Lori Vallow Daybell found guilty of conspiring to kill her 4th husband – National
Lori Vallow Daybell, who was convicted of the gruesome killings of her two youngest children and her husband’s former wife in July 2023, has now been found guilty of conspiring to murder her estranged fourth husband, Charles Vallow, in July 2019.
On April 22, a Maricopa County Superior Court jury in Arizona found Vallow Daybell guilty after deliberating for about three hours over two days, and she faces another possible life sentence on top of the three she is already serving in Idaho. She will not be sentenced in Arizona until she goes through another trial in a different alleged murder conspiracy.
Vallow Daybell, also known as the “Doomsday Mom,” was already charged in Arizona with murdering Vallow but she claimed his killing was in self-defence.
Prosecutors said Vallow Daybell had help from her brother, Alex Cox, in the shooting death of Vallow at her home in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler. They say she was motivated by an opportunity to cash in on Vallow’s US$1-million life insurance policy and a marriage to then-boyfriend Chad Daybell, who wrote several religious novels about prophecies and the end of the world.
Daybell is also serving life sentences for the deaths of Vallow Daybell’s children, seven-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, and his wife, Tammy Daybell.
Authorities in Idaho said the case included bizarre claims by Daybell and Vallow Daybell that the children were zombies and that Vallow Daybell was a goddess tasked with ushering in an apocalypse.
Vallow Daybell, who chose to defend herself at the trial in Arizona without a lawyer, pleaded not guilty to her husband’s murder and sat still as the verdict was read but glanced occasionally at jurors as they were asked to confirm that they had found her guilty on the single charge.
One of the jurors said outside the courthouse that Vallow Daybell didn’t help herself by choosing self-representation.
“Many days she was just smiling and laughing and didn’t seem to take anything very seriously,” juror Victoria Lewis told reporters.
Vallow Daybell’s trial for the murder of Vallow began in March, nearly two years after she was convicted in Idaho of first-degree murder of her two children and conspiring to kill Daybell’s first wife.
Vallow Daybell told the jury that her estranged husband Vallow arrived at her house to pick up their son Joshua and got in an argument with her daughter Tylee and allegedly threatened the teen with a bat, according to NBC News.
She also claimed her brother shot Vallow in self-defence as she left the house and told jurors the death was a tragedy and not a crime.
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“Under Arizona law, I had the right to self-defence. Tylee had the right to self-defence. Alex had the right to self-defence. This event was not planned or expected. It was shocking,” she said. “This event was not a crime. It was a tragedy. Don’t let them turn my family tragedy into a crime.”
Alex Cox was never charged in Vallow’s death and died five months later from what medical examiners said was a blood clot in his lungs.
Prosecutors dismissed Vallow Daybell’s self-defence claim and argued that she had several reasons for wanting her husband dead.
“Lori Vallow wanted to be Lori Daybell, wife of Chad Daybell. And in July of 2019, Lori Vallow wanted to keep the same lifestyle that she had with Charles. And she could get all of this if Charles was dead,” prosecutor Treena Kay said in her opening statements.
“She could marry Chad Daybell and become Lori Daybell. She would get a million-dollar life insurance policy from Charles Vallow. She would get Social Security for herself and their son, JJ, as the child of a dead spouse. And all of this would be true if Charles Vallow was dead.”
Kay said Vallow Daybell labelled people who disagreed with her as “dark” or “possessed by evil spirits” and tried to use religion to justify the death of her fourth husband.
Last week, Adam Cox, another brother of Vallow Daybell, testified on behalf of the prosecution, telling jurors that he had no doubt that his siblings were behind Vallow’s death.
Adam Cox said the killing happened just before he and Vallow were planning an intervention to bring his sister back into the mainstream of their shared faith in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He testified that before Vallow’s death, his sister had told people her husband was no longer living and that a zombie was living inside his body.
Vallow’s siblings, Kay Woodcock and Gerry Vallow, told reporters outside court on Tuesday that they are grateful for the jury’s decision in the murder of their brother.
“We gotcha, and you’re not the smartest person in the room,” Woodcock said after she was asked if she had a message for Vallow Daybell. “Everybody’s going to forget about you.”
Gerry Vallow said: “It was a relief, a long journey, and I’m just glad it’s over with.”
“Today’s a good day. We won.”
In a statement, the Tammy Douglas Daybell foundation said the verdict helped with “relief and closure.”
“Justice has been served. While no verdict can bring back those we have lost, this decision is a crucial step in honoring the memory of Charles, JJ, Tylee, and Tammy,” the statement read. “We are deeply grateful to the investigators, prosecutors, court staff, and jurors who have worked tirelessly to uncover the truth and pursue accountability.
“We will never forget Charles, JJ, Tylee, and Tammy. Their memories fuel our mission at the Tammy Douglas Daybell Foundation—to help children find comfort, joy, and strength through books, just as Tammy always did. Together, we will continue to turn tragedy into purpose, and loss into legacy.”
Despite multiple guilty convictions, Vallow Daybell has denied any wrongdoing in the murders and believes she’ll be “exonerated.”
In March, Vallow Daybell sat down with NBC Dateline correspondent Keith Morrison to discuss her plans for the future.
She also spoke about her husband Daybell, who was convicted in a separate trial for the murders of his first wife and his second wife’s two youngest children and sentenced to death.
“We will both be exonerated in the future,” Vallow Daybell said of her and Daybell in the episode, titled Lori Vallow Daybell: The Jailhouse Interview. “The same way I will be exonerated.”
When Morrison asked Vallow Daybell to expand on why she believes she will be exonerated, she said, “I have seen things in the future that Jesus showed me when I was in heaven and we were not in jail. We were not in prison.”
“After I get exonerated, maybe I’ll go on Dancing With the Stars,” she continued, “And you can come.”
Vallow Daybell is scheduled to go on trial again in early June, accused in a plot to kill Brandon Boudreaux, the ex-husband of Vallow Daybell’s niece. Boudreaux survived.
— With files from The Associated Press