An Idaho juror in the Lori Vallow trial has spoken publicly for the first time, revealing why the doomsday mom was convicted of murdering her two children and conspiring to kill her husband’s former spouse.
“As the case progressed, as the evidence came to light, testimony was shared, it was harder to look at her,” Saul Hernandez told Good Morning America on Wednesday. “Growing up, we’re taught good and bad, God and evil, and I think for the first time in my life, I put a face to evil.”
Last week, Vallow was found guilty on all charges against her in connection with the September 2019 disappearance and death of her two children, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow. After seven hours of deliberation, Hernandez and his fellow Ada County jurors also convicted Vallow of conspiring to murder her husband Chad Daybell’s first wife, Tammy, in October 2019.
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Throughout the trial, prosecutors alleged that Vallow and Daybell were driven to murder by their extreme religious beliefs and need for money to start a new life in Hawaii. Vallow’s defense lawyers, who did not call any witnesses to the stand, insisted that their client was innocent of murder because she was a “loving mother.” Defense attorney Jim Archibald also implied that Daybell was the one who had a hand in the slayings.
Hernandez said he thought that Vallow’s beliefs began as a “curiosity” that grew once she met Daybell at a Utah conference in 2018.
“Once Chad came into the picture, she went along with it,” Hernandez said. “They wanted to believe something that only applied and benefited them, only applied and benefited those people they liked, their circle that they liked and they wanted to be around.”
The juror, however, acknowledged that he was “disgusted” by photos prosecutors shared of Daybell and Vallow dancing on a beach in Hawaii and “didn’t want to look at them."
He said that even after the lengthy trial, which included 60 witnesses from the prosecution, he was initially hesitant about whether Vallow was guilty when deliberations began. Deliberations ultimately look two days, he said, because of his hesitation as the lone holdout.
“I just didn’t feel like at that timeline with Tylee, we were quite there yet,” he said. “And if we were, I perhaps was missing it.”
Eventually, as the jury looked through all the evidence and testimony, he said, he was convinced of Vallow’s guilt.
Tiffany, who was alternate juror, also spoke out this week. In an interview with Law&Crime, she revealed that it was Vallow’s “unemotional” reactions to harrowing evidence that made her believe she was guilty. She added that if she was on the final panel of 12 jurors who delivered a verdict, she would have also voted to convict Vallow—but would have needed some time on the charges related to Tammy Daybell’s murder.
“I felt pretty solid on the other charges but the one on Tammy Daybell I did not feel solid on. I didn’t feel there was solid evidence for her charge as opposed to the other charges,” Tiffany said, adding that she believed Chad Daybell “had a heavier hand in” in his former wife’s slaying.
