Woman who conspired to kill her 2 children can be tried in the death of her estranged husband

By The Associated Press

FILE - Lori Vallow Daybell sits during her sentencing hearing at the Fremont County Courthouse in St. Anthony, Idaho, July 31, 2023. (Tony Blakeslee via AP Pool, File)[ASSOCIATED PRESS/Tony Blakeslee]

PHOENIX (AP) — A woman convicted of conspiring to kill her two youngest children and another woman was found competent on Thursday to stand trial on additional charges.

Two court-appointed doctors in Arizona deemed Lori Vallow Daybell fit to face charges of conspiring to kill her estranged husband, Charles Vallow, and a niece’s ex-spouse. She has already been sentenced to life in prison in Idaho for conspiring in the deaths of 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and Tammy Daybell.

Vallow Daybell’s fourth husband, Charles Vallow, was shot and killed in 2019 by Vallow Daybell’s brother, who told police he acted in self-defense and was never charged.

Vallow Daybell was already in a relationship with Chad Daybell, a self-published writer of doomsday-focused fiction loosely based on Mormon teachings. She moved from Phoenix to Idaho to be closer to him.

Chad Daybell became Vallow Daybell’s fifth husband and was later sentenced to death for the murders of both children and his then-wife, Tammy Daybell.

Prosecutors in the Idaho case called dozens of witnesses to bolster their claims that Chad Daybell and Vallow Daybell conspired to kill the two children and Tammy Daybell to eliminate any obstacles to their relationship and for the survivor benefits and life insurance.

Prosecutors say the couple justified the killings by creating an apocalyptic belief system that people could be possessed by evil spirits and turned into “zombies,” and that the only way to save a possessed person’s soul was for the possessed body to die. A Maricopa County Superior Court judge tentatively set Vallow Daybell’s trial for Feb. 24. ___ This story has been corrected to show the spelling of the last names of the accused are Daybell, not Daywell.