Chad Daybell is set to face death penalty trial for the murder of wife Lori Vallow’s children JJ, 7, and Tylee, 16 – and will argue to allow cameras in court because he ‘wants a public trial’

Chad Daybell, husband of Lori Vallow who was sentenced to life in prison for the murders of her two youngest children, was in court Tuesday before his death penalty hearing.

Daybell’s trial is expected to begin next year and last about two months. Unlike Vallow, he faces a capital trial that could end with the death penalty.

He is on trial for the same murder charges his wife was found guilty of – the murders of her two youngest children, Tylee (16) and JJ (7).

Judge Steven Boyce, who is the same judge who oversaw Vallow’s trial, on Tuesday heard requests from Daybell’s attorneys that cameras be allowed in the courtroom during the upcoming trial.

Vallow’s hearing was not televised, although a sketch artist and live-tweeting reporters were there.

Chad Daybell was back in court Tuesday, where his attorneys asked that his upcoming trial be televised

Lori Vallow Daybell, left, looks at the camera during one of her hearings. She was sentenced to life in prison this past summer

JJ, 7 (left) and his sister Tylee, 16 (right) were last seen in September 2019. Their bodies were found buried in Chad Daybell’s yard the following summer

Boyce said the trial is scheduled for April 1, 2024. It will include a rigorous two-week jury selection, during which prospective jurors will be given a lengthy questionnaire.

Boyce said he will begin holding hearings at least once a month to address motions brought by the prosecution and defense teams. The first such hearing is scheduled for November 29.

One point of contention during Tuesday’s hearing came when attorneys for the state expressed frustration that the primary reason Daybell’s case was separated from Vallow’s was no longer at issue.

Daybell’s attorney John Prior initially argued that Lori and Chad’s hearings should be cut short because he was going to do additional DNA testing. Prior no longer plans to do the testing, making the initial reason for the split irrelevant.

This past summer, Lori Vallow (50) was found guilty of murdering her two youngest children as well as conspiring to kill Chad Daybell’s ex-wife Tammy Daybell.

She has since appealed her conviction, but also faces two other cases Arizona – one on charges of conspiring with her brother to kill her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, and one of conspiring to kill her cousin’s ex-husband. Charles Vallow was shot dead in 2019, but her cousin’s ex survived an attempt later that year.

The case began in July 2019 when Vallow’s brother, Alex Cox, shot and killed her estranged husband, Charles Vallow, in a suburban Phoenix home.

Cox told police he acted in self-defense.

He was never charged in the case and died later that year of what authorities determined were natural causes.

At the time, Vallow was already in a relationship with Chad Daybell, a self-published author who wrote doomsday-focused fiction loosely based on Mormon teachings. She moved to Idaho with her children and brother to be closer to him.

The young children were last seen alive in September 2019. Police discovered they were missing a month later after an extended family member became concerned. Their bodies were found buried in Chad Daybell’s yard the following summer.

Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow married in November 2019, about two weeks after Daybell’s ex-wife, Tammy, was killed.

Chad Daybell, 54, was due to stand trial with Vallow before their cases were separated

The case began in July 2019 when Vallow’s brother, Alex Cox, shot and killed her estranged husband, Charles Vallow, in a suburban Phoenix home. Pictured: Vallow talking to police after the shooting of Charles Vallow

The Netflix series, which features her surviving child Colby Ryan, 26, reveals the details behind the murders

Tammy Daybell was initially described as having died of natural causes, but an autopsy later showed she had been suffocated, authorities said.

Defense attorney Jim Archibald argued at trial there was no evidence linking Vallow to the murders, but plenty to show she was a loving, protective mother whose life took a sharp turn when she met Chad Daybell met and fell for his ‘strange’ apocalyptic religious claims.

Archibald suggested that Daybell and Vallow’s brother, Alex Cox, was responsible for the deaths.

Daybell told her they had been married in several past lives and she was a ‘sexual goddess’ who was supposed to help him save the world by gathering 144,000 followers so Jesus could return, Archibald said.

Vallow’s former friend Melanie Gibb testified at trial that Vallow believed that people in her life had been taken over by evil spirits and turned into ‘zombies’, including JJ and Tylee.

The family and the case were featured on the popular Netflix TV documentary, ‘Sins of our Mother’.

The Netflix series, which features her surviving child Colby Ryan, 26, reveals the details behind the murders, and Lori’s beliefs that convinced her there was a ‘dark spirit’ inside her daughter, and the only way to ‘the to free spirit is to kill. body.’