Lori Daybell, the mom convicted of murdering two of her youngsters in a so-called doomsday plot, delivered her closing argument Monday throughout her newest trial in Arizona, the place she is charged with conspiring along with her brother to kill her fourth husband.
Dubbed the “doomsday mother,” Daybell has maintained that her brother shot her then-husband of 13 years, Charles Vallow, in self-defense in her residence in Chandler, Arizona, in July 2019. Her brother, Alex Cox, died from pure causes months after the taking pictures.
Prosecutors, in the meantime, stated the taking pictures was a ploy for Daybell to do away with her estranged husband in order that she may get his $1 million life insurance coverage coverage and be along with her present husband, Chad Daybell, whom she married 4 months after the taking pictures. Prosecutors additional stated she invoked their spiritual beliefs as justification for the homicide and gave her brother “spiritual authority” to kill Vallow as a result of they believed he was possessed by an evil spirit they known as “Ned.”
Lori Daybell delivers her closing argument throughout her homicide conspiracy trial in Phoenix, April 21, 2025.
Pool through ABC Information
Lori Daybell, 51, represented herself within the Phoenix trial. She has pleaded not responsible to conspiracy to commit first-degree homicide.
Throughout her practically 20-minute closing argument, she advised jurors the taking pictures was not a premeditated homicide however a “tragic household occasion.”
“This occasion was not deliberate or anticipated. It was stunning,” she stated.
She argued that officers uncared for to conduct an intensive investigation, although she additionally stated the Chandler Police Division “did deal with this occasion identical to it was: self-defense.”
“That is an try by the state to attempt to retrofit a criminal offense that does not exist,” she stated.
Daybell additionally urged the jurors to observe her whole police interview performed after the taking pictures, a part of which was proven in the course of the trial.
The decide sustained a number of objections throughout her closing argument after she referred to testimony that had not been entered into proof in the course of the trial.
Throughout her practically two-hour closing argument on Monday, Maricopa County Deputy Prosecuting Legal professional Treena Kay stated the proof on the scene reveals that Vallow was not shot in self-defense, however was “executed” and the scene “staged.”
She started by recounting textual content messages despatched from Lori Daybell to her husband, Chad, seven days after Vallow was killed, discussing her now-deceased husband’s life insurance coverage coverage. Kay stated that, upon studying she was now not the beneficiary of the plan, the defendant messaged Chad that “Ned” in all probability modified it “earlier than we removed him.”
“Her phrases inform us that she was concerned on this killing, her actions and her phrases of texting Chad Daybell inform us the motives behind this homicide — Chad and cash,” Kay advised jurors.
The prosecutor additionally revisited witness testimony that she stated spoke to what she referred to as Lori Daybell and Alex Cox’s “twisted spiritual beliefs” and a textual content message the defendant despatched her brother days earlier than the lethal taking pictures that talked about Nephi, a prophet within the E book of Mormon who God commanded to kill Laban.
“Lori Vallow needed the million {dollars}, and she or he needed Chad Daybell, and she or he and Alex used that twisted spiritual beliefs that they had in order that they might kill the evil, possessed Charles and ‘be like Nephi,'” Kay stated.
Maricopa County Deputy Prosecuting Legal professional Treena Kay delivers her closing argument in Phoenix, April 21, 2025.
Pool through ABC Information
Kay stated Alex Cox confirmed up at his sister’s residence with a loaded gun, “prepared for his mission,” and shot Vallow twice. She argued that the proof reveals the second shot was fired whereas Vallow was mendacity on the bottom.
“That’s premeditated first-degree homicide, it doesn’t matter what you consider earlier than that,” Kay stated.
Daybell countered in her closing that Nephi “signifies robust religion, perseverance and braveness.”
“The state’s try to misconstrue the optimistic textual content message a few fantastic spiritual determine, Nephi, and attempt to flip it into an order to kill somebody is absurd,” she stated.
Kay suggested jurors that even if you happen to do not hear somebody explicitly discuss conspiring, “a conspiracy could also be inferred from circumstances exhibiting a standard legal goal.”
On this case, the conduct inferred a “conspiracy of Alex coming over together with his gun to shoot and kill Charles,” she stated.
The jury is now deliberating the decision.
Over two weeks, the state referred to as greater than a dozen witnesses, together with Daybell’s different brother, Adam Cox, who testified that he had “little doubt” his two siblings conspired to kill Vallow upon studying that his brother had fatally shot him.
Daybell didn’t name any witnesses within the trial and didn’t take the stand in her personal protection.
In her cross-examination, Daybell tried to query the thoroughness of the police investigation into the taking pictures. She requested a number of witnesses, together with her brother Adam Cox, in the event that they personally noticed her conspire along with her brother Alex Cox to homicide her husband, to which they responded no.
All through the trial, the decide typically sustained frequent objections from the prosecution over Daybell’s questions for testifying, rumour, relevance and hypothesis.
After the state rested its case on April 16, Daybell introduced a movement for acquittal as a consequence of inadequate proof. The decide denied it, saying the court docket finds there’s enough proof {that a} cheap juror may discover her responsible.
Lori Vallow Daybell sits throughout her sentencing listening to on the Fremont County Courthouse in St. Anthony, Idaho, July 31, 2023.
Tony Blakeslee EastIdahoNews.com/Pool through AP
Each Lori and Chad Daybell have been discovered responsible of first-degree homicide for the deaths of her youngsters, Joshua “J.J.” Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 16, who went lacking months after Vallow was killed. In two separate trials in 2023 and 2024, prosecutors argued that the couple thought the youngsters have been possessed zombies and murdered them in order that they might be collectively. The kids’s stays have been discovered on an Idaho property belonging to Daybell in June 2020 following a monthslong search.
Lori Daybell is at present serving life in jail with out parole for the murders of her two youngsters. She has denied killing them.
Chad Daybell was sentenced to loss of life after being convicted of murdering the 2 youngsters, in addition to his first spouse, Tamara Daybell, and now awaits execution on Idaho’s loss of life row.
