Idaho Court Reviews Vallow Daybell Convictions

Lori Vallow Daybell faces her second highest court review in Idaho as the state supreme court heard arguments on Monday regarding her convictions for the 2019 killings of two children and a woman. The hearing centers on whether procedural mistakes during the trial in Boise warrant overturning her verdicts.

The case stems from the disappearance of Joshua “JJ” Vallow, age 7, and Tylee Ryan, age 16, who vanished in 2019. Their bodies were later located buried on rural property owned by Chad Daybell, Vallow Daybell’s new husband. Chad Daybell is an author of religious novels focused on apocalyptic prophecies. Tammy Daybell, Chad’s first wife, was also found dead on the property. Vallow Daybell married Chad weeks after Tammy’s death.

Vallow Daybell holds doomsday religious beliefs and has stated that individuals in her life were possessed by evil spirits. She was sentenced to three life terms in Idaho for these three deaths. Chad Daybell received a death sentence for the same killings. Her defense team argues that the lower court denied her a speedy trial and blocked her preferred attorney. The judge ruled out that lawyer due to a conflict of interest because he had previously represented both Vallow Daybell and her husband.

Defense counsel also contended that jurors should not have heard evidence from separate Arizona shootings. In July 2019, months after Vallow Daybell filed for divorce, her former husband Charles Vallow was shot in Chandler by her brother, Alex Cox. Cox claimed self-defense, a theory investigators later questioned. Nearly three months later, a Jeep parked near a home in Gilbert fired a shot at Brandon Boudreaux, the ex-husband of Vallow Daybell’s niece. Boudreaux survived the narrow miss.

Prosecutors in Arizona alleged Vallow Daybell conspired with Cox to kill Charles Vallow to collect his life insurance and marry Chad Daybell. Cox, identified as the shooter in the Boudreaux incident, later died from a blood clot in his lungs. Vallow Daybell received two life sentences in Arizona for conspiring to murder Charles Vallow and Boudreaux. She has filed appeals on those convictions as well.

The Arizona shootings provided context for the Idaho trial, though defense lawyers argued the separate incidents confused the jury. The Idaho supreme court will now consider whether these procedural and evidentiary issues altered the outcome of the case. Vallow Daybell remains in custody while the court deliberates on her appeal.