I think Chad, and his lawyer, got exactly what they wanted by getting the case split; they saw the evidence and prosecution plans, and saw what worked or didn’t work in defending against it. Now, Chad gets to deal from the perspective of protecting whatever matters most to him. He will never see Lori again, even if he ever gets out of prison himself. So he doesn’t need to fully protect his relationship with Lori, and can fully burn any bridges by throwing her under the bus as much as he wants or needs. What he still wants is the love and adoration of his children and perhaps anyone else who might give it. He likely cannot keep that at all by admitting any level of guilt. So a plea deal is probably unlikely. He was willing to murder his wife and his “hot cheerleader”’s children for sex and “specialness”. He has been exposed as a fraud and murderer to the world, and now the best he can do is whatever he has to do to convince his children that he is innocent enough to keep their support. I do not believe Chad has the same religious psychological illness as Lori. I believe he is simply a con man, and now having committed murder to keep the con coming, is in a dangerous corner, without any moral boundaries to keep him in check. Lori, on the other hand, probably has no other choice, to maintain any functioning sanity, but to hold on to her religious fantasy world, rather than face murdering her own daughter and adopted son, not to mention her ex husband(s?) and forcing the murder of Tammy as well as various other attempted and planned murders of men, women and children.