Idaho High Court Hears Vallow Appeal

The Idaho Supreme Court convened on Monday to hear Lori Vallow Daybell’s petition to overturn her convictions. She seeks reversal of guilty verdicts in the deaths of her children Joshua “JJ” Vallow and Tylee Ryan, as well as the murder of Tammy Daybell.

The timeline of the case spans several years of legal and personal upheaval. In 2019, JJ, age 7, and Tylee, age 16, disappeared. Their bodies were later located buried on the rural Idaho property of Chad Daybell. Chad Daybell, an author of religious novels, married Vallow Daybell weeks after Tammy Daybell’s death. Tammy was Chad’s wife at the time of her killing.

Vallow Daybell maintains a doomsday religious belief system. She has stated that individuals in her life were possessed by evil spirits. The state court sentenced her to three life terms for the Idaho killings. Chad Daybell received a death sentence for the same three deaths.

Her legal team raised specific objections during the lower court proceedings. They argued the court denied her a speedy trial. They also claimed the judge improperly barred her chosen attorney. The judge ruled that attorney had a conflict of interest because he represented both Vallow Daybell and her husband.

Defense counsel further contended that jurors should not have heard evidence regarding separate shootings in metro Phoenix. Those incidents involved Charles Vallow and Brandon Boudreaux. Charles Vallow was Vallow Daybell’s estranged husband. He was fatally shot in Chandler in July 2019 by her brother, Alex Cox. Cox claimed self-defense, a position investigators later questioned.

Approximately three months after Charles Vallow’s death, a shooter fired at Brandon Boudreaux from a Jeep. Boudreaux was the ex-husband of Vallow Daybell’s niece. He was driving to his home in Gilbert when the shot narrowly missed him. Prosecutors asserted Vallow Daybell conspired with Cox to kill Charles Vallow to collect his life insurance and marry Chad Daybell. Cox, identified as the shooter at Boudreaux, later died from a pulmonary embolism.

Vallow Daybell also faces separate convictions in Arizona for conspiring to kill Charles Vallow and Boudreaux. She received two life sentences in that state and has filed an appeal against those verdicts as well.