(NewsNation) — The attorney for Chad Daybell, the husband of Lori Vallow, acted Thursday to save him from the death penalty if he is convicted of murder.
Attorney John Prior filed three motions in Fremont County, Idaho, two of which ask the judge to throw out the death penalty if Daybell is convicted.
The third motion asks prosecutors only be allowed to argue the same core theory in their prosecution of Daybell that they argued in his wife’s murder trial, according to local news reports.
Earlier this year, Lori Vallow was sentenced to life for the murder of her two youngest children, Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow, and for conspiring to murder Chad’s first wife, Tammy Daybell.
Chad Daybell, meanwhile, is charged with with murder in the death of Tammy Daybell and in the deaths of Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow.
The death penalty was taken off the table for Vallow, but Daybell still faces death.
Vallow has since appealed her life sentence and guilty conviction.
Siblings Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow went missing in September 2019, and their bodies were later found on Chad Daybell’s property.
During Vallow’s trial, information came to light about her and Daybell’s doomsday beliefs, which were described by some as cultlike.
Cult experts say Chad Daybell, who followed a group called “Preparing a People,” took the organization’s teachings to an extreme. He would talk about zombies, and tell people the world was going to end.
Daybell’s trial is set for April 1, 2024.