A jury in Boise has decided Chad Daybell deserves the death penalty for murdering his former wife and his new wife’s two children.

After deliberating for almost six hours on Friday and two on Saturday, the same 12 jurors who found Chad Daybell guilty of all crimes against him on Thursday determined that his crimes were especially heinous and do merit the death penalty.

He was found guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of 7-year-old JJ Vallow, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, and his former wife, 49-year-old Tammy Daybell on Thursday.

Chad Daybell received the news in the same way he received his conviction — without emotion.

Kay Woodcock, Tylee and JJ’s grandmother, broke down in tears when the sentence was read, with their grandfather Larry Woodcock hugging her.

The jury unanimously determined that the murders were “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel, manifesting exceptional depravity,” bringing the sentencing to the level of the death, and that “all mitigating circumstances are not sufficiently compelling to make imposition of the death penalty unjust.”

Judge Steven Boyce, to those in attendance, explained in layman’s terms: “The jury has made a finding that it would be appropriate to impose the death penalty.”

Tammy Daybell’s cousin Patricia Later released a statement to East Idaho News, saying “we can all start to heal from the terrible losses we have suffered. We will miss Tammy every single day of our lives, but we have some comfort knowing we will see her again.”

Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador also made a statement, saying “I am thankful for the incredibly diligent work of the prosecutors and investigators in this complex case, and I am grateful for the partnerships we have in place to support the pursuit of justice. I hope the conviction of Chad Daybell and the jury’s sentence provides a measure of peace to the families of the victims, Tylee Ryan, JJ Vallow and Tammy Daybell.”

The first execution in Idaho since 2011 was attempted in February, but the medical staff at the department of corrections was unable to find the vein of 73-year-old Thomas Creech for a lethal injection, according to Idaho Gov. Brad Little. Little signed a bill in 2023 authorizing a firing squad as a method of execution after a nationwide shortage of drugs used in lethal injections.

According to the department of corrections, there are currently eight inmates on death row in Idaho. Creech received the death penalty in January 1983. Daybell will be No. 9.

On Friday, jurors listened to impact statements from family members of each of the victims, including JJ’s grandmother, Tylee’s older brother and aunt, Tammy Daybell’s father and multiple siblings of Tammy Daybell.

The statements brought some of the jurors to tears after weeks of hearing about the three deaths through witnesses.

Colby Ryan, Tylee’s older brother, said he has lost his entire family and is now without a mother, father, sister or brother. He said the impact of losing his siblings is “like a nuclear bomb dropping.”

“I lost the ability to watch Tylee and JJ grow up. I lost my relationship with my little brother which took years to build. … I lost the ability to sit with my little sister and talk and share our lives. So, in short, I lost everything I’ve ever known,” he said.

Matthew Douglas, Tammy Daybell’s brother, said she was “the emotional heart and glue” of his siblings, and these events destroyed their family as they knew it.

He called it a “never-ending nightmare,” and said every time he felt some control around the grief of his sister’s death, something new came — Chad Daybell was remarried, Tammy Daybell’s body was exhumed or there were missing children.

He said he felt like he was being tossed in a “cheap holiday snow globe” where everything was loose.

Douglas also said it hurt that some of the children of Chad and Tammy Daybell cut off ties with the Douglas family, choosing to defend their father.

Chad Daybell chose not to present any mitigation evidence during the sentencing phase of his trial and confirmed he understood his attorney, John Prior, had prepared for that. He also chose not to make an allocution statement. An allocution statement is when a defendant is given a chance to speak before their sentence is decided.

It was unknown whether he made that decision against the advice of Prior, who still argued on behalf of his client.

Prior argued Lori Daybell changed who Chad Daybell was and called her a “bomb” that brought chaos to his life. He said after meeting her was when the “crazy thoughts” and “amplification of these religious beliefs” in Chad Daybell began.

Prior said most of the allegations in the charges relate to her, and the ones that relate to Chad Daybell’s actions are all about religious beliefs. Prior said Chad Daybell was not present when the children were killed but that others were.

Fremont County prosecutor Lindsay Blake said each of the deaths occurred shortly after a source of money from them was set up, Social Security payments for the children and life insurance for Tammy Daybell.

She said Chad Daybell manipulated people around them with the goal of living on a tropical island with Lori Daybell. He taught others that he could mark people for death and determine when they would die.

“It didn’t matter the age of the victim or who relied on them and loved them. If they were in the way of Chad and his plan … or if there was money to be gained for Lori and Chad, those individuals were marked for death,” she said.