Lori Daybell, the mother found guilty of having murdered two of her children in a so-called conspiracy of the Doomsday, delivered her closing argument on Monday during her last trial in Arizona, where she is accused of conspiracy with her brother to kill her fourth husband.
Nicknamed the “Mom Doomsday”, Daybell argued that her brother shot her 13 -year -old husband, Charles Vallow, in self -defense in his home in Chandler, in Arizona, in July 2019. His brother, Alex Cox, died of the natural causes of the months after the shooting.
The prosecutors, on the other hand, said that the shooting was a stratagem for Daybell to get rid of her distant husband so that she can obtain her $ 1 million life insurance and be with her current husband, Chad Daybell, whom she married four months after the shooting. Prosecutors also declared that she had invoked their religious beliefs as a justification for the murder and had given her brother “religious authority” to kill Vallow because they believed that he was possessed by a bad mind that they called “NED”.
Lori Daybell delivers his closing argument during his murder conspiracy trial in Phoenix, April 21, 2025.
Pool via ABC News
Lori Daybell, 51, was represented in the Phoenix trial. She pleaded not guilty of conspiracy in order to commit a first degree murder.
During her closing argument of almost 20 minutes, she told the jurors that the shooting was not a premeditated murder but a “tragic family event”.
“This event was neither planned nor expected. It was shocking,” she said.
She argued that the police neglected to conduct an in -depth investigation, although she also declared that the Chandler police service “had dealt with this event as it was: self -defense”.
“It is an attempt by the state to try to renovate a crime that does not exist,” she said.
Daybell also urged the jurors to look at all his police interview led after the shooting, part of which was shown during the trial.
The judge underwent several objections during his closing argument after referring to testimonies which had not been put into proof during the trial.
During his closing argument nearly two hours on Monday, the deputy prosecutor of Maricopa County, Treena Kay, said that evidence on the scene show that Vallow was not killed in self -defense, but that he had been “executed” and that the scene “organized”.
She started by telling SMS sent from Lori Daybell to her husband, Chad, seven days after Vallow’s death, chatting with her husband’s life insurance police now. Kay said that learning that she was no longer the beneficiary of the plan, the accused sent a message to Chad that “Ned” probably changed it “before getting rid of him”.
“Her words tell us that she was involved in this murder, actions and words to send SMS to Chad Daybell tell us the motivations behind this murder – Chad and money,” Kay told jurors.
The prosecutor also revised the testimony of the witnesses who said spoke to what she called Lori Daybell and the “twisted religious beliefs” of Alex Cox and a text message that the defendant sent days before the deadly shooting which mentioned Nephi, a prophet in the book of Mormon whom God ordered to kill Laban.
“Lori Vallow wanted a million dollars, and she wanted Chad Daybell, and she and Alex used the twisted religious beliefs they had so that they could kill evil, have Charles and” be like Nephi “,” said Kay.
The assistant lawyer of the county of Maricopa, Treena Kay, delivers her closing argument in Phoenix, April 21, 2025.
Pool via ABC News
Kay said that Alex Cox came to his sister’s home with a busy pistol, “ready for his mission” and shot twice on Vallow. She argued that the evidence shows that the second blow was fired while Vallow was lying on the ground.
“It is a premeditated murder in the first degree, no matter what you believe before that,” said Kay.
DayBell has countered in its closure that nephi “means strong faith, perseverance and courage”.
“The state’s attempt to misinterpret the positive text message on a wonderful religious figure, nephi, and try to transform them into order to kill someone is absurd,” she said.
Kay informed the jurors that even if you don’t hear someone to speak explicitly about conspiracy, “a plot can be deduced from the circumstances showing a common criminal objective”.
In this case, driving has deduced an “conspiracy of Alex coming with his weapon to shoot and kill Charles”, she said.
The jury now deliberated the verdict.
For two weeks, the state called more than a dozen witnesses, including Daybell’s other brother, Adam Cox, who testified that he had “without any doubt” his two brothers and sisters conspired to kill Vallow by learning that his brother had shot him.
Daybell did not call any witness in the trial and did not take a stand in his own defense.
In his counter-examination, Daybell tried to question the thoroughness of the police investigation on the shooting. She asked several witnesses, including her brother Adam Cox, if they saw her personally conspire with her brother Alex Cox to assassinate her husband, to whom they answered no.
Throughout the trial, the judge has often supported frequent objections of prosecution in relation to the questions of Daybell to testify, hearing, relevance and speculation.
After the State rested its file on April 16, Daybell presented a acquittal request due to insufficient evidence. The judge denied it, saying that the court concludes that there is sufficient evidence that a reasonable juror could make it guilty.
Lori Vallow Daybell is during his condemnation audience at the Palais de Justice of the County of Fremont in St. Anthony, Idaho, on July 31, 2023.
Tony blakeslee eastidahonews.com/pool via ap
Lori and Chad Daybell were found guilty of first -degree murder for the death of his children, Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 16, who disappeared from months after the death of Vallow. In two separate trials in 2023 and 2024, the prosecutors argued that the couple thought that the children had zombies and murdered them so that they could be together. The leftover for children were found on a property of Idaho belonging to Daybell in June 2020 following a search of several months.
Lori Daybell is currently serving for life without parole for the murders of her two children. She denied having killed them.
Chad Daybell was sentenced to death after being found guilty of the murder of the two children, as well as his first wife, Tamara Daybell, and is now awaiting the execution of the death corridor of Idaho.
