Lori Vallow Daybell found competent for Arizona trial
Dec 6, 2024, 9:30 AM | Updated: 11:24 am
Lori Vallow Daybell sits during her sentencing hearing at the Fremont County Courthouse in St. Anthony, Idaho, Monday, July 31, 2023. Idaho mother Vallow Daybell has been sentenced to life in prison without parole Monday in the murders of her two youngest children and a romantic rival in a case that included bizarre claims that her son and daughter were zombies and that she was a goddess sent to usher in the Biblical apocalypse. (Tony Blakeslee/EastIdahoNews.com via AP, Pool)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(Tony Blakeslee/EastIdahoNews.com via AP, Pool)
PHOENIX, Ariz. — Lori Vallow Daybell, already serving a life sentence for her role in the murders of her children and her husband’s late first wife in Idaho, has been found competent to stand trial in Arizona in a different case.
The finding Thursday puts the case on track for a trial date. According to KSL Legal Analyst Greg Skordas, it will likely be in spring or early summer.
Competency, he told KSL NewsRadio Friday, does not necessarily mean one suffers from no mental illness.
“It’s not the competency that you might expect, ‘Was she competent to commit the crime?’ or ‘Was she insane?’ or something like that,” he said. “It’s her ability to assist counsel and understand the proceedings at an upcoming trial in Arizona.”
Vallow Daybell Arizona trial
Lori Vallow Daybell’s first trial centered on the murders of her children, JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan, as well as Tammy Daybell, the late first wife of Vallow Daybell’s fifth husband.
In Arizona, she faces felony charges of conspiracy to commit the murder of her fourth husband, Charles Vallow. She also faces a charge of conspiracy in the attempted murder of the spouse of her husband’s niece.
Vallow Daybell’s brother shot and killed Charles Vallow in 2019, claiming self-defense. Prosecutors want to prove it was part of a scheme to allow her to marry Chad Daybell. She could face another life in prison sentence if convicted.
“The case in Arizona is a first-degree felony case like the one in Idaho,” Skordas said. “In Idaho, they took the death penalty off the table and Arizona doesn’t seem to be seeking the death penalty itself for their trial.”
Vallow Daybell’s competency was also at issue in her Idaho trial, which was delayed while she was treated and evaluated.
JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan disappeared in the fall of 2019. Their remains were discovered almost a year later on property belonging to Chad Daybell in Idaho. Chad Daybell was sentenced to death for their murders and that of his first wife, Tammy Daybell, also in 2019.
Becky Bruce is the news director for KSL NewsRadio.
