Lori Vallow breaks down in tears at fourth husband’s homicide trial as she argues ‘a family tragedy is not a crime’ | EUROtoday

Lori Vallow Daybell, the “Doomsday mom” who was convicted of killing her kids in Idaho, returned to courtroom to as soon as once more face a jury – this time in Arizona on fees of conspiring to homicide her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, again in 2019.

Prosecutors mentioned throughout opening statements on Monday that the 51-year-old conspired to hold out the killing in order that she may transfer ahead with marrying Chad Daybell, an Idaho writer who wrote spiritual novels about prophecies and the tip of the world.

But Vallow Daybell, who’s representing herself on the new trial, broke down in tears whereas giving her opening statements as she painted Charles because the aggressor in an incident that led to his dying during which he, at one level, chased her with a bat.

“Spouses having insurance policies is not a crime. Collecting Social Security is not a crime. Self-defense is not a crime,” Vallow Daybell advised the jury. “A family tragedy is not a crime – it’s a tragedy.”

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Charles’ dying was step one in a wider plot by Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell to rid their lives of “obstacles,” which means their spouses and her kids, in response to textual content message proof offered at her 2023 trial for the murders of her kids Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow, together with the dying of Daybell’s first spouse, Tammy Daybell.

Four months earlier than he died, Charles Vallow filed for divorce from Vallow Daybell, saying she had change into infatuated with near-death experiences and had claimed to have lived quite a few lives on different planets.

He alleged she threatened to destroy him financially and kill him. He sought a voluntary psychological well being analysis of his spouse.

Police say Charles was fatally shot by Vallow Daybell’s brother, Alex Cox, when Charles went to select up his son at Vallow Daybell’s dwelling in Chandler, a Phoenix suburb. Vallow Daybell’s daughter, Tylee, advised police that she confronted Charles with a baseball bat after she was woke up by yelling in the home.

Tylee mentioned she was making an attempt to defend her mom, however Charles took away the bat, in response to police. Cox advised police that he fired after Charles refused to drop the bat and got here after him.

Cox advised investigators that Vallow Daybell and the youngsters left the home shortly earlier than the capturing. Investigators say she went to get quick meals for her son and acquired flip-flops at a pharmacy earlier than returning dwelling.

Cox, who claimed he acted in self-defense and wasn’t arrested in Charles’ dying, died 5 months later from what health workers mentioned was a blood clot in his lungs. Cox’s account was later referred to as into query.

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During Vallow Daybell’s opening statements on Monday, she took the jury again to the evening of Charles’ dying.

She claimed Charles wrestled the baseball bat away from Tylee whereas she was making an attempt to defend her mom and {that a} battle between Charles and Cox led to Charles working after her with the bat.

While she ran exterior along with her daughter, her brother shot Charles in an act of self-defense, Vallow Daybell claimed.

Prior to Vallow Daybell’s opening, prosecutor Treena Kay argued that telephone data, witness testimony and forensic proof will present that Cox’s capturing of Charles was “not self defense.”

“Lori Vallow wanted to be Lori Daybell, wife of Chad Daybell, and in July 2019 Lori Vallow wanted to keep the same lifestyle that she had with Charles. And she could get all of this if Charles was dead,” Kay mentioned. “She could marry Chad Daybell and become Lori Daybell. She would get a million-dollar life insurance policy.”

“Lori Vallow is why Alex was able to shoot Charles,” she mentioned. “Lori Vallow is why Charles is dead.”

Vallow Daybell, who has pleaded not responsible, is already serving three life sentences in Idaho, for her kids’s deaths and for conspiring to kill Tammy Daybell.

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After Charles’ dying in 2019, she moved to Idaho along with her kids, who went lacking in September of that very same yr.

Meanwhile, Chad Daybell referred to as 911 in October 2019 to report that his spouse Tammy Daybell was battling an sickness and died in her sleep. Her physique was later exhumed, and an post-mortem decided she died of asphyxiation.

Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell left city a short while later, finally turning up in Hawaii the place they married with out the youngsters. She was arrested in Hawaii in February 2020 on a warrant out of Idaho.

In June 2020, the youngsters’s our bodies had been discovered buried on Chad Daybell’s property.

A witness on the Idaho trial mentioned Vallow Daybell believes evil spirits have taken over folks in her life and turned them into “zombies.”

In 2024, Chad Daybell was sentenced to dying within the three killings.

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The trial over Charles Vallow’s dying will mark the primary of two felony trials in Arizona for Vallow Daybell.

She’s scheduled to go on trial once more in late May on a cost of conspiring to homicide Brandon Boudreaux, the ex-husband of Vallow Daybell’s niece, Melani Pawlowski.

Someone in a Jeep fired a gunshot at Boudreaux in 2019 exterior his dwelling in a Phoenix suburb, lacking him however placing his automobile. The Jeep matched the outline of 1 registered to Charles Vallow, who was killed almost three months previous to the capturing exterior Boudreaux’s dwelling.

Vallow Daybell has pleaded not responsible. If convicted, she would face a life sentence.