GILBERT, Ariz. — The Maricopa County Attorney's Office is declining to prosecute Chad Daybell in a 2019 Gilbert shooting investigation.
Daybell and his wife, Lori Vallow Daybell, are currently in custody in Idaho, facing charges in the deaths of Lori's children, Tylee and JJ, who used to live in Arizona. Both Chad and Lori are also facing additional charges connected to the deaths of their former spouses.
In November 2021, Gilbert police recommended the couple should be charged with attempted first-degree murder.
Gilbert police said it submitted its case in the attempted shooting of Brandon Boudreaux on November 16, 2021, after more than two years of investigating the incident.
In an email Friday, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office announced it declined to prosecute Chad Daybell:
After a lengthy and careful review of the charge of Conspiracy to Commit Murder on Chad Daybell, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office has decided to turn down the case citing no reasonable likelihood of conviction.
MCAO said the decision was specific to Chad Daybell and that the charges submitted for Lori Vallow Daybell were still under review.
Brandon Boudreaux is the ex-husband of Lori Vallow's niece Melani Pawlowski. Police said Boudreaux reported someone shot at his vehicle in October 2019 outside his home in Gilbert. Boudreaux wasn't injured, but he told investigators he thought Lori's brother, Alex Cox, was the one who tried to shoot at him.
In the police report, Gilbert police detail how they believe Lori, Chad and Alex plotted to kill Brandon. Gilbert police said they recommend Lori and Chad be charged with attempted first-degree murder in the shooting.
The report said Cox would also be arrested and charged with the same if he weren't dead. Cox died at his home in Gilbert in December 2019, apparently of natural causes.
The attempted shooting is just one of the many criminal investigations tied to Lori Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell.
Back in July 2019, Chandler police said Alex Cox shot and killed Lori's then-husband Charles Vallow to death. Chandler police now believe Lori, Alex and Chad plotted to kill Charles. MCAO is pursuing a conspiracy to commit murder charge against Lori in Charles' death.
After Charles was killed, Lori moved with Tylee and JJ to Rexburg, Idaho, where Daybell was living. Lori had met Daybell in 2018 and started following his doomsday religious beliefs.
Lori moved to Idaho with the kids in September 2019. They disappeared before the end of the month.
After the kids' disappeared, Daybell's first wife, Tammy Daybell, died in October 2019. Originally, it was believed she died in her sleep, but investigators later determined her death was suspicious, exhumed her body, and charged Daybell and Lori in her death.
A few weeks after Tammy's death, Lori and Daybell got married in Hawaii.
Investigators believe Lori and Daybell had returned to Rexburg until police first came around for a welfare check on her kids around Thanksgiving 2019.
Lori and Daybell then disappeared to Hawaii until Lori was originally arrested for failing to produce her kids in February 2020 and extradited back to Idaho in March of that year. Daybell would later be arrested in June after the children's bodies were discovered on his property.
Chad Daybell is set for trial in January 2023 in Idaho. Lori's case in Idaho is on pause while she's been undergoing a 180-day mental health evaluation after she was deemed "not competent" for trial. The 180 days are up in March.
Court records currently do not show any updates in her case, despite the evaluation supposedly ending this month.
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