FILE - Lori Vallow Daybell, appears in court in Lihue, Hawaii, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020. KSL at Night discuss Lori Vallow Daybell being found guilty on all charges on Friday, May 12, 2023. (Dennis Fujimoto/The Garden Island via AP, Pool, File)Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
SALT LAKE CITY — An Idaho jury found Lori Vallow Daybell guilty of all charges against on Friday, including the murder her two children.
So, what’s next for Vallow Daybell? KSL NewsRadio reporter Adam Small joined KSL at Night with hosts Greg Skordas and Leah Murray on Friday to discuss the case. Skordas is also KSL NewsRadio’s legal analyst, and he adds some insight into the case.
To open the conversation, Murray asked Small, “What are the takeaways? What’s the mood like?”
“This city really feels like it’s celebrating,” Small said, who was in Boise for the reading of the verdict. “I mean, you have people who have no idea who the Vallows, or anyone affected by this case was until horrible things happened to them and people died.”
Small says he met a woman from Kentucky, who had traveled all the way to Idaho for the trial. He says the woman felt impacted as a parent and as a grandmother.
Small adds, “It’s really turned into almost like a state of delirium and people up here are rejoicing.”
Skordas asked, “What do you suppose that’s about? Is it a sense of relief that justice has been served here?”
“People do need to understand that there is nothing good that came of this,” Small said. “I mean, two innocent children died. An innocent woman, Tammy Daybell, also died in all of this. It’s messy. It’s heartbreaking.”
Small also says the celebration was a result of justice being carried out.
“But I think the celebration really comes from, I think, people really felt like justice was served,” he said. “As we all know, every defendant is innocent until proven guilty.”
In referring to Thursday’s closing arguments, Skordas asked, “What if you put yourself in the jury box for a moment, and not a KSL news reporter, what did you go away from those thinking?”
Small acknowledges how difficult it would have been to be a jury member and have to view all of the evidence.
“I would just be overwhelmed with emotion,” he said. “I can imagine jurors, at this point, are probably very grateful that their job is done. They can go home. They can go back to just living their lives instead of seeing tragic, horrible things in front of their face.”
Murray asked, “Do you have a sense of, did the judge signal when he plans on coming down with a sentence?”
According to Small, the judge said it would take a few months to get the paperwork in order. Additionally, the judge said the sentencing will be held in Fremont County.
Sentencing is expected for some time in August.
Listen to the entire segment.
KSL at Night can be heard weeknights from 7 to 9 p.m.
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