Lori Vallow Daybell was sentenced to life in jail Friday on two homicide conspiracy convictions in Arizona, marking an finish to a winding authorized saga for the mom with doomsday spiritual beliefs who claimed individuals in her life had been possessed by evil spirits.
Vallow Daybell, already serving life sentences in Idaho within the killings of her two youngest youngsters and a romantic rival, was convicted at separate trials this spring in Phoenix of conspiring to homicide her estranged husband, Charles Vallow, and her niece’s ex-husband, Brandon Boudreaux. She represented herself, regardless of not being a lawyer.
Authorities say she carried out the plots along with her brother Alex Cox, who acknowledged killing Vallow in July 2019 and was recognized by prosecutors as the one who fired at Boudreaux months later however missed.
Prosecutors say Vallow Daybell conspired to kill her husband so she may acquire on his $1 million life insurance coverage coverage and marry her then-boyfriend Chad Daybell, an Idaho writer of a number of spiritual novels about prophecies and the top of the world. They are saying Boudreaux suspected Vallow Daybell and Cox have been accountable for Vallow’s dying and went into hiding together with his youngsters as a result of he feared Cox would kill him.
On this picture taken from video, Lori Vallow Daybell, left, speaks to her advisory counsel throughout her sentencing listening to on two homicide conspiracy convictions in Phoenix on July 25, 2025.
AP Picture, Pool
Practically two years in the past, Vallow Daybell was sentenced to life in an Idaho jail for killing her youngsters, 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, and conspiring to homicide Daybell’s spouse, Tammy. The youngsters went lacking for a number of months earlier than their our bodies have been discovered buried in rural Idaho on Daybell’s property. Daybell was sentenced to dying for the ugly murders of his spouse, Tylee and JJ.
At her Arizona trials, Vallow Daybell argued her brother acted in self-defense when killing Vallow. She additionally mentioned no proof confirmed she conspired with Cox to kill Boudreaux.
Vallow Daybell appeared in court docket Friday in an orange jail uniform as relations known as her “evil,” “grasping” and a “monster” whereas describing their grief. The victims’ relations sat within the jury field, passing round tissues. Colby Ryan, Vallow Daybell’s solely surviving youngster who testified by distant hyperlink, described how he “needed to struggle to remain alive after the ache” of dropping his father and siblings.
Ryan zeroed in on his mom, who has claimed the Arizona circumstances have been household tragedies that should not have ended up in court docket. “I imagine that Lori Vallow herself is the household tragedy,” Ryan mentioned.
Charles Vallow was fatally shot in 2019
Charles Vallow filed for divorce 4 months earlier than he died. He mentioned Vallow Daybell turned infatuated with near-death experiences and claimed to have lived quite a few lives on different planets. He informed police she threatened to kill him and he was involved for his youngsters.
Vallow was shot when he went to select up his son at Vallow Daybell’s residence outdoors Phoenix, police mentioned. Vallow Daybell’s daughter, Tylee, informed police the sound of yelling woke her up, and he or she confronted Vallow with a baseball bat that he managed to take from her. Cox informed police he shot Vallow after he refused to drop the bat and got here after him.
Cox died 5 months later from a blood clot in his lungs. His self-defense declare was later known as into query, with investigators saying Cox and Vallow Daybell waited greater than 40 minutes earlier than calling 911.
Lori and Charles Vallow married in 2006.
Kay Woodcock
Simply earlier than his dying, Vallow and his spouse’s different brother, Adam Cox, deliberate an intervention to attempt to deliver Vallow Daybell again into the mainstream of their shared religion within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Adam Cox, a witness for the prosecution, testified that his sister informed individuals Vallow was not residing and {that a} zombie was inside her estranged husband’s physique.
Gerry Vallow, Charles Vallow’s brother, informed the decide Friday that Vallow Daybell cheated on his brother with Chad Daybell whereas she was plotting to kill Charles Vallow. She is not misunderstood, Gerry Vallow mentioned.
“She wrote her personal make-believe story, and he or she wrote it in blood,” he mentioned. “She tried to kill Brandon when he began trying like the following accessible greenback signal.”
Somebody shot at Brandon Boudreaux months later
Nearly three months after Vallow died, somebody fired a shot at Boudreaux from an open window of a Jeep as he was driving as much as his residence in Gilbert, one other Phoenix suburb. It narrowly missed Boudreaux, the ex-husband of Vallow Daybell’s niece, Melani Pawlowski.
Boudreaux described in court docket Friday how Vallow Daybell betrayed him and the way the try on his life brought about him heartache and fear about his household’s security. Boudreaux’s sisters informed the decide that their brother went into hiding together with his youngsters.
“Nobody deserves to stay a lifetime of concern and trauma,” Boudreaux mentioned tearfully. He mentioned he has forgiven Vallow Daybell so he is usually a higher particular person however that he would not really feel secure if she has freedom.
Boudreaux has mentioned Pawlowski aspired to be like her aunt. The 2 began attending spiritual conferences collectively in 2018. Quickly after, Pawlowski mentioned they need to stockpile meals for the top of the world.
Prosecutors tied the Jeep to Vallow Daybell and mentioned she loaned it to Alex Cox. The 2 purchased a burner telephone used to hold out the assault and tried to concoct an alibi for Cox to make it appear to be he was in Idaho on the time, prosecutors mentioned.