Latest news with #BrandonBoudreaux
Yahoo
26-07-2025
- Yahoo
'Doomsday mom' Lori Vallow Daybell sentenced to 2 more life sentences
July 25 (UPI) -- Lori Daybell, known as the Doomsday Mom, on Friday was sentenced to two more life sentences for conspiring with her brother to kill her fourth husband and her niece's former husband in Arizona. The terms are life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years to be served consecutively. Daybell, 51, already is serving several life sentences after being convicted of murdering two of her children in 2023 in Idaho with Chad Daybell, and conspiring to commit murder in the death of Tammy Daybell, the former wife of Chad Daybell, who later married Lori Daybell. On April 22, the jury in Maricopa County Superior Court found her guilty of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder on July 11, 2019. Charles Vallow, her husband of 13 years, was executed. On June 12, she was convicted of scheming to kill Brandon Boudreaux, the former husband of her niece, in a targeted shooting on Oct. 2, 2019, that failed. She didn't testify in either trial. "I want everyone to know that I mourn with all of you," Daybell said. "I am sorry for your pain. Losing those close to you is painful, and I acknowledge all of the pain, and I do empathize, I feel it, too. If I was accountable for these crimes I would acknowledge it." She claims she didn't get a fair trial. Judge Justin Beresky, who presided over both trials in Phoenix, denied that. "You have not victimized just a single victim but many. You've shattered lives. You've undermined trust," Beresky said before the sentences. "In the face of such profound damage, a long prison sentence is not merely a punishment, it is a necessary affirmation that our society values justice, protection and the sanctity of human life." During the sentencing hearing, family members of Vallow Daybell's victims testified for more than one hour. That included her only surviving child, Coly Ryab, who described when he found out his father was shot and killed, and then her two siblings were murdered. "I had to do something I've never done, and that was fight to stay alive after the pain," Ryan said in court. Vallow Daybell, who represented herself in court, has maintained that her brother, Alex Cox -- who died from a pulmonary embolism before he could be charged -- killed her estranged husband in self-defense at her home in Chandler. Prosecutors, however, argued that Vallow Daybell had wanted her then-husband of 13 years dead so she could claim a $1 million life insurance policy on him and marry Chad Daybell, which she did months after Charles Vallow was killed. "A family tragedy does not involve the intentional killing of a person," Maricopa County Prosecuting Attorney Treena Kay said before sentencing. "A family tragedy does not involve working with an accomplice to commit first-degree premeditated murder. And a family tragedy does not involve conspiring with others to kill." They met at a religious conference in Utah. In the case involving her children, prosecutors argued that she and Chad Daybell thought the children were possessed zombies and they were murdered so they could be together. Also, she was convicted of stealing Social Security benefits for their care after they went missing. In the two instances in Arizona, prosecutors said she also invoked the "twisted" religious beliefs. They thought he was possessed by an evil spirit referred to as "Ned." In the second case, Boudreaux called 911 that someone driving by in a Jeep shot at his vehicle outside his home in Gilbert, missing his head by inches. Prosecutors said Boudreaux lived in fear because he would "return to finish the job." Cox died in December 2019. Joshua "J.J. Vallow was 7 and Tylee Rose, 16. Their remains were found on property owned by Chad Dayball in June 2020. Chad Daybell, a Mormon author of apocalyptical fiction and cult leader, was sentenced to death on June 1, 2024, by an Idaho jury.
CTV News
25-07-2025
- CTV News
Lori Vallow Daybell receives additional life sentences in Arizona, ending legal saga
Lori Vallow Daybell stands and listens as the jury's verdict is read at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho, May 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Kyle Green) PHOENIX — Lori Vallow Daybell was sentenced to life in prison Friday on two murder conspiracy convictions in Arizona, marking an end to a winding legal saga for the mother with doomsday religious beliefs who claimed people in her life had been possessed by evil spirits. Vallow Daybell, already serving life sentences in Idaho in the killings of her two youngest children and a romantic rival, was convicted at separate trials this spring in Phoenix of conspiring to murder her estranged husband, Charles Vallow, and her niece's ex-husband, Brandon Boudreaux. Vallow Daybell, who chose to represent herself in both Arizona cases even though she isn't a lawyer, used her final testimony to complain about jail conditions and the legal system. 'If I were accountable for these crimes, I would acknowledge and let you know how sorry I was,' she said. Judge says Vallow Daybell should never be released Judge Justin Beresky said Vallow Daybell has 'shown blatant disregard for humanity,' and he refuted her claim that she didn't get a fair trial in Arizona. 'You should never be released from prison,' Beresky said before handing down the sentence. 'Eventually, the camera that you seek out, the media requests, will lessen over time and you will fade into obscurity.' Authorities say Vallow Daybell carried out the plots with her brother Alex Cox, who acknowledged killing Vallow in July 2019 and was identified by prosecutors as the person who fired at Boudreaux months later but missed. Prosecutors said Vallow Daybell conspired to kill Vallow so she could collect on his $1 million life insurance policy and marry her then-boyfriend Chad Daybell, an Idaho author of religious novels about prophecies and the end of the world. They said Boudreaux suspected Vallow Daybell and Cox were responsible for Vallow's death. Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said the trial was a long but necessary process to get justice for Vallow, Boudreaux and their families. Vallow Daybell will return to Idaho 'knowing she didn't get away with her crimes committed in Maricopa County,' Mitchell told reporters after the hearing. Nearly two years ago, Vallow Daybell was sentenced to life in an Idaho prison for killing her children, 7-year-old Joshua 'JJ' Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, and conspiring to murder Daybell's wife, Tammy. The children went missing for several months before their bodies were found buried on Daybell's property in rural Idaho. Daybell was sentenced to death for the gruesome murders of his wife, Tylee and JJ. Victims' family members shed tears during Friday's hearing Vallow Daybell appeared in court Friday in an orange jail uniform as family members called her 'evil,' 'greedy' and a 'monster' while describing their grief. The victims' family members sat in the jury box, passing around tissues. Vallow Daybell's only surviving child — her adult son Colby Ryan — described how he 'had to fight to stay alive after the pain' of losing his siblings and Vallow, his stepfather who he referred to as his dad. Testifying by remote link, Ryan zeroed in on his mother, who has claimed the Arizona cases were family tragedies that shouldn't have ended up in court. 'I believe that Lori Vallow herself is the family tragedy,' Ryan said. Vallow's brother, Gerry Vallow, lobbed scathing comments at Vallow Daybell. 'She wrote her own make-believe story, and she wrote it in blood,' he said. 'And she tried to kill Brandon when he started looking like the next available dollar sign.' Charles Vallow was fatally shot in 2019 Vallow filed for divorce four months before he died. He said Vallow Daybell became infatuated with near-death experiences and claimed to have lived numerous lives on other planets. He told police she threatened to kill him and he was concerned for his children. Vallow was shot when he went to pick up his son at Vallow Daybell's home outside Phoenix, police said. Vallow Daybell's daughter, Tylee, told police the sound of yelling woke her up, and she confronted Vallow with a baseball bat that he managed to take from her. Cox told police he shot Vallow after he refused to drop the bat and came after him. Cox died five months later from a blood clot in his lungs. His self-defense claim was later called into question, with investigators saying Cox and Vallow Daybell waited more than 40 minutes before calling 911. Just before his death, Vallow and his wife's other brother, Adam Cox, planned an intervention to try to bring Vallow Daybell back into the mainstream of their shared faith in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Adam Cox, a witness for the prosecution, testified earlier in the trial that his sister told people Vallow was no longer living and that a zombie was inside her estranged husband's body. Prosecutor Treena Kay said Vallow Daybell twisted religion to justify her actions and dodged questions from Vallow's sons about how he died after informing them via text message. Someone shot at Brandon Boudreaux months later Almost three months after Vallow died, someone fired a shot at Boudreaux from an open window of a Jeep as he was driving up to his home in Gilbert, another Phoenix suburb. It narrowly missed Boudreaux, the ex-husband of Vallow Daybell's niece, Melani Pawlowski. Pawlowski had been attending religious meetings with her aunt and suggested to her husband that they stockpile food for the end of the world, Boudreaux said earlier in the trial. Boudreaux described in court Friday how the attempt on his life caused immense stress and made him fear for his family's safety. His sisters told the judge that their brother went into hiding with his children after the attack. Prosecutors tied the Jeep to Vallow Daybell and said she loaned it to Cox. The two bought a burner phone used to carry out the attack and tried to concoct an alibi for Cox to make it seem like he was in Idaho at the time, prosecutors said. 'No one deserves to live a life of fear and trauma,' Boudreaux said tearfully. He said he has forgiven Vallow Daybell so he can be a better person and father but that he wouldn't feel safe if she had freedom. After the sentencing, Boudreaux told reporters he's grateful that the justice system worked. ByJacques Billeaud And Hannah Schoenbaum. Schoenbaum reported from Salt Lake City.
Daily Mail
13-06-2025
- Daily Mail
'Doomsday mom' Lori Vallow is found guilty of attempted murder as she serves life for killing her two children
Lori Vallow has now been found guilty in the attempted murder of her niece's ex-husband in 2019. The 'doomsday mom', who is already serving a life sentence for killing two of her children, was convicted by an Arizona jury on Thursday of conspiring to kill Brandon Boudreaux, who was once married to her niece, outside his home in the Phoenix suburb of Gilbert. Vallow was previously sentenced to life in Idaho in 2023 for murdering her two youngest children, seven-year-old Joshua 'JJ' Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, as well as conspiring to kill Tammy Daybell, her fifth husband Chad Daybell 's previous wife. Thursday's court result marks her second conviction in two months, with another Arizona jury finding the 'cult mom' guilty in late April of conspiring to kill her estranged husband, Charles Vallow, in July 2019 at her home in Chandler, another Phoenix suburb. Her brother, Alex Cox, shot Charles Vallow and claimed he had done so in self defense. Cox was not charged before he died of a pulmonary embolism in December 2019. Prosecutors have claimed that these deranged series of murders carried out by the unhinged mom and Daybell - who was sentenced to death in June 2024 for killing his ex-wife Tammy as well as Vallow's two children - were done so the new couple could run off together to pursue 'money, power and sex.' Vallow's plot to kill Boudreaux, for which she was convicted Thursday, also had to do with her goal to get rid of anyone who stood in the way of her burgeoning relationship with Daybell. Boudreaux testified that his marriage to Vallow's niece, Melani Pawlowski, broke down because she became heavily involved in Vallow's twisted cult. Vallow and Daybell were Mormons who splintered off from the church because they were becoming increasingly radical. Daybell was self-published author who wrote doomsday-focused fiction and would later promote spiritual beliefs to justify the murders, essentially saying his victims were possessed and marked for death. Boudreaux explained that Pawlowski aspired to be like Vallow, which led to the two of them attending religious meetings in 2018. Soon after, Pawlowski was telling him that they should be stockpiling food for the end of the world. By July 2019, the two began divorce proceedings. The attempt on Boudreaux's life came on October 2019, when someone in a white Jeep rolled up to his house and fired a rifle shot that missed him but shattered a window on his car. By this time, Vallow's children Joshua and Tylee had been missing for about a month. Boudreaux previously claimed Pawlowski likely knew the location of their bodies, which weren't found until June 2020 after the search for them had swelled into a nationwide manhunt. Boudreaux was also on high alert because Charles Vallow had been killed by gunfire months earlier. Boudreaux had gone to him for advice about his marriage to Pawlowski mere weeks before he was gunned down. On the stand, Boudreaux said he immediately suspected Vallow and her brother Alex Cox, USA Today reported. Prosecutor Treena Kay presented cellphone location data, receipts and video footage that placed Cox at the scene of the shooting driving what was later determined to be Vallow's Jeep. She argued that Vallow gave Cox a fake alibi, arranged for the phone used in the plot and planned out the shooting. Vallow, despite not being a lawyer, represented herself at trial and sought to downplay or outright deny all the evidence being presented against her. At times, she suggested that the data could have been tampered with by prosecutors. Vallow's closing argument shifted the blame onto Boudreaux as she claimed he had a vendetta against her because he blamed her for his marriage falling apart. 'Boudreaux decided that I was responsible for his family tragedy, and I'm really sorry he feels that,' Vallow said. The jury spent just 30 minutes deliberating before convicting Vallow of attempting to murder Boudreaux. In both of the Arizona cases against her, she is set to be sentenced on July 25. Each conviction carries a life sentence.
Associated Press
12-06-2025
- Associated Press
Lori Vallow Daybell is convicted in her second murder conspiracy case in Arizona
PHOENIX (AP) — A jury in Phoenix has convicted Lori Vallow Daybell of conspiring to kill her niece's ex-husband in 2019, marking her second murder conspiracy conviction in Arizona in less than two months. Daybell was convicted Thursday on a charge of conspiring to murder Brandon Boudreaux, who was once married to Daybell's niece, outside his home in the Phoenix suburb of Gilbert. An Arizona jury convicted Daybell in late April of conspiring with her brother, Alex Cox, to kill her estranged husband, Charles Vallow, in 2019 at her home in Chandler, another Phoenix suburb. The mother with doomsday religious beliefs has already been sentenced in Idaho to life in prison for killing her two youngest children and engaging in a plot to kill a romantic rival. She is scheduled to be sentenced in both Arizona cases on July 25. Each conviction carries a life sentence. Boudreaux said his ex-wife, Melani Pawlowski, aspired to be like her aunt Lori and that the two began attending religious meetings together in 2018, and soon Pawlowski was arguing that they should stockpile food for the end of the world. In October 2019, someone in a Jeep outside Boudreaux's home fired a rifle shot at him, missing him but shattering a window on his car. Boudreaux recognized the Jeep as the vehicle that Vallow's daughter, Tylee Ryan, regularly drove before her death. Vallow Daybell isn't an attorney but chose to defend herself at both trials in Arizona.
The Independent
12-06-2025
- The Independent
Lori Vallow Daybell is convicted in her second murder conspiracy case in Arizona
A jury in Phoenix has convicted Lori Vallow Daybell of conspiring to kill her niece's ex-husband in 2019, marking her second murder conspiracy conviction in Arizona in less than two months. Daybell was convicted Thursday on a charge of conspiring to murder Brandon Boudreaux, who was once married to Daybell's niece, outside his home in the Phoenix suburb of Gilbert. An Arizona jury convicted Daybell in late April of conspiring with her brother, Alex Cox, to kill her estranged husband, Charles Vallow, in 2019 at her home in Chandler, another Phoenix suburb. The mother with doomsday religious beliefs has already been sentenced in Idaho to life in prison for killing her two youngest children and engaging in a plot to kill a romantic rival. She is scheduled to be sentenced in both Arizona cases on July 25. Each conviction carries a life sentence. Boudreaux said his ex-wife, Melani Pawlowski, aspired to be like her aunt Lori and that the two began attending religious meetings together in 2018, and soon Pawlowski was arguing that they should stockpile food for the end of the world. In October 2019, someone in a Jeep outside Boudreaux's home fired a rifle shot at him, missing him but shattering a window on his car. Boudreaux recognized the Jeep as the vehicle that Vallow's daughter, Tylee Ryan, regularly drove before her death. Vallow Daybell isn't an attorney but chose to defend herself at both trials in Arizona.
