Newest Surprising Revelations in Lori Vallow Case as Juror Speaks Out
Saul Hernandez maintains he wasn’t initially convinced that the “doomsday mom” was guilty of killing her two kids.
The Lori Vallow trial captivated the country for weeks. The "doomsday mom," who was on trial for killing her 16-year-old daughter Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old son Joshua "JJ" Vallow and conspiring to kill her husband's ex-wife, Tammy Daybell, was unanimously found guilty by a jury of her peers and is now a convicted killer.
On Wednesday, one of those jurors, Saul Hernandez, appeared on Good Morning America, opening up for the first time about what it was like sitting on the bench during her trial when he realized she was guilty.
"As the case progressed, as the evidence came to light, testimony was shared, it was harder to look at her," he said. "Growing up, we're taught good and bad, God and evil, and I think for the first time in my life, I put a face to evil."
Hernandez explained that he thought that Vallow's beliefs began as a "curiosity." However, when she met Daybell in 2018, things escalated "Once Chad came into the picture, she went along with it," Hernandez said.
"They wanted to believe something that only applied and benefited them, only applied and benefited those people they liked, their circle that they liked and they wanted to be around."
He added that wedding photos of Daybell and Vallow dancing on a beach in Hawaii "disgusted" him and added that he "didn't want to look at them." However, he still wasn't convinced she was guilty of murder when deliberations started.
He confessed that he was the lone standout of the jury and the only one hesitant about Vallow's guilt. "I just didn't feel like at that timeline with Tylee, we were quite there yet," he said.
"And if we were, I perhaps was missing it." However, after reexamining testimony with the jurors, he became convinced.
Tiffany, an alternate juror, told Law & Crime that Vallow's "unemotional" reactions during the trial convinced her that she was guilty of killing her kids. "I felt pretty solid on the other charges but the one on Tammy Daybell I did not feel solid on. I didn't feel there was solid evidence for her charge as opposed to the other charges," she said, adding that Chad Daybell likely "had a heavier hand" in the murder of his former wife.
