Jury selection begins Monday in Lori Vallow Daybell’s Arizona conspiracy trial
Mar 31, 2025, 2:00 PM
Lori Vallow Daybell sits during her sentencing hearing at the Fremont County Courthouse in St. Anthony, Idaho, July 31, 2023. (Tony Blakeslee/via Associated Press Pool)
(Tony Blakeslee/via Associated Press Pool)
PHOENIX — Jury selection is set to begin Monday for the upcoming trial of Lori Vallow Daybell.
Vallow Daybell has been charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the death of her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, in 2019.
Her late brother, Alex Cox, shot Vallow and told police he acted in self-defense. He was not arrested, and charges were not filed against Vallow Daybell until several years later.
Vallow Daybell is already serving multiple life sentences in Idaho after she was convicted in 2023 of murdering her two youngest children, JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan.
Additionally, she was found guilty of conspiring to murder Tammy Daybell, the first wife of her current husband, Chad Daybell, who’s now on Idaho’s death row for her murder as well as the murders of Vallow Daybell’s children.
The jury selection process
The Arizona court is set to begin screening a pool of potential jurors to see if they can remain impartial if they’re selected for the trial. That will largely be decided by seeing how much knowledge, if any, they have about the case.
KSL NewsRadio spoke with Nate Eaton with East Idaho News, who is in Arizona for the case. He said the court will pick 12 jurors and four alternates.
He said they could be selected as soon as Thursday. And, if so, opening statements could begin Monday.
He said he thinks there is a possibility it could go faster than it did for the jury selection for her Idaho murder trial, namely because Maricopa County is much larger than Ada County.
“In fact, there’s more people in this county than all of Idaho,” Eaton said. “I’ve been here a few days. Everywhere I’ve gone where people ask me why I’m in town, they have not heard of the case.”
Though it is still possible the selection process could take longer, depending on how many potential jurors, if any, need to recuse themselves.
The trial is currently expected to last five to six weeks.
Self-representation
The trial was initially expected to take only two to three weeks, that is, until Vallow Daybell decided she wanted act as her own attorney.
KSL Legal Analyst Greg Skordas said this is normally not a good idea, but it is every American’s right.
“The judge has to make sure that her rights are protected,” Skordas said. “… Usually you would expect her lawyer to do that, but when she doesn’t have a lawyer, the judge has to step in and make sure that the state doesn’t admit evidence that would be objectionable. The judge almost has to help out as her attorney, even if she has what we call standby counsel.”
Related: Camera allowed in courtroom for Lori Vallow Daybell trial
