Lori Vallow Daybell, widely known as the "Doomsday cult mom," is seeking to represent herself in her upcoming Arizona trial, where she faces charges related to the death of her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, and the attempted murder of her niece’s ex-husband, Brandon Boudreaux. According to court documents, Vallow Daybell filed her request to waive her right to legal counsel on October 16, followed by a motion from her public defender on October 21 to withdraw from the case. However, the judge has postponed making a final decision on Vallow Daybell’s request until she completes a competency evaluation under Arizona's Rule 11 process, which will determine her mental fitness to represent herself in court.
This isn’t Vallow Daybell’s first encounter with mental health evaluations. In February 2023, a psychiatric assessment revealed that she suffers from a “delusional disorder” strongly associated with “hyper-religiosity” and has an “unspecified personality disorder with narcissistic features.” This diagnosis followed nearly nine months spent in an Idaho state mental hospital to restore her competency before her Idaho murder trial, where she was ultimately deemed mentally fit to stand trial. Her case’s frequent delays and unusual twists have kept it in the national spotlight.
During her Idaho trial, where she was convicted of murdering her two youngest children, Tylee Ryan and Joshua "JJ" Vallow, along with Tammy Daybell, the former wife of her fifth husband, Chad Daybell, prosecutors presented evidence of the couple’s extreme religious beliefs. Testimonies highlighted their shared ideology of "light" and "dark" souls, in which they allegedly believed certain individuals could be “dark souls” possessed by malevolent entities they referred to as “zombies.” Prosecutors argued that these beliefs fueled the pair's actions, asserting that Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell killed to remove “dark” souls from their lives, paving the way for their future together.
Chad Daybell, a self-published author of apocalyptic fiction, is currently on death row following his conviction for the same murders in June. Their intertwined beliefs and relationship reportedly began as an affair while both were active in a “Doomsday cult” that held apocalyptic and extreme religious views. The prosecution in Idaho argued that Vallow Daybell and Daybell used these beliefs to justify their heinous acts, leading to an intense media frenzy and public intrigue around the case.
Further adding to the intrigue, a recently released phone call between Vallow Daybell and her oldest son, Colby Ryan, shows her denying responsibility for her children’s deaths. In the call, Vallow Daybell claimed that her daughter, Tylee, accidentally killed JJ and then took her own life. “What if Tylee was holding JJ down and trying to get him not to scream and be loud in an apartment? What if she held him down too long and realized afterward what she had done?” she told Ryan, who responded with shock to his mother’s assertions. Vallow Daybell also claimed to have “run out” of the apartment upon finding her children dead, suggesting that someone else disposed of their bodies.
“I wasn’t aware what happened to them after I left that scene,” she added. “Their spirits were gone from their bodies. They were already in heaven.”
The Arizona trial, initially scheduled for February 24, 2025, now hinges on Vallow Daybell’s upcoming mental health evaluation, which will determine if she is fit to represent herself in court. Vallow Daybell, already serving a life sentence without parole in Idaho, continues to captivate public interest as her legal proceedings unfold, marked by extreme religious beliefs, chilling statements, and mounting legal battles.
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