‘Doomsday mom' Lori Vallow shares why she made unusual legal move for 2nd murder trial: ‘Fighting for my life'

Fox News

07-04-2025

As the so-called "Doomsday Mom" is set to walk into an Arizona courtroom, Lori Vallow spoke about her decision to act as her own attorney in her latest murder trial.
Vallow is representing herself as she faces murder conspiracy charges in relation to the death of her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, in Maricopa County.
"I'm fighting for my life here," Vallow said in an interview with True Crime Arizona.
In 2019, Vallow's brother, Alex Cox, shot her husband to death when Vallow went to pick up the couple's son at Vallow's Phoenix home.
At the time of the killing, Vallow's daughter, Tylee, confronted Charles with a baseball bat after hearing screaming inside the house. Charles reportedly took the bat from Tylee, who told police she was trying to protect her mother, and allegedly tried to attack Cox. Cox told investigators he fired his gun in self-defense and was never charged in Charles' death before he died of natural causes months later.
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"It's a tragedy, families have tragedies," Vallow told True Crime Arizona. "Things happen and there was a domino effect of tragedies in my life. And that's really sad."
Prosecutors allege Vallow "agreed with Cox that at least one of them or another would engage in conduct constituting the offense of first-degree murder," according to a June 2021 indictment.
The prosecuting attorney and Vallow's two advisory attorneys did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Vallow is opting to represent herself as opening statements are scheduled to begin on Monday.
"I'm not an attorney, I don't have training to be an attorney," Vallow told True Crime Arizona. "There's something that I figured out when I got to this jail. This experience has been five years running. I went through a whole trial, you know, before in my other state, and then I was brought here to Arizona to face some more serious charges."
While high-profile defendants choosing to represent themselves is not unheard of, it can provide a level of unpredictability within a courtroom that is already at the center of the nation's attention.
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"This gives [Vallow] a tremendous amount of control over the case, and she has little to lose, since she's already been sentenced to life in prison in Idaho," Andrew Stoltmann, a Chicago-based attorney who is not involved in the case, told Fox News Digital. "She may be intending to turn this case into a three-ring circus, and the best way to do that is by representing herself."
When asked by True Crime Arizona about the "notion from the public" that she's choosing to represent herself because she has "nothing to lose" and that the trial is a "challenge, a show, a game" for her, Vallow brushed off the idea.
"I never hear any of this stuff because I'm in a room [for] 23 hours a day and we don't have any access to any kind of news, or any kind of anything, really," Vallow said. "So I didn't know that people were saying that, but I wouldn't agree with that, obviously."
Vallow's upcoming trial comes nearly two years after an Idaho judge sentenced her to life in prison for the 2019 murders of her children, Joshua "J.J." Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 16, along with conspiring with her fifth husband, Chad Daybell, to murder Daybell's wife, Tammy.
Daybell was also convicted in the three murders and sentenced to death.
Vallow insists she is ready for the trial and has been "working on my case for five years" and knows her case "better than an attorney can learn it in two years."
"Here's the thing, when you waive your speedy trial, then they can keep you here as long as you want," Vallow told True Crime Arizona. "There are intelligent, strong, beautiful women in here that have been here for eight years because of family tragedies. It's the same, like, my case, a family tragedy, not crime. A family tragedy, and they're waiting, and they're facing the death penalty for a family tragedy."