Lori Vallow Daybell murder conspiracy trial underway in Phoenix

PHOENIX (AZFamily/AP) — Opening statements are complete in the case of the so-called “Doomsday Mom,” who’s accused of conspiring to murder her estranged husband more than five years ago in Chandler.

Lori Vallow Daybell, 51, who’s already been convicted of killing two of her children and conspiring to kill a romantic rival in Idaho, is suspected of conspiring with her brother, Alex Cox, to kill Charles Vallow so she could collect money from his life insurance policy and marry Chad Daybell.

Opening statements

The prosecution presented its opening statement late Monday morning, saying Vallow Daybell’s family members, including her estranged husband, had been planning an intervention over her extreme religious beliefs.

The state says that before that could happen, she and her brother planned Charles Vallow’s murder, believing he was a possessed spirit named “Ned” and that they needed to kill his body.

“Lori Vallow is why Alex was able to shoot Charles,” prosecutor Treena Kay said. “Lori Vallow is why Charles is dead.”

The prosecution says text messages and phone calls are a big part of the evidence showing Vallow Daybell and Cox planning and conspiring to kill Charles Vallow.

“Lori Vallow wanted to be Lori Daybell, wife of Chad Daybell, and in July 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,” Kay said. “She could marry Chad Daybell and become Lori Daybell. She would get a million-dollar life insurance policy.”

The state presented its case before the court recessed for lunch around noon.

Vallow Daybell, representing herself, gave her opening statement around 1:30 p.m. She spent several minutes describing the timeline of her 13-year marriage to Charles Vallow, including their move from Austin, Texas, to Chandler and later problems that developed.

She painted Charles Vallow as the aggressor in the incident that led to his death, saying he wrestled the baseball bat away from their daughter, Tylee Ryan, while she was trying to defend Lori Vallow Daybell. She claims a struggle ensued between Charles Vallow and Cox and that he then charged her with the bat.

Vallow Daybell says she then ran outside with her daughter while Cox retrieved a handgun and shot Charles Vallow. She called the shooting self-defense, not a motive to collect Charles Vallow’s life insurance and Social Security.

“Spouses having insurance policies is not a crime. Collecting Social Security is not a crime. Self-defense is not a crime,” Vallow Daybell told the jury at the end of her opening statement. “A family tragedy is not a crime; it’s a tragedy.”

Cross examination

After opening statements, police officers who responded to the Charles Vallow shooting scene took the stand. Lori Vallow Daybell cross-examined them and tried to establish that people handle stress in different ways and that would account for her and her brother’s nonchalant attitudes on the scene.

“Does everyone act the same in a stressful situation?” asked Lori Vallow Daybell. “No,” replied the officer. “Are you a psychologist?” she asked. “No,” he said.

Other than that, it seemed she was just verifying a lot of the facts the officers said. At one point, she asked the first witness why he didn’t provide medical help to Charles Vallow when he arrived on the scene. “You put your hands on my husband? Why didn’t you do CPR?” Lori Vallow Daybell asked. “I knew he was already deceased,” replied the officer.

“Do you have any crime scene experience?” she asked. “Just my 20 years or so as a police officer,” he said.

With the second officer, Lori Vallow Daybell asked a lot about the mood of the scene and questioned how he was describing the bump on Cox’s head after the shooting.

“Were the officers calm?” she asked. “It was just me and another officer,” the officer said. “Were you calm?” Lori Vallow Daybell asked. “Yes,” he replied. “Was the other officer calm?” she asked. “He was,” the officer said. “Were the detectives calm?” she asked. “They were,” the officer said.

“A small knot is what you declared it but would you not call it a goose egg?” asked Lori Vallow Daybell. “Tomato, tomahto,” said the officer.

There were times that Lori Vallow Daybell tried to laugh with the officers, commiserating about how hot it was that day and trying to relate to them at some points.

Prosecutors objected to Lori’s cross-examination questions quite a few times and several times, the judge had to help to make sure she was asking questions correctly.

The third person to take the stand was a Chandler firefighter, Scott Cowden, who performed CPR on Vallow at the home. He testified that when he got to Charles’ body, he observed no obvious signs of life.

“You’re checking for responsiveness, you can move the patient, you’re going to check for a pulse. Now you’re closer to the chest, you’re looking for breathing, seeing if you see the chest rise and fall. And we would call him unresponsive and pulseless and apneic, apneic meaning not breathing, and then I would have started CPR,” Cowden testified.

Cox originally told investigators that after he shot Charles, he washed his hands, put his gun away, called 911 and started CPR. But Cowden testified that it appeared nobody had performed chest compressions on Vallow before he arrived.

Day 1 of the trial ended after prosecutors finished questioning Cowden and cross-examination is expected to kick off Day 2 of the trial at 10:30 a.m.

Delayed start

Opening statements were originally scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. but were delayed by a sidebar on whether or not Brandon Boudreaux, Vallow Daybell’s niece’s ex-husband, could be called as a witness. Vallow Daybell is already facing a later trial for allegedly conspiring to kill Boudreaux back in 2019.

Boudreaux survived the attempt on his life, and Vallow Daybell wants to call him as a witness. However, the judge struck Boudreaux from the witness list without prejudice, meaning he can be called again if the defense finds more evidence to support it.

Following the 45-minute delay on the witness issue, opening statements began around 11:20 a.m.

The trial is expected to last six weeks. If convicted, she faces life in prison.

Days before the trial, Vallow Daybell spoke exclusively with True Crime Arizona correspondent Briana Whitney. She addressed a wide range of topics during the interview, including her reasoning for representing herself and her claims that she was wrongfully convicted in Idaho.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

WATCH: Exclusive interview with Lori Vallow Daybell

The backstory

Lori Vallow Daybell and Charles Vallow married in 2006. Vallow Daybell already had a daughter, Tylee Ryan, from her third marriage, and the couple later adopted a son, J.J. Vallow, in 2014.

Over the next few years, Vallow Daybell began reading books by a doomsday author named Chad Daybell. She met him in 2018 and soon began hosting religious podcasts.

The two were reportedly heard talking about “zombies,” or people whose souls had been replaced by “dark spirits.” Vallow Daybell was also heard referring to her children as zombies and her husband, Charles Vallow, as a demon.

Shortly before his death, Vallow filed for divorce in 2019 and went to the police with concerns about his wife’s belief that she was a god who was preparing for the end of the world. He told police he was concerned about his and his children’s safety.

Vallow was shot to death during an altercation when he went to pick up his son at Vallow Daybell’s Chandler home in July 2019. Cox said Vallow confronted him with a baseball bat and that he acted in self-defense. He was not arrested.

Vallow Daybell, Cox, and children Tylee and J.J. then moved to Rexburg, Idaho, to be closer to Daybell. Tylee and J.J. were last seen alive in September 2019.

Chad Daybell’s wife, Tammy Daybell, died the next month of what appeared to be natural causes, and in November, Chad and Lori were married.

That same month, J.J.’s grandmother, Kay Woodcock, asked police to check on the boy’s welfare, who she had not heard from in months. When officers went to Vallow Daybell’s home, she told them that J.J. was staying with her friend in Arizona. That friend later told police that J.J. was never there.

Investigators then started a nationwide search for J.J. and Tylee, who was also missing.

In December 2019, Tammy Daybell’s body was exhumed, and it was learned that she died from asphyxiation.

The same month, Cox died in Arizona from a blood clot. He never faced charges in connection with his brother-in-law’s shooting death.

Vallow Daybell was arrested in Hawaii in February 2020 and extradited to Idaho. Four months later, police and federal agents searched Chad Daybell’s home and found human remains buried in shallow graves in the backyard. Daybell was then arrested.

The bodies were later confirmed to be Tylee and J.J. The couple was charged with first-degree murder, and Chad Daybell was also charged with killing his previous wife, Tammy. Vallow Daybell was also later charged in connection with Tammy’s death.

In May 2023, Vallow Daybell was found guilty on all charges following a month-long trial. She was later given three life sentences without the possibility of parole, then extradited to Maricopa County to face trial in the death of Charles Vallow.

Chad Daybell was also convicted and sentenced to death in June 2024.

Jury selection in Vallow Daybell’s trial began last Monday and was completed the following day.

Following the conclusion of the current trial, Vallow Daybell is set to go on trial again in June for conspiracy in the attempted murder of Boudreaux.

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