A juror from the trial of “doomsday-cult” mom Lori Vallow Daybell broke his silence on the deliberations that led to her conviction for the murder of her own children: “…I think for the first time in my life, I put a face to evil.”
(Video: ABC News)
Last week, after nearly seven hours of deliberations, Saul Hernandez and the rest of the jury found the defendant guilty on all charges. In an ABC News exclusive, he sat down to discuss what led him to that verdict after being the last remaining holdout regarding the murders of her seven-year-old son JJ Vallow and her teenage daughter Tylee Ryan.
“I don’t think as a human being you are ever really prepared to experience this,” Hernandez explained.
In May 2021, Vallow was indicted for the murders of her two children and for conspiracy to commit murder with regard to her then-lover’s wife Tammy Daybell. Chad Daybell, who went on to marry Vallow was also indicted and will be facing his own trial next year.
According to Law & Crime, the bodies of the children were discovered in Daybell’s Idaho backyard in June 2020: “During the trial, the Ada County coroner testified that J.J. Vallow died from asphyxiation by a plastic bag and that Tylee Ryan died of homicide by unknown means. This was the first time that the children’s causes of death had ever been released publicly.”
That discovery was made after the children had gone missing in Sept. 2019. In the interim, Vallow and Daybell fled Idaho and got married in Hawaii. Pictures of their nuptials were displayed during the trial and Hernandez remarked, “I didn’t want to look at ’em. I just couldn’t believe how someone can be that happy when your kids are in the ground.”
“And the person that was key in all of this is sitting across from you, smiling at you and dancing with you on the beach,” he continued.
The pair had evidently met at a conference in 2018 and became religious zealots as part of a “doomsday cult” that led them to believe that the children and Tammy Daybell had all been “zombified”
Hernandez told ABC News, “Growing up, you talk about good and bad, God and evil, and I think for the first time in my life, I put a face to evil.”
Vallow was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder regarding her children as well as three counts of conspiracy to murder that included the death of Tammy Daybell, and another charge of grand theft.
While the death penalty had been taken off the table at the onset of the trial, Vallow is likely facing life in prison when her sentencing takes place in roughly three months. As soon as the sentencing has taken place, she will be extradited to Arizona to face charges of murdering her fourth husband, Charles Vallow.
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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