Phoenix (AP) — A woman who engaged in a conspiracy to kill her two youngest children and a romantic rival in Idaho was convicted of murdering her estranged husband in Arizona on Tuesday.
After about three hours of deliberation, the ju judge discovered Lori Vallow Daybell was guilty and she is facing another possible life sentence on top of the three who are already serving in Idaho. She will not be sentenced in Arizona until after she is tried for another murder conspiracy.
Prosecutors said Vallow Daybell had the help of her brother Alex Cox when he shot and killed Charles Vallow’s death at his home in Chandler’s suburbs of Phoenix in July 2019. They say she was motivated by the opportunity to win a Vallow life insurance policy and her marriage to her then boyfriend, Chad Daybell, who wrote several religious novels about prophecy and the end of the world.
Chad Daybell has also sentenced Vallow Daybell’s children, Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7-year-old Tyree Ryan, 16-year-old, and his wife, Tammy, to life in prison. Idaho officials said the incident contained strange claims by Chad and Vallow Daybell.
Although not a lawyer, Vallow Daybell, who chose to protect himself in the trial in Arizona, was mostly still as the verdict was read, but occasionally glanced at the ju umpire as he was asked to confirm that he had found a ju umpire on one crime.
Victoria Lewis, one of the ju judges, said outside the court that Vallow Daybell had not benefited from choosing to represent herself.
“It seems she was just laughing and laughing, not taking anything seriously,” Lewis told reporters.
Vallow Daybell told the ju umpire that Vallow chased her with a bat in her house, and her brothers shot Vallow in self-defense as she left the house. She told the ju judge that death was a tragedy, not a crime.
Cox passed away five months later after a medical examiner said it was a thrombus in his lungs.
Vallow’s brothers Kay Woodcock and Gerry Vallow told reporters outside the court that they were grateful for the ju appellate’s decision.
“We’re goccia. You’re not the smartest person in the room,” Woodcock said when asked if she had a message for Vallow Daybell. “Everyone will forget about you.”
The Associated Press left an email message Tuesday to seek comment from the Maricopa County Lawyer’s Office, prosecuting the case and serving as legal counsel for Vallow Daybell during trial.
Last week, another Vallow Daybell brother, Adam Cox, testified on behalf of the prosecutor, informing the ju judge that the brothers were behind Vallow’s death.
Adam Cox said the murder happened just before he and Vallow planned an intervention to return his sister to the mainstream of common faith in the Latter-day Saint Church of Jesus Christ. He testified before Vallow’s death that his sister had told people that her husband was no longer alive and that zombies lived inside his body.
Four months before his death, Vallow filed for divorce from Vallow Daybell, who said she was obsessed with near-death experiences and claimed she had lived a lot of life on other planets. He claimed that she had ruined him financially and threatened to kill him. He sought a voluntary mental health assessment of his wife.
Vallow Daybell is scheduled to go to trial again in early June and has been accused of conspiracy to kill Brandon Boudreaux, the ex-husband of Vallow Daybell’s nie. Boudreaux survived.
