‘Doomsday’ mom sentencing: Lori Vallow Daybell says, ‘No one was murdered’

(BOISE, Idaho) — Lori Vallow Daybell is set to be sentenced on Monday for the killing of two of her children in what prosecutors argued was a doomsday plot.

Vallow Daybell, 50, was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder for the 2019 deaths of her children, Joshua “J.J.” Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 16, whose remains were found on an Idaho property belonging to her husband, Chad Daybell, following a monthslong search.

She was also found guilty of conspiring to kill her children and her husband’s first wife, Tamara Daybell, who died on Oct. 19, 2019, less than a month before Lori and Chad married in Hawaii.

She faces up to life in prison without parole. The judge had previously granted the defense’s motion to dismiss the death penalty in the case.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Jul 31, 2:30 PM EDT

Vallow Daybell sentenced to life in prison without parole

Judge Steven Boyce sentenced Lori Vallow Daybell to life in prison without parole.

Boyce mentioned several times that Vallow Daybell “lived a law-abiding life” until this case.

Boyce said Vallow Daybell suffers from mental health issues, adding, “Something radically changed in you that led you to where you are today.”

A mother killing her children is the most “unimaginable type of murder,” he said.

“You had so many other options. … You could have found someone to take care of those kids,” he said. “You killed those children … to remove them as obstacles and to profit financially.”

The judge noted, although Vallow Daybell was convicted, she in court on Monday denied committing the murders.

The judge said he doesn’t think she’s shown any remorse for the crimes or for those who searched for her children while they were missing.

Jul 31, 1:59 PM EDT

Lori Vallow Daybell: ‘No one was murdered’

Lori Vallow Daybell spoke at sentencing, and started by quoting a Bible verse.

She then said, “Jesus knows me and Jesus understands me. I mourn with all of you who mourn my children and Tammy.”

She continued, “Jesus Christ knows the truth of what happened here. … No one was murdered in this case. Accidental deaths happen. Suicides happen. Fatal side effects from medications happen.”

Jul 31, 1:50 PM EDT

Defense: ‘Lori’s a very misunderstood person’

Lori Vallow Daybell’s defense attorney, John Thomas, said to the court, “We need peace to replace the hurt. And that peace and that healing will only come about by love and compassion.”

“Lori, if she could speak to each one of those people who have been hurt by this case … her message would be one of love,” Thomas said.

Vallow Daybell was given the opportunity to give her own statement in court but she has not spoken at this point.

“Lori’s a very misunderstood person,” Thomas said, describing her as kind, loving and caring.

“She was a great mother to her kids,” he said. “She has redeeming values.”

Thomas added, “There’s a lot of confusion and there’s a lot of misunderstanding about how this ultimately came to pass.”

Jul 31, 12:32 PM EDT

Prosecutor: ‘There’s no rehabilitation possible’

A statement was read in court on behalf of Vallow Daybell’s only surviving child, Colby Ryan.

“Tylee and J.J. brought so much light into this world,” Ryan said. “My girls will never have a chance to know them.”

“I want them to be remembered for who they were,” he said.

“Tylee was sweet and kind, funny and bold,” Ryan said, while J.J. was “the most fun, sweet and silly kid I’ve ever known.”

“I pray for healing for everyone involved, including those who took the lives of all the ones we loved,” he said.

Jul 31, 12:22 PM EDT

Vallow Daybell’s son: ‘I pray for healing’

A statement was read in court on behalf of Vallow Daybell’s only surviving child, Colby Ryan.

“Tylee and J.J. brought so much light into this world,” Ryan said. “My girls will never have a chance to know them.”

“I want them to be remembered for who they were,” he said.

“Tylee was sweet and kind, funny and bold,” Ryan said, while J.J. was “the most fun, sweet and silly kid I’ve ever known.”

“I pray for healing for everyone involved, including those who took the lives of all the ones we loved,” he said.

Jul 31, 12:18 PM EDT

JJ’s grandmother speaks of ‘depravity, cruelty and betrayal’

JJ. Vallow’s grandmother, Kay Woodcock, spoke in court Monday about what she called Lori Vallow Daybell’s “cruel campaign of terror.”

“J.J. and Tylee could have been with us living happy lives,” she said as she started to cry.

“Instead she took all that away,” she said, calling Vallow Daybell a “monster.”

“Today I take the power back by standing here, speaking out loud about all the pain and loss she’s caused,” Woodcock said.

Woodcock recalled the birth of J.J., who was born premature and with illicit substances in his system. “As soon as I laid my eyes on him I knew he was my grandson,” she said.

“He was a champion and oh so very special,” she said through tears.

Lori Vallow Daybell and her then-husband, Charles Vallow, later adopted J.J.

Woodcock and her husband would still often visit, and she noted that her “incredibly smart,” compassionate and empathetic grandson “had an innate and unbroken attachment to us.”

Woodcock, choked up, said, “That same mother murdered that same child she expressed deep appreciation for. It is mind-boggling.”

“What did Lori deprive the world of?” she said.

“I will only have the precious memories to cling to,” she said through tears.

Lori Vallow Daybell’s daughter, Tylee, was 9 when J.J. became her little brother. “She doted on him and J.J. loved every minute of attention,” Woodcock said.

Vallow Daybell was found guilty of the first-degree murders of J.J., 7, and Tylee, 16, who were killed in 2019.

J.J.’s “life was expendable to [Vallow Daybell],” Woodcock said. “His materialistic, self-centered mother cruelly and brutally stole his life — and him from the world. Lori’s acts of depravity, cruelty and betrayal have no limits.”

When J.J. and Tylee were missing, “fears continued to mount daily,” Woodcock said.

When she learned J.J. and Tylee had been “buried like animals” in Chad Daybell’s backyard, Woodcock said she let out a “guttural” sound.

“We were destroyed,” she said.

Woodcock called Vallow Daybell “a danger to society.”

“She is driven by her greed and her need to be the center of attention,” she said.

She said she believes Vallow Daybell should be sentenced to life in prison.

Jul 31, 11:46 AM EDT
Tammy Daybell ‘taken from us by murdering thieves’

Vicki Hoban, the aunt of Chad Daybell’s wife Tammy Daybell, who died of asphyxiation in 2019 less than one month before Chad and Lori Daybell married, gave a victim impact statement through tears on Monday.

“Tammy was a most excellent person and she led her life with the utmost dignity,” Hoban said. “There will be a huge void.”

Her niece was “brutally executed in her own bed,” Hoban said as she wept, “taken from us by murdering thieves.”

Tammy Daybell was “robbed of her entire life,” she said, and “all her family robbed of ever seeing her again.”

“Heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, unbearable is not a big enough statement,” she said. “The most innocent of lives was simply discarded like it meant nothing.”

Hoban said Vallow Daybell turned her niece’s “home into a cemetery,” adding, “Tammy would have been horrified to know what you have done — and it’s broken us as a family.”

Chad Daybell is charged with Tammy Daybell’s murder and conspiracy to commit murder and pleaded not guilty. Vallow Daybell was found guilty of conspiracy to commit Tammy Daybell’s murder.

Jul 31, 11:40 AM EDT
Tammy Daybell’s sister: ‘My family has been ripped apart’

Samantha Gwilliam, the sister of Chad Daybell’s wife Tammy Daybell, who died of asphyxiation in 2019 less than one month before Chad and Lori Daybell married, took the stand to give a victim impact statement.

Gwilliam testified that Chad Daybell told her that he’d married Vallow Daybell two weeks after her “beloved sister,” Tammy Daybell, was buried, and claimed the new couple then told lie after lie.

“Because of you and your desire to get what you want at any cost, my family has been ripped apart. I helped raise Tammy’s children and because of you they no longer have their mother or grandmother,” Gwilliam said.

Choked up, she said her relationship with Tammy and Chad Daybell’s children is “strained and most contact with them is gone” she said.

“Your trial is the last thing my ailing mother had to live through,” she said, adding that her death in June “was marred by the fact that Tammy’s children chose not to participate in her funeral by fear of causing more drama.”

“We blame you and Chad for all the lies you told in ripping apart this family,” she said.

“I choose to forget you … I choose to never think of you again,” she said.

Gwilliam also read a statement on behalf of her father, Ronald Douglas.

“Tammy’s death was unexpected and had a profound impact on all of us,” Douglas’ statement said, adding “we were barely into our recovery process” when learning that Chad Daybell had remarried weeks later.

“The emotional stress” accelerated Tammy Daybell’s mother’s declining health, he noted.

“The eternal ramifications of [Vallow Daybell’s] actions are yet to be calculated. Lori needs to pay,” he said.

Chad Daybell is charged with Tammy Daybell’s murder and conspiracy to commit murder and pleaded not guilty. Vallow Daybell was found guilty of conspiracy to commit Tammy Daybell’s murder.

Jul 31, 11:03 AM EDT
Who the court is allowing to speak at the sentencing

Multiple people sought to give victim impact statements at Monday’s sentencing hearing on behalf of Tylee Ryan, J.J. Vallow and Tamara Daybell, according to a June court filing.

Those granted permission to address the court include Colby Ryan, the half-brother to Tylee and adoptive brother to J.J.; Summer Shiflet, the sister of Lori Vallow Daybell; and Kay Woodcock, a representative of Charles Vallow, who was J.J.’s adoptive father and Lori Vallow Daybell’s late husband. Vicki Hoban, the aunt of Tamara Daybell, was also later granted permission to speak as a designated representative of Tamara Daybell’s late mother.

Idaho law allows the “immediate family members” of homicide victims to address the court.

It was unclear ahead of the hearing who was scheduled to address the court.

Jul 31, 10:59 AM EDT
Defense request for a new trial was denied

Ahead of Lori Vallow Daybell’s sentencing, defense attorneys unsuccessfully sought a new trial.

On May 25, the defense filed a motion for a new trial, arguing that the jury instructions were “confusing” and “prejudicial,” among other claims.

Judge Steven Boyce denied the request for a new trial on June 15.

The jury handed down its verdict in mid-May, after deliberating for approximately six hours across two days. The verdict was read before a packed Boise courtroom and also livestreamed by the court.

The verdict followed a six-week trial during which prosecutors argued that Lori Vallow Daybell and her husband Chad Daybell thought the children were zombies and murdered them. Prosecutors called roughly 60 witnesses, while the defense called none.

Prosecutors said at the time they were “very pleased” with the jury’s verdict but declined to comment further given the pending case against Chad Daybell. His case is scheduled to go to trial in April 2024.

Jul 31, 10:56 AM EDT
Sentencing comes nearly four years after children disappeared

Joshua “J.J.” Vallow and Tylee Ryan were last seen alive in September 2019 and were reported missing by their extended family members to police in November 2019.

Their remains were found on Chad Daybell’s property in Fremont County, Idaho, in June 2020. Lori Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell were indicted on murder charges nearly a year later.

Among the revelations during Lori Vallow Daybell’s trial, a DNA expert testified for the state that a strand of hair attached to duct tape found among the remains matched the mother’s DNA profile.

The jury also heard text messages that prosecutors said were sent between Lori Vallow Daybell and her husband in the weeks prior to her children’s disappearance.

The messages discussed demons inhabiting the children’s bodies and that they were “weary” taking care of demons. Lori Vallow Daybell reportedly texted her husband to “please ask the Lord to take them” and, days later, if he thinks there is a “perfectly orchestrated plan to take the children,” to which he reportedly responded, “There is a plan being orchestrated for the children.”