Idaho judge deciding if JJ Vallow’s grandparents can sit in on Lori Vallow Daybell trial

BOISE, Idaho — Only a few days from the beginning of the Lori Vallow Daybell trial, a last-minute listening to in Boise, Idaho Wednesday delved into if relations who plan on testifying can sit within the courtroom, specifically Joshua “JJ” Vallow’s grandparents Kay and Larry Woodcock.

Decide Steven Boyce Wednesday issued an order stating anybody who’s a witness being known as to testify can not sit in on different witness testimony. The one exception is for many who additionally classify as victims within the case.

The prosecution and protection argued backwards and forwards on what defines a sufferer– and if it contains the Woodcocks.

The trial will determine if Vallow Daybell is chargeable for the deaths of her adopted son JJ, her teen daughter Tylee, and Tammy Daybell– the late spouse of Vallow Daybell’s husband, Chad Daybell.
The Woodcocks plan to remain in Boise for the trial’s length and supposed on attending court docket each single day.

Fremont County prosecutor Rob Wooden defined that the Woodcocks are on the prosecution’s witness listing, together with different relations together with Lori’s sister Summer season Shiflet, Lori’s son Colby Ryan, and Tammy Daybell’s sister and brother-in-law, Samantha and Jason Gwilliam.

Decide Boyce stated the definition of a sufferer will not be solely clear in Idaho legislation.

Protection lawyer James Archibald defined that he believed the one sufferer on the witness listing who must be allowed to observe others testify, below Idaho statute, is Colby Ryan– who’s Tylee’s half-brother and JJ’s adoptive brother– as a result of he’s a direct member of the family of the murder victims.

Archibald argued that grandparents aren’t thought of rapid household and due to this fact not victims.
He additional asserted to Decide Boyce that he believed the Woodcocks weren’t JJ’s grandparents by legislation anyway. Lori’s late husband, Charles Vallow (Lori is going through conspiracy expenses for his homicide in Arizona), was Kay’s brother and JJ’s organic uncle. Charles and Lori adopted JJ from Kay’s son.

“To name Kay Woodcock a grandma, which may be a reputation that she gave herself, however since her son terminated his parental rights, she is not a grandma by legislation,” Archibald stated.

Wooden fired again that the court docket’s interpretation of a sufferer ought to embody somebody who suffers direct and bodily, monetary, or emotional hurt– and he said statutes to again up his perception.

“In a case akin to this, to inform a grandparent they’re not allowed to observe the trial of the of their grandson– somebody who was an enormous a part of their life– I believe we actually are operating outdoors what’s supposed by this statute, and what’s supposed by the structure,” he stated. “I believe legally, completely no query about it they, Larry and Kay Woodcock, meet the definition below [statute] 5A of what a sufferer is. They’ve suffered emotional hurt there’s no query about that.”

Decide Boyce stated he wanted to do additional analysis earlier than making a ultimate dedication on if the Woococks can be allowed to observe whereas different witnesses testify. He stated he plans to make a ruling early subsequent week and gave the prosecution and protection till 5 pm Friday to submit extra arguments.

The Woodcocks, who known as within the preliminary welfare test on JJ after not chatting with their 7-year-old grandson for months in November 2019, sparked the whole police investigation into the whereabouts of JJ and Tylee, and finally, their deaths.

The our bodies of the kids have been found buried in tChad Daybell’s yard in Salem, Idaho in June 2020.

Vallow Daybell was indicted in Might 2021 on conspiracy and first-degree homicide expenses for JJ and Tylee’s deaths, conspiracy to commit homicide in Tammy Daybell’s demise, in addition to grand theft for allegedly accumulating the kids’s social safety advantages for months after they died.
Her trial begins on April 3 in Boise, Idaho.

Chad Daybell can be going through first-degree homicide, conspiracy, grand theft, and insurance coverage fraud expenses, and is ready to have a separate trial.