Lori Vallow Daybell asks judges to toss murder verdicts over trial flaws

The Idaho Supreme Court began hearing arguments on Monday regarding the convictions of Lori Vallow Daybell. She faces three life sentences for the deaths of her two youngest children and a romantic rival. Her legal team is asking the justices to reverse these rulings based on procedural failures in the lower court proceedings.

Vallow Daybell was found guilty of killing Joshua Vallow, age 7, and Tylee Ryan, age 16, in 2019. The court also convicted her of conspiring to murder Tammy Daybell, the ex-wife of her then-boyfriend, Chad Daybell. Tammy Daybell died weeks before marrying Chad Daybell, who wrote several religious novels concerning end-of-world prophecies.

The defense presented three main arguments to the appellate panel. They stated that the trial court denied Vallow Daybell a speedy trial. They also claimed the judge erred by prohibiting her from retaining her preferred attorney. The judge had ruled a conflict of interest existed because that lawyer had previously represented both Vallow Daybell and her husband. Finally, the defense argued the trial judge should not have allowed jurors to hear evidence from separate shootings in Arizona.

Those Arizona incidents involved the fatal shooting of Charles Vallow in Chandler in July 2019. He was Vallow Daybell’s estranged husband and had filed for divorce months earlier. His brother, Alex Cox, fired the shots and claimed self-defense, a claim investigators later questioned. Prosecutors alleged Vallow Daybell conspired with Cox to kill Charles Vallow to collect life insurance money and marry Chad Daybell.

A second shooting occurred nearly three months after Charles Vallow’s death. Someone in a Jeep fired at Brandon Boudreaux, the ex-husband of Vallow Daybell’s niece, as he drove to his home in Gilbert. Boudreaux survived the incident. Prosecutors identified Cox as the shooter in this case. Cox later died from a blood clot in his lungs.

Chad Daybell received the death penalty for the three Idaho killings. Vallow Daybell serves two additional life sentences for her Arizona conspiracy convictions. She has filed appeals for those rulings as well, keeping her legal challenges active in two different state court systems.

The bodies of Joshua and Tylee were discovered buried in rural Idaho on property belonging to Chad Daybell. The children had been reported missing in 2019. Vallow Daybell has cited doomsday religious beliefs in her defense, claiming individuals in her life were possessed by evil spirits.