Cult mom and convicted child killer Lori Vallow’s Arizona trial suddenly delayed one month before start

Lori Vallow’s Arizona trial has been delayed until February 2025 to give the defense for the “Doomsday cult mom” more time to review the “substantial” discovery in the case.

A Maricopa County judge granted the defense’ earlier motion during a Tuesday status hearing to push the trial from its original date of August 1 to February 25, 2025.

Vallow, who was found guilty in Idaho last year of killing her two youngest kids, Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow, is also accused of conspiring to murder her fourth husband Charles Vallow in 2019 and conspiring on the attempted murder of her niece’s ex-husband Brandon Boudreaux.

Boudreaux and his wife were in the courtroom for the hearing on Tuesday, Fox10’s Justin Lum reported. Charles Vallow’s sister, Kay Woodcock, was also present for the hearing.

Public defender Gerald Bradley confirmed to Judge Justin Beresky that Vallow does not want to waive speedy trial rights. In the motion, he wrote that “continuance is necessary to provide her competent representation at trial.” Vallow was in the courtroom briefly before she waived her appearance and was escorted back to jail.

Bradley argued in the motion the discovery in the case against Vallow, which includes substantial body camera footage, videos and expert evidence, is one of the most voluminous the team has ever come across with over 100,000 pages to review.

Charles’ death was the first step in a wider plot by Vallow and her current husband, alleged cult leader Chad Daybell, to rid their lives of “obstacles” as they termed their spouses and her children, according to text message evidence presented at her trial last year for the murders of JJ and Tylee.

In May 2023, Lori was found guilty of the children’s murders and of conspiring to kill her husband’s former wife, Tammy Daybell. She was sentenced to three life terms.

A year later, Chad Daybell was sentenced to death after an Idaho jury found him guilty of the same three murders. The children were found buried in Daybell’s Rexburg, Idaho, backyard in June 2020, nine months after they went missing. Daybell’s house was on the market for $350,000.

Now, the spotlight has shifted to Arizona, the site of an earlier chapter in the trail of death allegedly left by the couple during their plunge into dangerous Doomsday beliefs.

In 2006, Vallow married her third husband, Charles, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Her third husband, Tylee’s father, who she had been divorced from for a few years, had just died of a heart attack months ealirer. Vallow and Charles lived in Arizona and later adopted Joshua Jaxon “JJ” Vallow.

But by 2019, that marriage had also soured. Charles filed for divorce, contending in court papers that Vallow also believed herself to be a deity tasked with helping to usher in the Biblical apocalypse.

In July 2019, Charles went to Vallow’s home in Chandler, Arizona, for a custody exchange that turned deadly when he was shot by her brother, Alex Cox.

Cox told police he acted in self-defense, and he was never charged. He died suddenly at the age of 51 on December 11, 2019 – hours after Tammy Daybell’s body was exhumed.

Now, years later, Vallow will be tried in two separate cases in Arizona on two counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, according to indictments unsealed shortly after her extradition from Idaho to Arizona.

In one case, court records show that Vallow, along with her brother, are accused of conspiring to kill Charles. In the months leading up to his death, Charles told local police he was concerned that Vallow may hurt him or their children.

In the second case, Vallow and Cox are accused of trying to kill her niece’s ex-husband, Brandon Boudreaux, outside his home in Gilbert in October 2019. He survived the drive-by shooting.

A grand jury indicted Vallow on the conspiracy charges for Charles’ death in 2021. However, she had to face charges for the deaths of her kids and Tammy Daybell in Idaho before she could face a judge in Arizona.

Vallow is not able to bond out of jail because she is in Arizona on extradition warrants. After both cases are done in Maricopa County, she’ll have to go back to Idaho to continue serving her life sentences.