Lori Vallow appeals for murder of her two children, claiming she was not fit to stand trial after spending ten months in a mental hospital
Cult mom Lori Vallow has appealed her murder conviction for killing her two children. She claimed she was not fit to get up after spending ten months in a mental hospital.
The 50-year-old Vallow filed an appeal last week. She was found guilty in May of murdering her two youngest children, 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, and conspiring to kill Tammy Daybell, the previous wife of her fifth husband. .
Her husband, Chad Daybell, is awaiting trial on the same murder charge. He is scheduled to stand trial in April 2024.
Vallow also faces two other counts in Arizona: one on charges of conspiring with her brother to kill her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, and one on charges of conspiracy to kill her niece’s ex-husband. Charles Vallow was shot dead in 2019, but her niece’s ex survived an attempt later that year.
Vallow, 50, filed an appeal last week after being convicted of the murder of her two children
Vallow’s attorney Jim Archibald filed an appeal on Thursday included his client’s mental competence, the right to a speedy trial, evidence, and changes to the grand jury’s indictment.
During her sentencing last month, the so-called Doomsday cult mother told the paper court that she communicates with her dead children in heaven, where they are “very happy and busy,” blaming their deaths on “accidents and suicide” before being sentenced to life without parole.
Earlier this year, the judge in her case agreed to her request that the death penalty be taken off the table as punishment for prosecutors who violated a judicial rule during the discovery phase of the trial.
Vallow’s attorney asked for a minimum sentence of 20 years, begging the judge to give her “hope” and claiming that the world would be a better place with “hope.”
The Idaho cult mother told the court she was “friends” of Tammy, who is also “extremely busy in heaven,” and said all three of them regularly visited her. She also claimed that in 2002 she herself died and went to heaven.
“Jesus knows me and Jesus understands me. I grieve with all of you grieving for my children and Tammy,” Vallow said.