Lori Vallow Daybell’s Arizona trial over ex-husband Charles Vallow’s dying is underway. This is what to know.

Opening statements are set to start Monday within the Arizona trial of “Doomsday mother” Lori Vallow Daybell, the Utah mom who was sentenced to life in jail in Idaho for killing her youngsters in 2019. 

In Arizona, Vallow Daybell has been indicted on a cost of conspiracy to commit homicide within the dying of her fourth husband, Charles Vallow.

She has pleaded not responsible to the cost, and is representing herself on the trial. Jury choice started on Monday, March 31. About 200 potential jurors have been screened, CBS affiliate AZFamily reported, however many have been dominated out by Vallow Daybell and prosecutors as a result of they knew concerning the case. Sixteen jurors, together with 4 alternates, have been chosen. The jury is made up of 13 males and three ladies, AZFamily reported. 

The trial is anticipated to final till mid-Could on the newest, AZFamily reported. 

What did Lori Vallow Daybell do? 

Lori Vallow Daybell was sentenced to life in jail with out parole within the killings of her youngsters, Tylee Ryan and Joshua Jaxon “JJ” Vallow. Tylee was Vallow Daybell’s little one from a earlier relationship. She and Charles Vallow adopted JJ in 2012. 

In 2018, Vallow Daybell met doomsday-fiction writer Chad Daybell. A 12 months later, she separated from Vallow and commenced a relationship with Daybell. 

The couple held apocalyptic non secular beliefs that prosecutors claimed have been used to justify the killings of Tylee, JJ and Daybell’s first spouse, Tammy Daybell. 

Tylee and JJ disappeared inside two weeks of one another in September 2019. In October 2019, Tammy Daybell was discovered useless in her mattress. A coroner stated her dying initially seemed to be on account of pure causes, however an post-mortem wasn’t carried out earlier than her physique was buried. Two weeks later, in November 2019, Daybell and Vallow Daybell have been married in Hawaii. 

The stays of Tammy Daybell have been exhumed in December 2019, an post-mortem was carried out and her reason behind dying was decided to be asphyxiation. In February 2020, Vallow Daybell was arrested in Hawaii for ignoring a police order to provide her youngsters, who had been reported lacking by their grandparents. A number of months later, in June 2020, the our bodies of Tylee and JJ have been discovered on a property owned by Chad Daybell. 

Daybell and Vallow Daybell have been every charged within the deaths of Tammy Daybell, Tylee and JJ. In separate trials, they have been every discovered responsible of homicide and conspiracy to commit homicide within the youngsters’s deaths. Vallow Daybell was additionally convicted of conspiracy to commit homicide in Tammy Daybell’s dying and of theft prices associated to monetary funds despatched to her youngsters. 

Daybell was discovered responsible of homicide in Tammy Daybell’s dying, in addition to a number of different associated prices. He has been sentenced to dying. 

What was Lori Vallow Daybell’s relationship with Charles Vallow? 

Lori Vallow Daybell and Charles Vallow have been married from 2006 to 2019. 

In early 2019, Vallow turned very frightened about his spouse. He went to the police along with his considerations, telling them that Vallow Daybell believed she was a “god” who was getting ready for the top of days. 

“She threatened me, homicide me, kill me,” he instructed police in a dialog recorded on video, in response to “48 Hours.” 

Vallow filed for divorce in February 2019. Within the submitting, he stated that Vallow Daybell had threatened to homicide him. He additionally expressed fears for JJ and Tylee’s security. 

How did Charles Vallow die? 

Charles Vallow was shot and killed by Lori Vallow Daybell’s brother, Alexander Lamar Cox, on July 11, 2019. 

Vallow had gone to the house the place Vallow Daybell was residing with Cox and the 2 youngsters after their separation to choose up JJ. The house was in Chandler, a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona. 

In police video, Tylee stated that she heard Vallow and Cox arguing. 

“Actually, it feels, it looks like 2 seconds, and 40 minutes on the similar time. … I simply type of heard yelling over every part. I do not know, I type of simply do this when every part is, like, actually loud, I type of simply tune what persons are saying out,” she instructed detectives.

Cox instructed police that he had killed Vallow in self-defense. He was not arrested. 

Cox’s spouse, Zulema Pastenes, testified that Daybell and Vallow Daybell had satisfied him that his divine mission was to guard his sister. Pastenes stated that Cox instructed her he feared the pair would make him their “fall man.” That dialog, Pastenes stated, occurred a day earlier than Cox’s sudden dying in December 2019. Health workers stated he died of a pulmonary blood clot.  

What to know concerning the newest prices 

Lori Vallow Daybell has been charged with conspiring with Alex Cox to kill Charles Vallow. The trial is going down in Phoenix, Arizona, the place Vallow died. 

April Raymond instructed “48 Hours” that Vallow Daybell, her former pal, instructed her she believed Vallow was already useless and had a demon residing inside him. She would later make related feedback about her youngsters. 

In December 2024, a decide dominated that Vallow Daybell was mentally match to face trial. Cameras shall be allowed within the courtroom throughout the trial, AZFamily reported. The trial shall be livestreamed. Vallow Daybell will have the ability to put on civilian garments and won’t be shackled, however must put on a shock vest, AZFamily stated. 

Complicating the trial is Vallow Daybell’s choice to characterize herself. She stated that this may seemingly complicate jury choice, a remark Choose Justin Beresky agreed with, in response to AZFamily. Vallow Daybell stated that she has studied case regulation throughout her time in jail. She additionally stated she has expertise in court docket that may assist her characterize herself. 

In a listening to on March 18, Vallow appeared to wrestle with the duty of being her personal legal professional. She stated that her former attorneys wouldn’t give her essential video proof, although prosecutors stated they can not discover the video she referenced, in response to AZFamily. Vallow Daybell additionally stated that it has been tough for her to speak together with her authorized group whereas in jail. 

“The place I’m on the jail, the communication could be very tough for me to get ahold of my investigator, get ahold of my paralegal. I am 23 hours a day locked down. If I haven’t got Wi-Fi, I haven’t got a cellphone, if I haven’t got battery, I haven’t got a cellphone,” she stated.

Opening statements are anticipated to start in early April, in response to AZFamily. If discovered responsible, Vallow faces life in jail with the potential for parole after 25 years. She is already serving a number of life sentences with no risk of parole after the convictions in Idaho.

This trial shouldn’t be the final of her authorized troubles. Vallow Daybell additionally faces a cost of conspiracy to commit homicide for the tried capturing of her niece’s ex-husband, Brandon Boudreaux. Boudreaux was shot at in 2019 whereas driving close to his dwelling, however was unharmed. Prosecutors say Cox carried out the capturing, however missed his goal. Vallow Daybell has pleaded not responsible to the cost. 

Lori Vallow Daybell’s “Dateline” interview 

In a jailhouse interview with NBC’s “Dateline,” which aired in March, Vallow Daybell made a number of baseless claims. She was usually combative towards correspondent Keith Morrison as she claimed to be harmless of all prices. 

She stated she “was not there” when JJ and Tylee have been killed and was not concerned in Tammy Daybell’s dying. She tried guilty JJ’s dying on Tylee, Morrison stated, however investigators have stated Tylee died earlier than JJ.

“She got here in and she or he had her personal agenda,” Morrison stated of Vallow Daybell forward of the airing of the “Dateline” episode. “She wished to be the aggressor.”

Through the interview, Vallow Daybell additionally briefly mentioned how she would function her personal legal professional within the Charles Vallow case. She known as the method “nice” however a “tough factor to do.”

contributed to this report.