BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A woman sentenced to life in prison in the murders of her two youngest children and a woman she saw as a romantic rival says she will appeal her conviction to the Idaho Supreme Court.
Attorneys for Lori Vallow Daybell filed a notice of appeal last week. She will ask the Idaho Supreme Court to consider several issues, including whether the judge in her case wrongly found her competent to stand trial. The judge had ordered Vallow Daybell to undergo mental health treatment. She spent roughly 10 months in a mental hospital before he declared her competent.
She'll also argue that her right to a speedy trial was violated and that there were problems with jury selection, evidence and other procedural issues, the documents show.
The criminal case against Vallow Daybell, 50, was complex and included claims that she called her son and daughter zombies and believed she was a goddess tasked with ushering in an apocalypse.
A jury found Vallow Daybell guilty in May of killing her two youngest children, 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, as well as conspiring to kill Tammy Daybell, her fifth husband’s previous wife. A judge gave her three life sentences.
Her husband, Chad Daybell, is awaiting trial on the same murder charges.
Vallow Daybell is also charged with crimes in Arizona. She's charged with conspiring with her brother to kill her fourth husband, who was shot and killed in 2019, and of conspiring to kill her niece’s ex-husband. Her niece’s ex survived a murder attempt later that year. Vallow Daybell has not yet entered a plea on the Arizona charges.
