'Cult mom' Lori Vallow, who killed 2 kids, laments 'family tragedy' in closing arguments of 2nd murder trial
Lori Vallow Daybell, who was convicted in 2023 of killing two of her children, lamented what she described as a "family tragedy" in the closing arguments of her second murder trial in Arizona, which wrapped up Monday ahead of jury deliberations.
Prosecutors argued that Vallow Daybell conspired with her late brother, Alex Cox, to murder her late fourth husband, Charles Vallow, and receive a $1 million life insurance payout before marrying Chad Daybell in 2019.
The Arizona trial comes nearly two years after Vallow Daybell and Daybell – who together shared extreme apocalyptic religious views and believed certain people had dark spirits – were convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the 2019 murders of Vallow's two youngest children, 7-year-old Joshua "JJ" Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, as well as the 2019 murder of Chad Daybell's first wife, Tammy Daybell.
"The state put forth a bunch of evidence in this trial to make you dislike me – to try to attack my character so that you would just say guilty no matter what evidence they showed you," Vallow Daybell, who is representing herself during her trial, said Monday in her closing statement. "But only you get to decide."
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She further argued that prosecutors did not put forth witnesses who had "knowledge of a conspiracy."
"The state did not show you evidence of an agreement to commit murder. They showed you evidence of a family tragedy, and then they showed you the sad effects of a family torn apart because of that tragedy," Vallow Daybell continued.
Vallow Daybell argued that her brother shot Charles Vallow in self-defense after he and her late brother got into a physical fight while Vallow Daybell and her daughter, Tylee, were home.
At the time of Charles Vallow's murder, Tylee apparently confronted him with a baseball bat after hearing screaming inside the house. Charles took the bat from Tylee, who told police she was trying to protect her mother, and allegedly tried to attack Cox. Cox told investigators he fired his gun in self-defense and was never charged in Charles' death before he died of natural causes months later.
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Maricopa County prosecutor Treena Kay presented evidence over the course of the trial, arguing it showed Cox helped stage the scene of the crime to cover up what was a premeditated murder designed to look like a self-defense shooting.
She also refuted Vallow Daybell's statement that the alleged murder was a "family tragedy."
"The execution of Charles Vallow is not a family tragedy. There is nothing that you can say about shooting a man as he lay on the ground that you can try to construe in any way to make that a family tragedy," Kay said.
Kay presented evidence showing Vallow Daybell allegedly told Chad Daybell, "We got rid of him," referring to Charles Vallow, after learning her former husband changed his life insurance policy.
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"He changed his life insurance before they killed him. What does that tell you? That tells you motive, and that tells you who did it," Kay said, adding that Vallow Daybell's actions before and after Charles Vallow's murder indicated "planning" and "pre-meditated" murder.
She further described Vallow Daybell's demeanor after Charles Vallow's shooting death as "nonchalant" and "calm," saying she did not ask questions about her brother or about her house directly after Vallow's murder.
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"She's calm and good with it because she doesn't need to repent. She is able to determine who can live and die, and she has done that," Kay said.
Vallow Daybell could face another life sentence if convicted and is also facing another Arizona trial in May for an alleged plot to kill her niece’s ex-husband after a judge denied her motion to dismiss the case.