Arizona
Lori Vallow Daybell’s Arizona trial over ex-husband Charles Vallow’s death starts today. Here’s what to know.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in the Arizona trial of “Doomsday mom” Lori Vallow Daybell, the Utah mother who was sentenced to life in prison in Idaho for killing her children in 2019.
In Arizona, Vallow Daybell has been indicted on a charge of conspiracy to commit murder in the death of her fourth husband, Charles Vallow.
She has pled not guilty to the charge, and is representing herself at the trial.
What did Lori Vallow Daybell do?
Lori Vallow Daybell was sentenced to life in prison without parole in the killings of her children, Tylee Ryan and Joshua Jaxon “JJ” Vallow. Tylee was Vallow Daybell’s child from a previous relationship. She and Charles Vallow adopted JJ in 2012.
In 2018, Vallow Daybell met doomsday-fiction author Chad Daybell. A year later, she separated from Vallow and began a relationship with Daybell.
The couple held apocalyptic religious beliefs that prosecutors claimed were used to justify the killings of Tylee, JJ and Daybell’s first wife, Tammy Daybell.
Tylee and JJ disappeared within two weeks of each other in September 2019. In October 2019, Tammy Daybell was found dead in her bed. A coroner said her death initially appeared to be due to natural causes, but an autopsy wasn’t conducted before her body was buried. Two weeks later, in November 2019, Daybell and Vallow Daybell were married in Hawaii.
The remains of Tammy Daybell were exhumed in December 2019, an autopsy was performed and her cause of death was determined to be asphyxiation. In February 2020, Vallow Daybell was arrested in Hawaii for ignoring a police order to produce her children, who had been reported missing by their grandparents. Several months later, in June 2020, the bodies of Tylee and JJ were found on a property owned by Chad Daybell.
Daybell and Vallow Daybell were each charged in the deaths of Tammy Daybell, Tylee and JJ. In separate trials, they were each found guilty of murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the children’s deaths. Vallow Daybell was also convicted of conspiracy to commit murder in Tammy Daybell’s death and of theft charges related to financial payments sent to her children.
Daybell was found guilty of murder in Tammy Daybell’s death, as well as several other related charges. He has been sentenced to death.
What was Lori Vallow Daybell’s relationship with Charles Vallow?
Lori Vallow Daybell and Charles Vallow were married from 2006 to 2019.
In early 2019, Vallow became very worried about his wife. He went to the police with his concerns, telling them that Vallow Daybell believed she was a “god” who was preparing for the end of days.
“She threatened me, murder me, kill me,” he told police in a conversation recorded on video, according to “48 Hours.”
Vallow filed for divorce in February 2019. In the filing, he said that Vallow Daybell had threatened to murder him. He also expressed fears for JJ and Tylee’s safety.
How did Charles Vallow die?
Charles Vallow was shot and killed by Lori Vallow Daybell’s brother, Alexander Lamar Cox, on July 11, 2019.
Vallow had gone to the home where Vallow Daybell was living with Cox and the two children after their separation to pick up JJ. The home was in Chandler, a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona.
In police video, Tylee said that she heard Vallow and Cox arguing.
“Honestly, it feels, it feels like 2 seconds, and 40 minutes at the same time. … I just kind of heard yelling over everything. I don’t know, I kind of just do that when everything is, like, really loud, I kind of just tune what people are saying out,” she told detectives.
Cox told police that he had killed Vallow in self-defense. He was not arrested.
Cox’s wife, Zulema Pastenes, testified that Daybell and Vallow Daybell had convinced him that his divine mission was to protect his sister. Pastenes said that Cox told her he feared the pair would make him their “fall guy.” That conversation, Pastenes said, occurred a day before Cox’s sudden death in December 2019. Medical examiners said he died of a pulmonary blood clot.
What to know about the latest charges
Lori Vallow Daybell has been charged with conspiring with Alex Cox to kill Charles Vallow. The trial will take place in Phoenix, Arizona, where Vallow died.
April Raymond told “48 Hours” that Vallow Daybell, her former friend, told her she believed Vallow was already dead and had a demon living inside him. She would later make similar comments about her children.
In December 2024, a judge ruled that Vallow Daybell was mentally fit to stand trial. Cameras will be allowed in the courtroom during the trial, CBS affiliate AZFamily reported. The trial will be livestreamed.
Complicating the trial is Vallow Daybell’s decision to represent herself. She said that this will likely complicate jury selection, a comment Judge Justin Beresky agreed with, according to AZFamily. Vallow Daybell said that she has studied case law during her time in prison. She also said she has experience in court that will help her represent herself.
In a hearing on March 18, Vallow appeared to struggle with the responsibility of being her own attorney. She said that her former attorneys would not give her important video evidence, though prosecutors said they can’t find the video she referenced, according to AZFamily. Vallow Daybell also said that it has been difficult for her to communicate with her legal team while in prison.
“Where I am at the jail, the communication is very difficult for me to get ahold of my investigator, get ahold of my paralegal. I’m 23 hours a day locked down. If I don’t have Wi-Fi, I don’t have a phone, if I don’t have battery, I don’t have a phone,” she said.
Opening statements are expected to begin in early April, according to AZFamily. If found guilty, Vallow faces life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years. She is already serving multiple life sentences with no possibility of parole after the convictions in Idaho.
This trial is not the last of her legal troubles. Vallow Daybell also faces a charge of conspiracy to commit murder for the attempted shooting of her niece’s ex-husband, Brandon Boudreaux. Boudreaux was shot at in 2019 while driving near his home, but was unhurt. Prosecutors say Cox carried out the shooting, but missed his target. Vallow Daybell has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Lori Vallow Daybell’s “Dateline” interview
In a jailhouse interview with NBC’s “Dateline,” which aired in March, Vallow Daybell made multiple baseless claims. She was often combative toward correspondent Keith Morrison as she claimed to be innocent of all charges.
She said she “was not there” when JJ and Tylee were killed and was not involved in Tammy Daybell’s death. She tried to blame JJ’s death on Tylee, Morrison said, but investigators have said Tylee died before JJ.
“She came in and she had her own agenda,” Morrison said of Vallow Daybell ahead of the airing of the “Dateline” episode. “She wanted to be the aggressor.”
During the interview, Vallow Daybell also briefly discussed how she would serve as her own attorney in the Charles Vallow case. She called the process “great” but a “difficult thing to do.”
TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Jessica Cox, the world’s first licensed armless airplane pilot and a leading advocate for disability-led innovation, will be inducted into the Arizona Aviation Hall of Fame on Friday, May 15, 2026. The induction ceremony, hosted by Rightfooted Foundation International in collaboration with the Pima Air & Space Museum, will take place at the museum from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Cox’s recognition honors both her historic achievement in flight and her ongoing work expanding access and opportunity for people without arms. Through her leadership at Rightfooted Foundation International (RFI), Cox has championed mentorship, education and practical innovations that help aspiring pilots and families reimagine what’s possible in aviation and beyond.
“Saying I’m proud of her can’t fully encompass what I feel,” said Patrick Chamberlain, Cox’s husband and RFI’s Inclusive Engineering Director. “Jessica’s induction into the Arizona Aviation Hall of Fame recognizes both what she has accomplished and what she continues to do. She has helped shed light on the many pilots with disabilities in aviation and shown the world that disability does not mean inability.”
The 2026 induction class also honors two military aviators: Frank Schiel Jr., a Phoenix-born Flying Tigers veteran credited with seven enemy aircraft destroyed in World War II, and James K. Johnson, a Phoenix-born U.S. Air Force colonel and Korean War double ace credited with ten aerial victories.
The Arizona Aviation Hall of Fame, established in 1985 and housed in the Dorothy Finley Aerospace Gallery at Pima Air & Space Museum, pays tribute to Arizonans who have made significant contributions to aviation and aerospace history.
Since the Arizona Cardinals want to trade back from the No. 3 picks, here are three deals that could work.
The Arizona Cardinals have the third pick in the 2026 NFL draft, which begins this week on Thursday. All the reports coming out are saying that they want to trade out of the pick to acquire more draft picks.
But what does a trade look like and who could be involved?
The Kansas City Chiefs are involved in talks at some level. ESPN’s Adam Schefter expects trade talks to heat up this week.
NFL teams use a variation of a trade value chart when it comes to draft picks. Now, what a team actually is willing to give up can be influenced by potential competition with other teams, but we can’t count on that.
Here is the general trade value chart teams use.
Here are some potential deals that could be done.
Kansas City Chiefs
The Chiefs have two first-round picks, which would be appealing to the Cardinals, who reportedly want to make a move for quarterback Ty Simpson, and the 29th pick might be just the spot to get him.
The third overall pick is worth 514 points.
The Chiefs’ picks at No. 9 (387 points) and No. 29 (202 points) together are worth 589.
To make up the difference, the Cardinals could give up No. 65 (78 points) for a total of 592 points.
One deal could be:
- Cardinals receive get No. 9 and No. 29 (589 points)
- Chiefs receive No. 3 and No. 65 (592 points)
Another could be:
- Cardinals receive No. 9, No. 29, No. 74 and 2027 third-round pick (653 points + value of future third-round pick, which is 36-78 points)
- Chiefs receive No. 3 and No. 34 (689 points)
The Cardinals keep their third-round pick and the Chiefs essentially move back five spots from No. 29.
Dallas Cowboys
The Cowboys have the 12th and 20th picks but no pick in the second round.
Pick No. 12 is 347 points and No. 20 is 269 for a total of 616.
This deal is close:
- Cardinals receive No. 12, No. 20 (616 points)
- Cowboys receive No. 3, No. 65 (592 points)
New Orleans Saints
The Saints are perhaps a dark horse to move up, although they do not have two first-round picks. They have the No. 8 pick, worth 406 points. Their second-round pick, at No. 42, is worth 142 points.
This deal could work:
- Cardinals receive No. 8, No. 42 (548 points)
- Saints receive No. 3, No. 104 (547 points)
Then the Cardinals could use their two second-round picks to then move back into Round 1 to get Ty Simpson.
They could trade No. 34, No. 42 and No. 65 (395 points) for No. 28, No. 38 and No. 106 (398 total points).
Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.
PHOENIX — Breezy winds kicked up a blanket of dust across the Valley on Sunday, and forecasters say more is on the way this week.
Visibility in Phoenix became so bad on Sunday that Sky Harbor airport stopped flights for over an hour
The wind and dust peaked Sunday afternoon and gradually improved into the evening, said Michael Graves, an air quality meteorologist with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.
“You might’ve seen the mountains a bit obscured in the distance,” Graves told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Monday. “A lot of haze in the air.”
By Monday morning, skies had largely cleared and dust levels near the ground had dropped significantly.
Expect more gusty, dusty days this week
The relief may be short-lived.
ADEQ is watching for increased afternoon breezes Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, this time from the west and southwest. Though the winds are expected to be weaker than Sunday’s, Graves said forecasters cannot rule out dust.
“I wouldn’t say windstorm,” Graves said. “I would just say we’ve got some waves coming in. They’re going to increase our afternoon breeziness.”
It’s enough to kick up dry, exposed dirt, which could create pockets of dust. There is a slight chance of broader regional dust transport, Graves said.
It will impact people with asthma, COPD or respiratory conditions the most. Graves advised those with issues to monitor conditions and stay indoors during the dustiest hours.
“If you’re going to be outside, be outside during the times when it’s less dusty or hazy,” Graves said.
Graves noted that spring weather systems typically pass to the north of the Phoenix area, delivering wind and slight temperature drops but little to no rain, a pattern likely to continue.
KTAR News reporter Kellen Shover contributed to this report.
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