Daybell and "sex, money and power." His triple murder trial opened in Idaho.
Chad Daybell was driven by "sex, money and power" in the killings of his wife and the two youngest children of his second wife, prosecutors alleged Wednesday in opening statements for his triple murder trial.
Daybell's trial comes nearly a year after his second wife, Lori Vallow Daybell, was convicted of murdering her son, Joshua "J.J." Vallow, 7, and daughter Tylee Ryan, 16. She was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Idaho prosecutors told jurors that Daybell became obsessed with Vallow Daybell after the two met during a 2018 religious conference. They started an affair and later viewed his wife, Tammy Daybell, and Lori's children as impediments to their future, authorities said.
The couple, who held extremist, "doomsday" religious beliefs, called the children and Tammy Daybell "dark spirits" and "zombies," according to prosecutors.
"When he had a chance at what he considered his rightful destiny, he made sure that no person, no law would stand in his way," prosecutor Rob Wood said of the defendant. "His desire for sex, money and power led him to pursue those ambitions and this pursuit led to the deaths of his wife and Lori's two innocent children."
Daybell, 55, faces charges of first-degree murder, insurance fraud, and conspiracy to commit murder and grand theft in connection with the three killings.
The children's mutilated remains were found in June buried on Idaho property belonging to Chad Daybell, police said. Investigators spent months looking for the missing children.
Tammy Daybell died in 2019. An autopsy later determined her cause of death was asphyxiation, authorities said.
Defense attorney John Prior told jurors Wednesday that an expert would later testify that genetic evidence found on the childrens' remains did not match Chad Daybell's DNA. He also said a fingerprint was found with the remains that belonged to Lori Daybell's brother, Alex Cox, who died in 2019.
Daybell's highly publicized trial is expected to last about nine weeks.
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