Prosecutor weighs in on Lori Vallow Daybell ahead of her Arizona trial

PHOENIX — A jury has been seated and sworn in ahead of Lori Vallow Daybell’s first murder conspiracy trial in Arizona.

The “doomsday mom” is already convicted of killing her children, Tylee and JJ, in Idaho. 

Now she’s standing trial in Maricopa County Superior Court, accused of plotting to kill her former husband, Charles Vallow, so she can be with her current husband, Chad Daybell.

It’s been an explosive build-up, as Vallow Daybell intends to represent herself in the current case. She’s pleaded not guilty in this case.

“Lori Vallow is fundamentally a narcissist,” said Rachel Smith. “The world exists for Lori in Lori’s world. I’m not surprised at all that she is attempting to represent herself.”

Smith was a prosecutor on Vallow Daybell’s murder trial in Idaho, which took place in 2023. She was first arrested in connection to this case in early 2020 after her children disappeared in September 2019.  Their bodies were ultimately found buried in Chad Daybell’s backyard.

“The most powerful evidence applies to all the victims,” Smith said of the cases. “But we’ll see a very different case. I think it’ll be very focused on Arizona, what happened there, and Charles Vallow.”

Charles Vallow warned police about his wife’s darkening religious beliefs in early 2019, according to police records.

But in July 2019, Lori’s brother, Alex Cox, shot Charles Vallow dead at the family’s home in Chandler.  Prosecutors argue that Lori conspired with her brother to kill him.

Cox can’t be charged because he died, reportedly of natural causes, before this case was brought in court.

Through hearings and court motions, we’re expecting Lori to bring up self-defense.

“Many pro se defendants act as if there’s some grand conspiracy to get them, or at least that’s the narrative they try to paint,” Smith said.

Lori’s current husband, Chad Daybell, was also convicted in Idaho for murdering Lori’s kids and his first wife, Tammy Daybell.

He was sentenced to death in that state.

Lori got life in prison in Idaho and will go back there once her cases in Arizona play out.

“We will see the impact that Lori Vallow and Chad had on multiple lives coming out of this trial,” Smith noted. “And sadly, we’re going to see that Charles’s effort to get her help and his effort to deal with it failed. And it cost him — cost him his life.”

Lori Vallow Daybell’s second trial in Arizona is also a murder conspiracy case. In that case, she’s accused of plotting to kill her niece’s ex-husband, who ultimately wasn’t injured.

Opening statements for her first Arizona trial are scheduled to start Monday morning.

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