An Idaho appeals court is scheduled to hear Lori Vallow Daybell’s appeal of her convictions in that state for killing her two youngest children and conspiring to murder a romantic rival.
Vallow Daybell is asking the court to reverse her convictions in the deaths of Joshua “JJ” Vallow, Tylee Ryan, and Tammy Daybell. JJ was 7 and Tylee was 16. Vallow Daybell holds doomsday religious beliefs and has claimed that people in her life were possessed by evil spirits.
The children went missing in 2019. Their bodies were found buried in rural Idaho on the property of Vallow Daybell’s then-husband, Chad Daybell, an author of religious novels.
Vallow Daybell was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences in Idaho. Chad Daybell was sentenced to death for the three killings.
She was also convicted separately in Arizona for conspiring to murder her estranged husband, Charles Vallow, and her niece’s ex-husband, Brandon Boudreaux, the latter of whom survived.
In the Idaho appeal, her lawyer argued that a lower court denied her a speedy trial, prevented her from choosing her own attorney, and wrongly allowed jurors to hear about the shootings involving Charles Vallow and Brandon Boudreaux in metro Phoenix.
Charles Vallow was fatally shot in July 2019 by Vallow Daybell’s brother, Alex Cox, who claimed self-defense. Prosecutors allege Vallow Daybell conspired with Cox to kill Charles Vallow to collect life insurance money and marry Chad Daybell. Cox later died from a blood clot.
Someone also fired a gunshot at Boudreaux as he was driving to his home in Gilbert, Arizona. Prosecutors identified Cox as the shooter.
Vallow Daybell received two life sentences for her Arizona convictions and has appealed those as well.