Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Lori Vallow Daybell was found guilty of conspiring to murder her husband.
- She faces another trial in June on the charge that she conspired to kill her niece's husband Brandon Boudreaux.
- Daybell is serving five life sentences for previous murder convictions in Idaho.
SALT LAKE CITY — Lori Vallow Daybell was found guilty on Tuesday of conspiring to murder her estranged husband.
Daybell, who represented herself in the proceedings, denied she played a part in the murder of Charles Vallow, 62, for life insurance money.
In 2019, Alex Cox, Daybell's brother, killed Vallow and later said he acted in self-defense. Cox died of a blood clot a year later and was never charged in the death.
When will Lori Daybell be sentenced?
Daybell asked to be sentenced after her second trial in Arizona.
She is going on trial again in June for a charge of conspiring to murder Brandon Boudreaux, her niece's husband. Boudreaux alleged that someone drove by his home in Gilbert, Arizona, and shot at him. He survived the incident. Daybell has pleaded not guilty.
Boudreaux released a statement to East Idaho News in reaction to the verdict.
"We are grateful to the state of Arizona. Charles deserved to have this small sliver of justice. His family and all of us who love him grieve the loss of him in this life. We wish you all could have known him," he said.
What happened during Lori Daybell's trial in Arizona?
Daybell did not call any witnesses to the stand and repeatedly argued that the evidence showed a "family tragedy" and "not a crime."
"A two-minute period changed our lives forever," Daybell said. "How can you choose between three people you love: your husband, your daughter, your brother?"
But the prosecutors labeled it "premeditated execution."
"Charles was on the ground when Cox fired that second shot," prosecutor Treena Kay said. "The injuries to Charles, the location of the bullet strikes, the trajectory of the injuries, both in Charles and in the house: All show this was not self-defense. This was a staged murder scene."
One juror told NBC affiliate KPNX of Phoenix that Daybell was "smiling and laughing" during the trial "and didn't seem to take anything very seriously."
She is serving five life sentences without parole after being found guilty in Idaho for the murder of her children, Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow, and Chad Daybell's then-wife, Tammy Daybell.
Chad Daybell was found guilty of the same crimes in May 2024. He was sentenced to death.
Lori Daybell and Chad Daybell's families react
The jury heard from Adam Cox, Daybell's surviving brother, and Kay Woodcock, Vallow's younger sister, both of whom asserted that Lori Daybell and Chad Daybell killed Charles Vallow.
Cox painted Charles Vallow as desperate to "shake Lori loose of whatever she was under, some spell." Lori Daybell developed strange beliefs, according to her brother.
"Lori had told people that Charles was no longer living, that some guy named Ned was inside of his body, that there's a zombie living inside of him. And didn't respond to any of my text messages when I was supposed to be with him, and he was at that house that morning. Lori talking crazy about how she's a translated being — all these things all added up into that moment and that morning," Adam Cox testified.
