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.”

The Associated Press

contributed to this report.

Arizona entered the weekend unbeaten at Hi Corbett Field, winning its first 14 home games and averaging nearly nine runs per outing. The Wildcats then dropped the first two of its series with Baylor, scoring a combined nine runs in the process.

By the end of the 1st inning Sunday the UA had surpassed its run total from the previous two games en route to salvaging the series finale.

Arizona scored 10 in the bottom of the 1^st inning in an 11-6 win over Baylor, avoiding being swept at home for the first time since March 2023.

“It was great to kind of jump on them early,” said center fielder Aaron Walton, who hit a 2-run homer in the opening frame. “Sundays are about energy, so coming out with that early was great.”

Arizona (20-7, 6-3 Big 12) sent 14 batters to the plate in the 1^st, chasing Baylor left-hander Carson Bailey after 0.2 innings. Walton’s homer started the scoring, but then with the bases loaded and two out freshman Gunner Geile singled up the middle to drive in the first two runs of his career.

TJ Adams followed with a 2-run double on the first pitch he saw, making it 6-0, then run-scoring hits by Walton, Mason White and Adonys Guzman capped the 1^st inning production.

“It was an incredible start,” UA coach Chip Hale said. “That’s one of the best guys in the league that started. I was proud of them for getting the hits against the lefty.”

Arizona would only score once more in the game, on a solo homer by White in the 3^rd to make it 11-1 at the time. White, who was 3 for 5 with three RBI and is 20 for 50 with 13 RBI during his 11-game hit streak, hit his first homer at Hi Corbett since last April and the 34^th of his career tied him for 6^th on the UA career list.

Baylor (19-8, 4-5) scored four in the top of the 5^th to keep UA starter Smith Bailey from qualifying for the win, which went to Julian Tonghini who was the most effective of four relievers.

Sunday was the fourth game Arizona played without junior Brendan Summerhill, who is expected to miss a month with a fracture in his right hand. The Wildcats also played the last two games without sophomore Easton Breyfogle, who came out of Friday’s loss with another leg injury but was available if needed.

Adams started both corner outfield positions over the weekend, and Sunday had a 2-hit game after coming in hitting .175. Geile, a Tucson native, started in right the last two games tripled his career hit total with two singles Sunday after looking on track to redshirt this season before making his debut last Sunday at West Virginia after Summerhill got hurt.

“They didn’t really give me any (indication), they were going to make decisions at the end of the year,” Geile said of playing as a freshman. “But opportunities arise, and we just try to do what we can for the team.”

Arizona’s next four games are on the road and up Interstate 10, starting with Tuesday at Grand Canyon. The Wildcats lost three of four to the Antelopes last season, including in the NCAA Tournament opener at Hi Corbett.

“The guys who haven’t been up there, it’s been a wild atmosphere,” Hale said. “They’re a good team, and obviously they left a bad taste in our mouths last year.”

After GCU the UA will play three at ASU, which it beat 3-2 at home in a nonconference game on March 10. The Sun Devils (19-9, 7-2) are in second place in the Big 12, a game behind Kansas State.

Arizona had some of the nation’s most frequent reports of lasers pointed at aircraft in 2024, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, which said lasers posed a severe danger to pilots, passengers, and everyone above a flight path.

The FAA received 550 reports from pilots in Arizona skies who were struck by a laser, which put Arizona sixth on a list of the states with the most reports of laser-related incidents.

At the top of the list in 2024 was California, with 1,489 reports, followed by Texas with 1,463, Florida with 810, Tennessee with 649, and Illinois with 662.

Nationwide, there were nearly 13,000 laser strikes reported by pilots in the U.S., a 3% decrease from last year but which the FAA said still remained too high.

The number in Arizona was also down, but only slightly, with 558 laser incidents reported by pilots in 2023.

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, the state’s busiest airport, handles hundreds of flights daily over the Phoenix area, home to approximately 5 million people.

“Lasers can incapacitate pilots, many of whom are flying airplanes with hundreds of passengers,” the FAA said in an announcement.

Since the FAA began tracking laser incidents in 2010, 328 pilots have sustained injuries from laser strikes. Pilots hit by a laser often experience temporary vision disruptions, including glare, afterimages, or blind spots.

The FAA said people who shine lasers at aircraft face FAA fines of up to $11,000 per violation and up to $30,800 for multiple laser incidents, and that violators can also face federal criminal penalties of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, as well as state and local penalties.

In 2019, a man from Mesa was arrested on suspicion of aiming a laser pointer at a Mesa police helicopter.

In 2016, a man was arrested and accused of pointing a laser at several aircraft at different Valley airports, including Sky Harbor.

The agency has asked pilots to report laser incidents to a dedicated online webpage.

What we know: Sky Harbor airport had 10 near-crashes in the past decade

Reach reporter Rey Covarrubias Jr. at rcovarrubias@gannett.com. Follow him on X, Threads and Bluesky @ReyCJrAZ.