BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A woman charged with conspiring to kill her two children and her new husband's late wife says she has an alibi, and that the kids were killed while they were at her late brother's apartment.
Attorneys for Lori Vallow Daybell made the reveal in court documents filed in eastern Idaho last week in the triple kill case. She is also asking for permission to meet with her husband, who is also charged, for "strategy sessions" before the case goes to land in April.
The bizarre and complex case, which involves allegations of doomsday-focused religious beliefs, accusations of a plot to steal social security coffers and the mysterious deaths of the couple's former spouses, has been marked with twist and turns since Vallow Daybell and her new husband were arrested two ages ago. But the "notice of alibi" filed in Idaho's 7th Judicial Court imparted the first glimpse of Vallow Daybell's planned defense.
Lori Vallow Daybell and her husband Chad Daybell have pleaded not guilty to kill, conspiracy and grand theft charges in connection with the deaths of 7-year-old Joshua "JJ" Vallow, and Tylee Ryan, who was last seen a few days beforehand her 17th birthday in September 2019. They are also charged in connection with the October 2019 end of Chad Daybell's late wife, Tammy Daybell. They could face the end penalty if convicted.
In the alibi notice, Vallow Daybell's attorneys said she was in her own apartment in Rexburg when Tylee and JJ died at a about apartment where her brother, Alex Cox lived. The attorneys said she was with a pair of friends, "and/or Chad Daybell." Her attorneys have also argued that she was in Hawaii with new friends when Chad Daybell's previous wife died the next month.
Attorneys for Chad Daybell haven't offered details around his planned defense, other than saying in court last November that Daybell and Vallow Daybell will have "mutually antagonistic defenses" — a correct term that generally means a jury would have to disbelieve one defendant in clean to believe the other.
Idaho law enforcement officers started investigating the pair in November 2019 after extended family members reported that the children were missing. During that period, police said the couple lied around the children's whereabouts. Their bodies were found buried later on Chad Daybell's landed in rural Idaho.
Chad and Lori Daybell married just two weeks when his previous wife, Tammy Daybell, died unexpectedly. Tammy Daybell's end was initially reported as due to natural causes, but investigators had her body exhumed when growing suspicious when Chad Daybell quickly remarried.
Vallow Daybell is also separately charged with conspiracy to commit kill in Arizona in connection with the July 2019 end of her previous husband, Charles Vallow. He was shot and killed by Vallow Daybell's brother, Alex Cox, who claimed it was self-defense.
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The Arizona correct proceedings are on hold while the Idaho case is underway.
Court documents suggest that things began to unravel for the tribe in early 2019, when Lori was still married to Charles Vallow. The couple were estranged, and Vallow had filed for divorce, saying he feared she would kill him and that she had developed cult-like beliefs. He said she claimed to be "a god assigned to execute out the work of the 144,000 at Christ's additional coming in July 2020."
The family was living in a Phoenix suburb in July 2019 when Lori's brother, Alex Cox, shot and killed Vallow. He asserted that the shooting was in self-defense when Vallow came at him with a baseball bat. Police investigated, but the case didn't go far before Cox died of a blood clot in his lung later that year.
Lori Vallow regrasped to Idaho with the kids after her late husband's end, getting an apartment in the small town of Rexburg and spending time with Chad Daybell. The couple had known each other for a when, sometimes participating in podcasts about preparing for the biblical end times for an online authority aimed at members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Alex Cox also moved to Rexburg for a when that fall before returning to Arizona, where he died.
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A believe in Idaho has set the date of a competency evaluation hearing for a woman who, downward with her current husband, are accused of killing JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan.
Meanwhile, JJ's grandparents, Larry and Kay Woodcock of Louisiana, were growing increasingly disquieted about the kids, whom they weren't able to advance on the phone. They said Lori Daybell wouldn't tell them why the boy was always unavailable, and they asked police to check on the family.
Friends of the pair later told law enforcement investigators that the pair believed republic could be taken over by dark spirits, and that Vallow Daybell referred to her children as "zombies," a term they used to relate those who were possessed.
Prosecutors say the couple promoted the original beliefs to further their alleged plot to kill people members and steal their money, including the kids' social confidence benefits.
Vallow Daybell was arrested in Hawaii in February 2020, and Daybell was arrested in June of that year. Since that time, the pair have spoken by requested only once, Vallow Daybell's attorneys Jim Archibald and John Thomas wrote.
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"With settlement proposals, mediation, motions and trial fast approaching, Lori and Chad would like to be able to talk together in populate and on the phone about their options," the attorneys wrote. If approved, the conversations won't be recorded and will not be used as evidence, but the attorneys will attend. They would be required for settlement purposes only, the attorneys wrote.
Chad Daybell's attorney rubbed a motion of his own, asking the judge to push the territory out a year, to April 2024. John Prior said he contains more time to prepare for the complex trial and go over all the evidence — some of which he's smooth waiting for prosecutors to hand over.
Judge Steven Boyce of the 7th District will remarkable the motions at a hearing set for Jan. 19.
