PHOENIX — Lori Vallow Daybell’s fate is in the hands of an Arizona jury.
The “Doomsday Mom” is on trial in Maricopa County for conspiring to kill her former husband, Charles Vallow. She is representing herself.
Both sides finished closing arguments Monday afternoon and the case went to the jury soon after. Then, they told the judge they wanted to go home and continue in the morning.
Deliberations continued Tuesday morning. The jury broke for lunch around noon and went back into the deliberation room around 1:30 PM.
Shortly before 4 p.m., the jury announced they had found the defendant guilty of the murder conspiracy charge.
Vallow Daybell has already been convicted in Idaho for murdering her children, Tylee and JJ. She was also convicted for her role in the death of Tammy Daybell, the first wife of her current husband, Chad Daybell.
Chad Daybell was also convicted in Idaho for murdering Lori’s children and his first wife, Tammy. He was sentenced to death in that state.
In those cases, investigators learned that dark, doomsday religious beliefs were at the core of the crimes.
Now, Vallow Daybell is facing two conspiracy to commit murder charges in Arizona. The first is a case out of Chandler, where Vallow Daybell and her brother, Alex Cox, are accused of conspiring to kill Lori’s estranged former husband, Charles Vallow.
Vallow died in July 2019 after Vallow Daybell’s brother shot and killed him at her rental home in Chandler.
After about two weeks of testimony, starting in early April, both sides rested their cases.
The state called 19 witnesses and presented evidence like phone calls, text messages, GPS data, surveillance footage and police footage to lay out the case for conspiracy.
In her closing argument, Prosecutor Treena Kay spent more than an hour and a half going over all aspects of her case, even showing the jury video clips from testimony.
She clearly laid out motives on a PowerPoint slide:
- MONEY
- CHAD DAYBELL
- RELIGIOUS BELIEFS (Twisted to justify murder)
“This defendant is the person who set up Charles so her brother could shoot him,” Kay told the jury.
Lori Vallow Daybell gave her closing argument afterward, telling the jurors that the burden is on the state to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she is guilty.
The prosecutor objects and the judge sustains some objections when Vallow Daybell tries to bring up evidence that wasn’t introduced or insert her own testimony.
Vallow Daybell told the jury that this was all self-defense and that this was a family tragedy. She accused the state of “retrofitting” a crime that doesn’t exist. She wrapped up her argument after about 15 minutes.
Then, the state gave a rebuttal statement, where the prosecutor called Charles Vallow’s shooting an execution, not a family tragedy.
The case went to the jury just after 3 PM. Soon after, they told the judge they wanted to go home for the night and would resume deliberations Tuesday morning. Jurors have the ability to set their own deliberation schedule.
Vallow Daybell’s brother, Alex Cox, can’t be charged in this case because he died in December 2019 before charges were brought in court.
Vallow Daybell is also facing a murder conspiracy charge out of Gilbert for a shooting attempt at her niece’s ex-husband, who ultimately wasn’t injured. That trial is expected to start in the weeks after this trial concludes.
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