Southwest
'Doomsday mom' Lori Vallow granted mental health exam ahead of second murder trial
An Arizona judge on Tuesday granted convicted killer mom Lori Vallow’s request for a mental competency evaluation ahead of her second criminal trial.
Vallow, who, along with her husband Chad Daybell, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in Idaho last year for killing her two youngest children and Daybell’s former wife, is now set to stand trial in Arizona for allegedly conspiring to kill her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, and her niece’s ex-husband.
Vallow pleaded not guilty to the alleged crimes last December.
Two “qualified mental health experts” will perform the evaluation, and Vallow’s trial has been vacated pending results of the examination, according to court documents obtained by Fox News Digital.
LORI VALLOW TRIAL: IDAHO CORONER REVEALS JJ VALLOW’S AND TYLEE RYAN’S CAUSES OF DEATH
Lori Vallow will undergo a mental competency examination in Arizona ahead of her second criminal trial. (Maricopa County)
Vallow and Daybell killed two of Vallow’s children, 7-year-old J.J. Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, as well as Daybell’s first wife, Tammy Daybell, in 2019.
While J.J. and Tylee were missing, and directly after Tammy’s death in October 2019, Vallow and Daybell married in Hawaii in November of that same year.
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Lori and Chad Daybell are accused of killing 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old J.J. Vallow in 2019. (Rexberg Police Department)
J.J. and Tylee were found in shallow graves on Daybell’s rural Rexburg property in June 2020, months after they disappeared from their home in September 2019.
The 16-year-old’s remains were burned while the 7-year-old was bound in duct tape.
LORI VALLOW TRIAL: ‘CULT MOM’ SENTENCED IN MURDERS OF 2 OF HER CHILDREN, HUSBAND’S FIRST WIFE
In this aerial photo, investigators search for human remains at Chad Daybell’s residence in Salem, Idaho, on June 9, 2020. (John Roark/The Idaho Post-Register )
Ahead of her murder trial in Idaho last year, Vallow spent about nine months in an Idaho mental hospital. Following those nine months, Fremont District Judge Steven Boyce ruled that she was “returned to competency and is fit to proceed” in her first trial, which was similarly halted when she was committed to the mental health facility.
Idaho prosecutors alleged during Vallow’s and Daybell’s trials that the pair had extreme religious beliefs, including the idea that some people had “dark” souls while others had “light” souls. They believed the “dark” spirits could be so dark, in fact, that they could be zombies.
‘CULT MOM’ LORI VALLOW APPEALS CONVICTION AFTER BEING FOUND GUILTY OF MURDERING HER 2 CHILDREN
Charles Vallow died in July 2019. Two months later, in September 2019, Tylee and J.J. disappeared. Tammy Daybell died of asphyxiation in November 2019. Cox died later that year of an apparent blood clot in December 2019. (KASZ/Facebook/Post Register/John Roark/AP POOL)
“You removed your children from their home in Arizona, alienated them from friends and family… and you brought them here to murder them. You had so many other options… You chose the most evil and destructive path possible,” Boyce said at the conclusion of her trial in July 2023. “I don’t think to this day you have any remorse for the effort and heartache you caused.”
He added that Vallow does “have mental health issues.”
LORI VALLOW VERDICT: IDAHO JUROR SAYS ‘CULT MOM’ HAD ‘NO HINT’ SHE WAS DESTROYING ‘SO MUCH AROUND HER’
Lori Vallow’s booking photo taken on Aug. 1, 2023, at the Pocatello Women’s Correctional Center in Pocatello, Idaho. (Idaho Dept. of Corrections/LOCAL NEWS X/TMX)
A February 2023 psychiatric diagnosis revealed that Vallow suffers from a “delusional disorder” mixed with “hyper-religiosity” and a “continuous and unspecified personality disorder” with narcissistic features, according to Boyce.
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“Others looked for your children when you knew where they were and knew they were dead,” Boyce told Vallow in court last year. “They were found dead, burned, mutilated and dismembered and buried like animals. After you knew they were dead, you collected public-funded assistance payments meant for them, and that was blood money you kept for yourself.”
Lori Vallow, convicted in Idaho, faces more charges in Arizona. (Tony Blakeslee/East Idaho News)
During her sentencing, Vallow spoke publicly for the first time since her arrest in 2020, and appeared to be in denial, saying at the time that she knew her children were “happy and busy in the spirit world.”
WATCH LORI VALLOW ADDRESS THE COURT:
“I have had many communications with Jesus Christ, savior of this world, and our heavenly parents. I have had many angelic visitors come and communicated with me and even manifested themselves to me because of these communications,” Vallow told an Idaho courtroom during her sentencing hearing. “I know for a fact that my children are happy and busy in the spirit world. Because of my communications with my friend, Tammy Daybell, I know that she is also very happy and extremely busy.”
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In her statement to the court, Vallow added she “died in the hospital” while she was in labor with her daughter, Tylee. Doctors revived her, at which point she began seeing spirits.
Lori Vallow Daybell smiled in and outside of an Idaho courthouse on Aug, 16. (Tony Blakeslee/East Idaho News)
“One of the times that Tylee came to me as a spirit after she died… she said to me, ‘Stop worrying, Mom. We are fine.’ She knows how I worry and how I miss her,” Vallow said at the time.
The so-called “cult mom” was extradited to Arizona in November 2023, about four months after she was sentenced to life without parole in Idaho.
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Los Angeles, Ca
Man found guilty of sex trafficking victim along L.A.’s Figueroa Corridor
A former Riverside County man was found guilty of sex trafficking a female victim and forcing her to engage in commercial sex acts along L.A.’s notorious Figueroa Corridor.
Elias Abdul Shabazz, 34, formerly of Perris, was found guilty by a jury following a five-day trial, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Prosecutors said Shabazz had led the victim to believe they were in a romantic relationship before he turned physically and sexually violent. He began demanding that the victim engage in commercial sex acts from May to October of 2021, court documents said.
He carried a handgun with him and, on occasion, was accused of using it to pistol-whip the victim. He also fired the gun at her feet while threatening to kill her, prosecutors said.
At trial, the victim said Shabazz demanded that she meet a daily quota of commercial sex proceeds and that she was terrified of the consequences of not meeting that quota.
She testified that Shabazz compelled her to work in the notorious Figueroa Corridor in South L.A., a dangerous area known for human trafficking and prostitution.
Shabazz had confiscated her identification card, Social Security card and birth certificate. He constantly monitored her cell phone to stop her from communicating with any friends or family.
“He also introduced her to addictive narcotics and controlled every aspect of her life, including when she ate, slept and showered,” prosecutors said.
In May 2025, Shabazz was arrested and has remained in federal custody. His last known address at the time was in Washington, D.C.
On June 26, 2026, Shabazz was found guilty of one count of coercing or enticing interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Oct. 6, where he faces 15 years to life in prison.
“Sex trafficking matters rank among the most tragic cases our office prosecutes,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli. “This defendant will now face many years in a federal prison cell for his sick, disgusting, and disturbing behavior.”
“Elias Shabazz preyed on a vulnerable victim using physical and sexual violence and cruel psychological coercion to compel commercial sex acts for his own profit,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “There is no place for this type of conduct in civilized society. We deeply respect the victim’s courage to face her trafficker in court. The Criminal Division will continue to bring these cases and try them.”
Anyone with information about human trafficking can report tips to the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 888-373-7888
Los Angeles, Ca
Watch Project Angel Food's 'Lead with Love' telethon on KTLA
The star-studded feel-good giveback event of the summer has returned. KTLA 5 is teaming up once again with Project Angel Food for the annual “Lead with Love: Going the Distance” telethon to raise critical funds for medically tailored meals delivered to people living with serious illnesses throughout Los Angeles County. The seventh annual telethon airs […]
Los Angeles, Ca
Woman ambushed, violently attacked by robber in downtown Long Beach
A woman was hospitalized with serious injuries after she was violently attacked by a robber in downtown Long Beach. On June 18, Jennifer Silva, 34, was attending a World Cup watch party at a Hooters restaurant at 90 Aquarium Way. After the game ended, she left the restaurant just before 11 p.m. As she walked […]
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