Lori Vallow Daybell’s Desperate Closing Argument Plea Before Guilty Verdict
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A jury has found Lori Vallow Daybell guilty of conspiracy to commit murder in her fourth husband’s death.
The “doomsday cult” mom, 51, despite not being a lawyer, decided to represent herself at her trial, where she made a final plea to the jury before the verdict, asking them not to allow the court to turn her “family tragedy into a crime,” the Associated Press reported.
Vallow Daybell now faces another life sentence after she was previously convicted of killing her children and a romantic rival.
The Context
In May 2023, Vallow Daybell was found guilty of killing her children, Tylee Ryan, 16, and Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7.
A court found she had also helped her fifth husband, Chad Daybell, kill his first wife, Tammy Daybell, so the two could be free of any obstacles in their affair. Chad Daybell, who was part of a “doomsday cult” with Vallow Daybell, was sentenced to death for his role in the murders.
Lori Vallow Daybell is serving three consecutive life sentences for those murders.
Lori Vallow Daybell stands and listens as the jury’s verdict is read at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho, on May 12, 2023. Lori Vallow Daybell stands and listens as the jury’s verdict is read at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho, on May 12, 2023. Kyle Green/AP
What To Know
On Tuesday, Vallow Daybell was convicted of conspiring with her brother, Alex Cox, in the murder of her then-husband Charles Vallow at her home in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler.
Prosecutors say she plotted to kill him to cash in on his life insurance, then planned to marry Chad Daybell.
Vallow Daybell, who did not call any witnesses or introduce any evidence in her defense, told the court that her brother had been acting in self-defense when he shot her ex-husband, who she claimed had chased her around the house with a bat.
Charles Vallow died five months after the shooting from a blood clot in his lungs.
Her other brother, Adam Cox, testified against her at trial, saying that he believed Vallow Daybell and Alex Cox were behind the murder.
He told the court that he and Charles Vallow had been planning an intervention in an attempt to bring Vallow Daybell back to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from a doomsday cult.
Adam Cox also testified that his sister had told people a zombie was living inside her husband Charles Vallow’s body shortly before his death.
Jurors deliberated for a total of three hours before finding her guilty.
What People Are Saying
Prosecutor Treena Kay told the jury in her closing argument, “What we see is a very planned out, premeditated murder.”
Vallow Daybell said in her closing arguments, “This was a tragedy. Don’t let them turn my family tragedy into a crime.”
Investigative journalist and author John Glatt, who wrote a book about Lori Vallow, The Doomsday Mother: Lori Vallow, Chad Daybell, and the End of an American Family, told Newsweek, “I spoke to friends who knew her pretty well. She had some strange beliefs before she met Chad, but from my interviews and everything, I think they fed into each other – this kind of like an electric storm,” Glatt said. “Once they met each other, they kind of went into this totally different mode of murder, ‘zombies,’ and everything.”
What Happens Next
Vallow Daybell is scheduled to head to a new trial in June, as she’s also accused of attempting to kill Brandon Boudreaux, ex-husband of her niece, Melani Pawlowski. He survived a drive-by shooting.
She will be sentenced in Charles Vallow’s death after the second trial.
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