(CHANDLER, AZ) — Lori Daybell, the mother convicted of murdering two of her children in a so-called doomsday plot, is now on trial in Arizona on allegations she conspired to also kill her fourth husband.
Opening statements are scheduled to start Monday in Maricopa County in the 51-year-old’s latest trial. She is representing herself and has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.
The trial is scheduled through mid-May.
She was indicted by a Maricopa County grand jury in 2021 in connection with the killing of her estranged husband, Charles Vallow, who was fatally shot by her brother in July 2019 during a confrontation at her home in Chandler, Arizona.
Her brother, Alex Cox, told police he shot his brother-in-law in self-defense. Police were investigating the claims when Cox himself died from natural causes months later.
Dubbed the “doomsday mom,” Lori Daybell is currently serving life in prison without parole after a jury found her guilty of two counts of first-degree murder for the 2019 deaths of her children, Joshua “J.J.” Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 16.
J.J. and Tylee were last seen in September 2019 and, following a monthslong search, their remains were found on an Idaho property belonging to Lori Daybell’s fifth husband, Chad Daybell, in June 2020.
She was also found guilty of conspiring to kill her children and her husband’s first wife, Tamara Daybell, in the high-profile case.
She and Chad Daybell, the author of religious fiction books, both reportedly adhered to a doomsday ideology. She once claimed she was “a god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ’s second coming in July 2020” and didn’t want anything to do with her family “because she had a more important mission to carry out,” according to court documents obtained by ABC News.
Friends have said Lori Vallow’s 13-year marriage to Charles Vallow started to deteriorate after she became a fan of Daybell’s books, with the two separating in 2019. Their blended family had included Tylee from Lori Daybell’s third marriage, and Charles Vallow’s nephew J.J., whom they adopted.
Lori Daybell has denied murdering her children, saying in court at her sentencing in July 2023: “Jesus Christ knows the truth of what happened here. … No one was murdered in this case. Accidental deaths happen. Suicides happen. Fatal side effects from medications happen.”
Chad Daybell was also convicted of murdering the two children, as well as his first wife, in a separate trial in last year. He was sentenced to death and now awaits execution on Idaho’s death row.
In Arizona, Lori Daybell is additionally accused of scheming with her brother to kill Brandon Boudreaux, the ex-husband of her niece.
She will stand trial for premediated murder in that case in Maricopa County following the murder trial. She has pleaded not guilty.
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