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12 jurors, 6 alternates,
listened to horrific testimony
in the Lori Valo de Bell trial.
Nearly one week ago, a jury found the
eastern Idaho mom guilty of mur,
conspiracy to commit murder and Grand
Theft in the deaths of her two ,
JJ and Ty Lee, and her husband's
late wife, Tammy de Bell.
Our Shira Matzuzawa spoke with
one of the jurors about what
that experience was like.
Tiffany asked us not to share her last name.
She was among the 18 jurors whot
just feet away from Lori Valo every day.
Tiffany didn't know she was an alternate
until the very end of the trial,
but she talked with us about what it was like
to serve on the jury up until that point.
It's been an incredibly
surreal experience for me.
It was just so bizarre.
It was almost like, you know,
one of those little puzzles with
1000 pieces in it and you're putting,
you know, little pieces togethe.
Slowly. What was the hardest
part for you personally,
I think just being a mom and not
sorry, not being able to undersd
how like something, how somebod,
how anybody could, you know,
do that to their own children. I did.
It was so hard for me I I can'tn
comprehend like what goes throuh
somebody's mind to harm a child.
I just, I just can't.
I know you as a juror saw such graphic
testimony and and there was som,
you know, horrific photos.
What was, what was that like
to be presented with all that?
One of the questions they asked,
you know, in a questionnaire model in
the selection process was, you ,
you're going to be shown autopsy photos.
You know, is this something that
do you think that you could?
You know, be OK with.
And I checked. Yeah, sure.
You know, I think so.
But it was, you know, it wasn't.
It was it was the hardest thing
I've ever had to do in my life.
But I know that I needed to do ,
you know, to be able to bring justice
to those kids because you know,
they didn't have a say in it.
I just feel like I had more emon
than she did, you know, and.
The only time I saw her have emn
was when she saw a picture of J.
She, you know,
kissed her lips and this went like that.
It just felt like,
so not sincere to me,
for you personally.
I mean, how did you just
prepare yourself for this?
I'm not really sure I did prepare myself,
you know, how can one prepare
themselves to see what we saw? w
does that make you feel to
kind of watch her and and not
and see this lack of emotion
inhuman. That's what I feel lik.
The rest of us are crying, emot,
nothing. You know, it just almot
seemed like she was inhuman.
Now that it's over, I mean,
have you looked up at the media
or or any of the stuff, like,
to kind of fill in the holes?
I felt like there was a lot of holes,
mainly like what happened to Alex Cox.
Like, we never knew.
I didn't know what happened to .
Like, why is where is he at Mele
Boudreaux? Where is she at?
And even though Tiffany didn't deliberate.
She still feels like she
was an important part of the process.
At first I was extremely disappointed
that my number got drawn,
even though I knew that was
going to be a possibility.
But after hearing about the deliberations,
I really feel that it's not that
I didn't miss out on anything,
but I just feel like they voted or not voted.
But they found her guilty of
the charges that I would have.
Tiffany says jurors weren't
given any notice about when that
graphic testimony would happen,
but the court would provide
them with tissue and barf bags,
so it was a sign of something to come.
She also says the court provided
them with contact info for
free mental health resources,
which she's considering using.
We're also hearing from a juror
who was chosen to deliberate
and to reach that verdict.
Nathan with East Idaho News
sat down with Saul Hernandez,
who served as juror #8.
During the Laurie Valo
trial here in Ada County,
he says he's glad it's over.
I saw evil for the, I think true
evil for the first time in my l.
If there is a face to evil, it was hers.
And I've seen some bad things in my life.
But I think for the first time, truly evil.
Again, Hernandez was part of the
jury that handed down the unanis
decision to convict Valo on all
of the charges she was facing.
Here's how we described the moment the
court announced their decision. Surreal.
You know, like we made it.
We we did it, We arrived and and I think,
I don't know, a sense of we did.
We did it the right way.
We didn't rush into this.
We gave her a shot.
We followed the process,
we followed the rules that the
judge gave us and I don't know,
you can feel good about it.
I think you just feel satisfaction that
you've done the best job you co,
Hernandez says.
He's happy justice was served.
He now looks forward to spending
more time with his family.
Meanwhile, Lori Valo has been
indicted for a second time in Arizona,
this time on charges she conspid
to kill her niece's exhusband.
Before her charges in Idaho,
Valo was already facing a separe
felony case in Arizona after a d
jury indicted her in 2021 on a charge
of conspiring to kill her 4th husband.
Charles Valo, This is complicat,
which is why we have a flow chat
on the screen for you today.
The Maricopa County Prosecutor's
Office in Arizona confirmed that
second indictment charging Valo in the
attempted shooting of her niece's ex,
Brandon Boudreau.
Valo can't be extradited to Arizona until
she is sentenced in the Idaho c,
which is expected to happen
sometime in the next three mont.