Lori Vallow Daybell's Lawyer Requests Cellphone for Her to Use While in Prison

Lori Vallow Daybell's attorney has requested his client be granted a cell phone while she remains behind bars so that the two can communicate with each other. He is also requesting that jail video cameras be turned off when the pair meet in-person, the East Idaho News reported.

Mark Means, Lori's attorney, argued in his motion filed Jan. 19 that he was unable to meet face-to-face with his client from March 30 to June 9. The two only communicated on the phone, he wrote.

“My client is allowed to speak with counsel through two telephone options. One telephone is at the desk of the deputy and my client is handcuffed to said desk approximately two feet from the ear of a deputy,” Means wrote in the motion to judge Steven Boyce, according to the outlet. “The other option is through a recorded line (Telemate) approximately 15-to-20 feet from said deputy/deputy clerk."

Daybell was arrested in March 2020 and charged with concealment, alteration and destruction of evidence in connection to the deaths of her two children, 7-year-old Joshua "JJ" Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, whose bodies were found buried in her husband's backyard.

The children were missing for months before authorities discovered their bodies on the property of Lori's fifth husband, Chad Daybell, in Rexburg in June 2020.

Means said that his only option to talk with his client was through a "public room and metal corded telephone with two video cameras videotaping these privilege meetings."

Means calls the past and current circumstances "unfair" as he prepares for trial.

Lori's husband, Chad, was also charged with two counts of felony destruction, alteration or concealment of JJ and Tylee's remains and felony charges of conspiracy to commit destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence.  

Both have pleaded not guilty to all charges.

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