Gov. Katie Hobbs signs request to prosecute ‘Doomsday Mom’ Lori Vallow Daybell in Arizona
Aug 16, 2023, 4:44 PM
(Tony Blakeslee/EastIdahoNews.com via AP, Pool)
(Tony Blakeslee/EastIdahoNews.com via AP, Pool)
PHOENIX — Gov. Katie Hobbs has signed a request to prosecute Lori Vallow Daybell in Arizona, her communications team confirmed Wednesday.
Vallow Daybell, 50, was sentenced last month to life in prison in Idaho for her role in the deaths of her two youngest children and a perceived romantic rival.
What is Lori Vallow Daybell accused of in Maricopa County?
With the Idaho case complete, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office moved ahead with plans to prosecute Vallow Daybell on two counts of conspiracy to commit murder.
A Maricopa County grand jury indicted Vallow Daybell in 2021 on a charge of conspiring to kill her fourth husband, Charles Vallow. Police said Vallow Daybell’s brother Alex Cox shot and killed Vallow on July 11, 2019, in Chandler.
RELATED STORIES
A second Valley indictment unsealed in May of this year charged Vallow Daybell with conspiring to murder Brandon Boudreaux, her niece’s ex-husband. Police say Cox shot at Boudreaux in Gilbert on Oct. 2, 2019, but missed.
Cox was never charged and died later that year of what authorities determined were natural causes.
Echoes of Jodi Arias case
When extradited, Vallow Daybell won’t be the first high-profile female inmate held at a Valley jail.
In 2013, Jodi Arias was found guilty of murdering her ex-boyfriend in Mesa five years earlier. She was sentenced to life in prison in 2015, ending a case that drew years of national and global media attention.
Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone told KTAR News 92.3 FM earlier this month said the Arias case brought “energy into the space that normally doesn’t exist” but didn’t change how jail staffers performed their work.
Vallow Daybell will likely be held in an MCSO-run jail following her extradition.
Penzone expects his staff to maintain constant professionalism, though he acknowledged an inmate like the so-called “Doomsday Mom” would be a different beast.
“Obviously, due to the fact that this is extremely high profile, it’s going to garner a lot of attention. … It will create a little bit of a — I don’t want to say unrest, but there will be an energy to it that’s not always positive. So, we’ll be overly conscientious about the circumstances,” he said.
