‘Doomsday Mom’ Lori Vallow Daybell found guilty in 1st Arizona murder conspiracy case

PHOENIX – In the first of her two Arizona cases, “Doomsday Mom” Lori Vallow Daybell was found guilty Tuesday of conspiring to murder her estranged husband in 2019.

The jurors reached their verdict a day after hearing closing arguments in a Phoenix courtroom.

The prosecution and defense presented vastly different versions of Charles Vallow’s death during the trial, which began two weeks ago.

Prosecutors argued that Vallow Daybell and her late brother Alex Cox plotted to kill Vallow so she could collect money from his life insurance policy and marry her then-boyfriend, Chad Daybell.

Another brother, Adam Cox, testified for the prosecution, saying he believed his sister was behind Vallow’s death.

Vallow Daybell isn’t a lawyer, but she chose to defend herself. While she didn’t call any witnesses or put on any evidence, she said in her opening and closing statements that her estranged husband’s death wasn’t a crime.

“This was a tragedy,” she said Monday. “Don’t let them turn my family tragedy into a crime.”

The jury apparently didn’t buy Vallow Daybell’s story and found her guilty of conspiring to kill Vallow, who had expressed concerns about his wife’s mental state when he filed for divorce in February 2019. Alex Cox, who wasn’t charged before he died, fatally shot Vallow on July 11, 2019, and claimed self-defense.

She will not be sentenced until after she goes on trial in a second Arizona murder conspiracy case.

Lori Vallow Daybell already sentenced to life in Idaho

Vallow Daybell was already sentenced to life in prison in Idaho for killing her two youngest children, 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, as well as conspiring to kill Tammy Daybell, Chad Daybell’s previous wife.

Daybell, an Idaho author who wrote several religious novels about prophecies and the end of the world, was sentenced to death in a separate trial.

The case drew global attention due to Vallow Daybell’s bizarre claims that her son and daughter were zombies and that she was a goddess sent to usher in the Biblical apocalypse. As a result, the media started calling her the “Doomsday Mom.”

After Vallow Daybell’s Idaho conviction in 2023, she was transferred to Arizona to face charges in two Maricopa County murder conspiracy cases.

In the remaining case, she is accused of conspiring with her late brother to murder Brandon Boudreaux, her niece’s ex-husband. Police say Alex Cox shot at Boudreaux in Gilbert on Oct. 2, 2019, but missed. That trial is scheduled to begin at the end of May.

Alex Cox wasn’t charged in either shooting before he collapsed and died on Dec. 12, 2019. Authorities ruled that the 51-year-old died of natural causes.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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