Daybell Jury Selection Day 2

April 2nd, 2024:

• 16 prospective jurors were called.

14 prospective jurors went through the voir dire process.

Pre-Jury Matters

• Access to NCIC for background checks for prospective jurors.
• Prosecution will share any criminal histories with the defense.
• Juror 791 - concerned about being asked about the case at work.
• Jurors 823, 1112 not appearing as part of this group. 14 jurors here.
• The juror on their way will be instructed to return tomorrow

Day 2 Jurors

EXCUSED JURORS

• Juror 792: Challenge for Cause - Prosecution (Hardship)
• Was out of work for ten months and only started this new job five weeks ago. Full time job. He would not lose his job but it would be ten weeks without pay.
• Juror is excused.
• Juror 899: Challenge for Cause - Prosecution (Hardship)
• Her husband’s job is ending in May. She will be making up more than 50% of their income and is afraid of not being able to pay the mortgage.
• She would be distracted by her financial situation.
• Juror is excused.
• Juror 923: Challenge for Cause - Prosecution (Hardship)
• Works full time. Will not be compensated for missed work time.
• Has something in May [bad audio].
• Full time student
• Juror is excused.
• Juror 924: Challenge for Cause - Prosecution (Hardship)
• Has work out of town. Is a musician. Work isn’t always set. In a month he doesn’t know where he will be. Work is generally Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Makes it impossible to leave town. That’s his sole source of income. He has a wife.
• Juror is excused.
• Juror 937: Challenge for Cause - Prosecution (Hardship)
• Has medical appointments. They cannot be rescheduled. Most of them were scheduled months ago. Gets migraine shots. Her next one is scheduled in May. Gets migraines despite the treatment.
• Also a single mom. Her minor daughter has medical appointments as well. Is the only parent who can take her.
• Usually works for small bits of time out of state. Is getting short on money and may need to take another short term job before moving to Oregon. May not be able to pay bills.
• Juror is excused.
• Juror 1032: Challenge for Cause - Defense (Hardship)
• Will get paid for at least six weeks of jury duty. Unsure about the other weeks.
• Have no other family or caretakers for children. He makes breakfast and gets everyone ready for the day.
• Wife is a special education teacher.
• Recent diagnosis of stage 4 cancer in a family member out of state; wife may need to travel out of state. If she travels, the kids will need him.
• This will all distract him.
• Juror is excused.

Group Voir Dire

• Juror 1004: Challenge for Cause - Prosecution (Hardship)
• [bad audio] additional staff would need to be called in to fill his position.
• Childcare costs for a 3 year old and a 12 year old and 15 year old.
• Is scheduled for parenting time and does not want to violate any agreements.
• 15 year old is employed and juror takes him to his job.
• Wife works 9 - 5.
• Is a police officer.
• There are staffing requirements; employees would need to be called in on their days off to cover.
• Juror is not excused.
• Juror 752: [possible hardship]
• [bad audio] has a stay at home wife.
• Has spoken to the CEO of his company. They can potentially work around it.
• If he is sequestered there are issues.
• Could focus on the case.

Brutal honesty

• Juror 1048: Telling the absolute truth. Straight facts and straight truth.
• Juror 909: You would be completely honest regardless of how it might make the other person feel.

Potential Opinion of Guilt

• Juror 951
• Juror 1004
• Juror 1057

Regarding the Graphic Nature of the Case

• Juror 1057: Her brother-in-law caught on fire and she put him out. It’s been a long time and after filling the questionnaire and being here, more of what she saw and smelled has been coming to her mind.
• Could probably be impartial and focus on the case despite the thoughts.
• Has been having trouble sleeping.
• Hopes it would not impact her ability to focus on the case.

Probably/Hopefully/For Sure

Given pilot analogy.

• Juror 752: [called upon by Prosecution]
• Likes certainty.
• Juror 922: [called upon by Prosecution]
• Prefers his pilot to be confident and competent.
• Juror 951: [called upon by Prosecution]
• Would prefer the pilot that’s confident he can get them to their destination.

Regarding Jury Instructions and Not Adding Your Own Elements

Prosecutor asks the jury to think of a time that they had to do something a certain way.

• Juror 909: Mainly with kids. Doesn’t know anything was super specific.
• Juror 1004: Has had similar experiences with three kids. Very particular about certain things.

Jurors That May Think Chad is Guilty/Probably Guilty:

• Juror 1004:
• Would want to weight the evidence.
• Juror 1057
• Would want to weight the evidence.

Difficulty Sitting Long Periods of Time

• Juror 922: Has had a kidney stone in the past. Is already wishing for a bathroom break. Health concerns.

Knows a Witness

• Juror 1004: Has worked on cases with Ingrid Batey. Might give her testimony more weight.

Regarding Autopsy Photographs

• Juror 791: [called upon by Prior]
• It’s hard for her to say ahead of time. She’d like to think she will take all of the evidence and weight them appropriately. She holds herself to a very high standard. The nature of the case, she would want to be very fair and impartial, not taking anything lightly. The nature of the evidence that might be shown will probably be difficult. She can’t say how she will react to them. She doesn’t think it will impact her ability to judge.
• Juror 1048: [called upon by Prior]
• Doesn’t have any concerns. Can do what he’s asked to do. Has been in a line of work where he has had to compartmentalize things. In juvenile corrections.
• Agrees everyone is susceptible to bias.

Agreement

• Juror 951: [bad audio]
• Juror 922: Appreciated Juror 951’s answer of both yes and no. To have an agreement you need to talk about it beforehand. It doesn’t have to be laid out specifically.

John Prior gives an analogy about fishing that’s hard to summarize. Eventually Prosecutors ask to approach.

Truthful

• Juror 1004: Many different ways to tell if someone is being truthful. Statements, body language, eye contact, investigation, evidence.
• Juror 922: People are untruthful when they have affairs. A way to hide sham or guilt.
• Juror 1048: Tendency to be untruthful if you’re involved in an affair. A way to hide shame or guilt.
• Juror 951: From a previous line of work she would say that when an affair is occurring there is a tendency to be untruthful to hide whats going on.

Individual Voir Dire

Juror 791: [pre-trial media]

• Has watched documentaries. Two that come to mind, one was from ABC 20/20 and the other was a Netflix documentary. She watched it once when it came out. Can’t recall the title but it was specifically about Lori. (Idaho V. Vallow)
• Feels she is able to compartmentalize. She would not allow what she has heard to impact her judgement.
• Believes the evidence in the documentaries points to guilt but she knows it’s biased.
• Could possibly set aside opinion of guilt.
• Motion for Cause - Prosecution. (Exposure to media)
• Juror is excused.

Juror 909: [pre-trial media]

• Knew about Lori’s case.
• Not sure he can say the defense doesn’t have to sway him.
• Motion for Cause - Prosecution. (Exposure to media)
• Juror is excused.

Juror 922: [possible hardship]

• Health issues. Physically and mentally he prefers to have frequent breaks to process mentally. Just has challenges and wanted to acknowledge it. Frequent meaning usually every few hours is fine. It’s hard to judge because he has yet to be in a situation like this. He can’t predict how he might react to what is difficult information. So far it has been manageable.
• Had a concern about the death penalty but wasn’t sure if you had to do it all at once or determine guilt and then look at the death penalty.
• Opposed the death penalty.
• He would have a difficult time voting to impose the death penalty.
• He could view the facts of the case impartially.
• Could follow instructions fairly but his moral position is more irrelevant to the facts of the case. It would be difficult to reconcile that.
• Would defer to the conclusions of the group over his own beliefs.
• Motion for Cause - Prosecution (Death Penalty). Defense objects.
• Juror is not excused.

Juror 951: [prior knowledge of case]

• When the case first started she got a lot of media exposure. Once it died down her thoughts died down but after she started her job with IDOC it got brought up multiple times. She would hear others talk about it.
• She is a very forward person. The type of person who wants to know the facts and see evidence. Wants to know the whole picture before she puts pieces together.
• Her opinion of guilt was more about Lori Vallow. She has more knowledge on her case as well.
• Has watched Dateline. Was very interested in the case when it first started.
• Has always had the thought of becoming some sort of law enforcement. She watches anything that has to do with the news.
• Will look at the evidence. Can set aside what she knows and be impartial.
• Motion for Cause - Defense (Pretrial Knowledge). Prosecution objects.
• Juror is not excused.
• Supports the death penalty. Strongly agrees with the death penalty.
• Does not believe the death penalty should be considered in every murder murder. [bad audio] Something about sitting in jail and thinking about what they did. It depends on the crime. Or the murder.
• Would have a difficult time voting against the death penalty. Would follow the instructions.
• She is placing the burden of proof on the defense.
• Motion for Cause - Defense (Burden of Proof). Prosecution objects.
• Juror is not excused.

Juror 1004: [pretrial media]

• [bad audio] documentary they watched.
• Wants to set aside what he knows but it may be difficult.
• Motion for Cause - Prosecution (Prior Knowledge). Defense agrees.
• Juror is excused.

Juror 1048: [pretrial media]

• Is aware of the defendant and what he is accused of.
• No opinion of his guilt.
• Supports the death penalty.
• Would follow instructions.
• Death penalty depends on the facts of the case.
• Is neutral. Will not make a decision until he hears all of the evidence.

Juror 1057: [pretrial media]

• The incident with the fire was over thirty years ago.
• Would be able to put aside what she has heard about the case and render an impartial verdict.
• Has been called “honest to a fault.”
• Motion for Cause - Prosecution (potential bias) Defense agrees.
• Juror is excused.