An Arizona jury has reached a verdict in the latest trial of Lori Daybell, the mother convicted of murdering two of her children in a so-called doomsday plot who is now accused of conspiring with her brother to kill her fourth husband.
The jury was handed the case Monday afternoon before reaching a verdict Tuesday afternoon.
The verdict is expected to be read in 30 minutes.
Lori Vallow Daybell sits during her sentencing hearing at the Fremont County Courthouse in St. Anthony, Idaho, July 31, 2023.
Tony Blakeslee EastIdahoNews.com/Pool via AP
Lori Daybell, 51, represented herself in the Phoenix trial. She did not take the stand or call any witnesses.
Dubbed the “doomsday mom,” Lori Daybell has maintained that her brother shot her then-husband of 13 years, Charles Vallow, in self-defense in her home in Chandler, Arizona, in July 2019. Her brother, Alex Cox, died from natural causes months after the shooting.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, said the shooting was a ploy for Daybell to get rid of her estranged husband so she could get his $1 million life insurance policy and be with her current husband, Chad Daybell, whom she married four months after the shooting. Prosecutors further said she invoked their religious beliefs as justification for the murder and gave her brother “religious authority” to kill Vallow because they believed he was possessed by an evil spirit they referred to as “Ned.”
Lori Daybell pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
Lori Daybell cross-examines her brother, Adam Cox, during her murder trial in Phoenix, Arizona, April 10, 2025.
Pool via ABC News
Both Lori and Chad Daybell were found guilty of first-degree murder for the deaths of her children, Joshua “J.J.” Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 16, who went missing months after Charles Vallow was killed. In separate trials in 2023 and 2024, prosecutors argued the couple thought the children were possessed zombies and murdered them so that they could be together. The children’s remains were found on an Idaho property belonging to Daybell in June 2020 following a monthslong search.
Lori Daybell is currently serving life in prison without parole for the murders of her two children. She has denied killing them.
Chad Daybell was sentenced to death after being convicted of murdering the two children, as well as his first wife, Tamara Daybell, and now awaits execution on Idaho’s death row.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.