The alternative jurors will fill in for any juror who can’t finish serving in what’s expected to be a 10-week trial. The trial starts Monday.

During the peremptory challenge, both the defense and prosecution each disqualified 12 prospective jurors from a pool that had been winnowed to 42. Neither the defense nor the prosecution was required to say why they eliminated the jurors, said 7th District Court Judge Steven Boyce.

“Please take no offense that you’ve done anything wrong,” he said. “I appreciate the time you’ve spent that has been considerable going through this process.”

The jury pool had been whittled down from 1,800 prospective jurors. Each day from Monday through Thursday, the court interviewed three groups of 15 people to find those who had no connection or knowledge of the case. Surprisingly, a significant number of those questioned knew little or next to nothing about the Vallow case. Many reported never watching the news or seeing the story online.

Vallow is charged with murder in the deaths of her two children J.J. Vallow, 7 and Tylee Ryan, 16. She also faces grand theft charges involving Social Security benefits meant for the children. The theft of benefits charges are from the time in September 2019 when investigators believed they were killed until June 2020 when their remains were discovered.

Vallow’s fifth husband, Chad Daybell, faces similar charges as well as murder charges in the death of his first wife, Tammy Daybell, who died Oct. 19, 2019. Two weeks later Daybell and Vallow married in Hawaii.

On Nov. 26, 2019, J.J.’s grandparents asked the Rexburg Police to do a welfare check on J.J. after not hearing from him for several weeks. When it was learned Vallow had lied about J.J.’s whereabouts, law enforcement launched an interstate search from Idaho to Hawaii in hopes of finding the children. The youth were last seen in September 2019 following a vacation to Yellowstone National Park.

Shortly after the welfare check was conducted, the couple returned to Hawaii. On Feb. 20, 2020, police arrested Vallow on two counts of felony desertion of a child, as well as misdemeanor charges of resisting and obstructing an officer, solicitation of a crime and contempt. She later was extradited to Madison County where she has remained except for two separate stints in a state hospital for “restorative care.”

Daybell was arrested on June 9, 2020, after police found the children’s remains on his property. He has been in custody at the Fremont County Jail since that time. Earlier this year, Boyce split the couple’s planned joint trial to ensure Vallow received a “speedy trial.” He also removed the death penalty from her case after her defense team protested a “discovery dump of new evidence from the prosecution just weeks before the trial was to start.

Boyce swore the jurors in as “officers of the court” and urged them not to talk about the case and to avoid any reports about it on television or on the internet.

“I can tell you, if you violate that order, and it ends up with you being excused from the case — (with) something you have control over — we will have a very uncomfortable conversation about that,” he said.

The high-profile trial will make the national news every day, Boyce warned jurors. It was that intense publicity that caused Boyce to move the trial to Ada County after determining an impartial jury couldn’t be found in Fremont County.

“It’s within your control not to watch those programs,” he said. “Hit the mute button on TV if it’s reporting about this case. Walk away.”

Boyce also advised the jurors to avoid any life-threatening activities for the next 10 weeks.

“If you have some incredibly dangerous hobbies (like) skydiving or chainsaw juggling, I ask that you put those off until the trial stops,” he said. “Wear your seat belts to make sure you get here. We look forward to seeing you Monday morning.”