Doomsday mom Lori Vallow’s lawyers are calling for a new trial after less than two weeks
Lawyers for doomsday cult mom Lori Vallow are calling for a new trial less than two weeks after she was convicted of murdering her two children.
Vallow was convicted on May 12 of the 2019 murders of JJ Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 16, after becoming obsessed with ideas of an impending apocalypse.
The high-profile nature of the trial prompted her defense to appeal — arguing that the jury may have been biased by information they heard outside of the courtroom.
In an interview after finding Vallow guilty, one of the jurors admitted to a local news outlet that “he was aware of evidence that was not presented to the jury,” the jury said. fox13.
Lori Vallow heard her guilty verdict at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho on May 12, 2023
The bodies of JJ Vallow (left) and Tylee Ryan (right) were discovered in June 2020, ten months after they were last seen alive
Vallow is currently being held at Madison County Jail in Rexburg, Idaho, awaiting sentencing. She is then expected to be extradited to Arizona to face a separate conspiracy charge in the death of her ex-husband Charles Vallow.
He was shot and killed in July 2019 by Vallow’s brother Alex Cox, in what was initially believed to be a self-defense shooting.
In their request for a new trial, the defense quoted a quote from the juror’s interview, saying that the Phoenix Police Department had “some major red flags, if they had been acted on, you know, maybe we’re not here . ‘
When asked if they meant bodycam footage from a previous exchange with police at the Charles Vallow shooting, the juror reportedly nodded.
The juror added that they had been told that the evidence from the Charles Vallow case was being presented “for demonstrative purposes only.”
This is disputed by Vallow’s attorneys, who claim it was “evidence to show any other reason than bad character.”
Vallow is currently awaiting extradition to Arizona on a separate charge of conspiracy to commit murder. She is pictured in her booking photo after her plea of guilty
Doomsday fantasist Chad Daybell (pictured) faces his own murder trial after the children’s bodies are discovered in his backyard
Vallow will be extradited on conspiracy charges in the 2020 death of her husband Charles Vallow, who was shot by her brother Alex Cox
The Key People in Lori Vallow’s Complicated Family Tree, Including Her Five Husbands, Two Dead Children, and Murderous Brother
Charles Vallow’s statements to law enforcement officials were not part of the evidence presented in this case. The juror and reporter refer to it, but it has not been presented to the court,” the motion reads.
“We can only conclude that the juror relied on information not presented in court to reach his conclusion that Arizona dropped the ball and should have done more even before Charles Vallow was shot and killed by Alex Cox. ‘
Vallow was also convicted of conspiracy to murder the wife of Chad Daybell, a doomsday fantasy author who married Vallow shortly after her children were last seen. He is currently awaiting trial on his own murder charge.
However, lawyers argued that Vallow’s conspiracy conviction could also be problematic, as it involved Chad Daybell, Alex Cox and “other co-conspirators, both known and unknown.”
The appeal argues that the court only allowed the jury to consider two people, which they say changed the definition of conspiracy from the grand jury trial to the jury trial.
The murder trial was marked with poignant footage of the remains of JJ Vallow (left) and Tylee Ryan (right)
Police discovered JJ and Tylee’s remains in a burn at Chad Daybell’s home in Salem, Idaho in 2020
The bizarre case attracted national attention in 2019 after Vallow’s children disappeared.
It was another nine months before their bodies were discovered in shallow graves in Chad Daybell’s backyard.
JJ was suffocated with a plastic bag, while Tylee’s corpse was so badly burned and dismembered that it’s still not clear how she was killed.
At her blockbuster trial, the state argued that Vallow was motivated by “money, power, and sex,” and that she used all three of those things to achieve her twisted goals.
Jurors heard how they saw her children and Daybell’s wife as “obstacles” to the romantic life they envisioned for themselves in Hawaii.
Prosecutors said Vallow and Daybell believed — or chose to believe — that those who stood in their way were “dark” possessed individuals they called “zombies.”
After JJ and Tylee’s disappearance, authorities began looking into all deaths associated with the couple, including Daybell’s wife Tammy.
She was still with the doomsday author when he met Vallow, before she passed away suddenly in October 2019.
Her death was initially ruled a result of natural causes and Daybell declined an autopsy.
When attention turned to him and Vallow during the disappearance of her children, she was exhumed and presumed to have died of asphyxia.
Tammy Daybell died in October 2019 under mysterious circumstances, with Vallow also found guilty of conspiracy in her murder
Vallow’s murder trial was marked by harrowing footage of the murders of JJ and Tylee, prompting audible gasps that erupted throughout the courtroom.
Jurors were shown photos of JJ’s body wrapped in garbage bags and duct tape – the tape tied his arms in front of him and wrapped around his head. He had suffocated in a plastic bag.
Tylee’s remains were found in a backyard fire pit, and prosecutors described her as a “mass of bone and tissue.”
The teen’s DNA was later found on a pick and shovel in a shed on the property.