Lori Vallow Daybell’s attorneys have filed a motion to withdraw a trial competency evaluation ahead of a trial in the murder of her ex-husband.
Former Chandler resident Vallow Daybell murdered her 7-year-old son, Joshua “JJ” Vallow, and 16-year-old daughter, Tylee Ryan, sometime around 2019. The children’s bodies were found in their mother’s backyard in 2020 in Idaho.
The 51 year old was convicted for their murders in July 2023 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. She was extradited to Arizona after Governor Katie Hobbs signed an agreement last year.
Vallow Daybell is charged on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder in the July 2019 shooting of 62-year-old Charles Vallow and on suspicion of attempted murder of her ex’s cousin, Brandon Boudreaux.
Court documents filed Oct. 29 show that attorneys for Vallow Daybell, whose trial in Phoenix is set to take place in late February, had a motion to withdraw a Rule 11 evaluation request, which would affect her suitability for trial have determined. A hearing on the original motion remains set for Thursday morning, according to Maricopa County court officials.
The motion to withdraw stated that “extensive” hard drive evidence at trial prevented the defense from “meaningfully” helping evaluate Vallow Daybell within “expeditious competency timelines.”
This latest development in the case comes after an Idaho court in 2022 reversed a ruling from the year before that had declared Vallow Daybell unfit to stand trial for the deaths of her children.
Vallow Daybell, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-day Saints, has been referred to as a “doomsday” mother in multiple media reports detailing crimes she has committed or is a suspect in.
Charles Vallow’s divorce filing stated that he had contacted police about her mental health and that Lori was convinced she was ushering in a Biblical doomsday. Court documents show Charles obtained a restraining order against his wife after he accused her of threatening to kill him if he interfered with her plans and that she told him his body would be disposed of by an angel she had ready to stand.
Vallow Daybell’s late brother, Alexander Cox, claimed self-defense after fatally shooting Charles Vallow in July 2019. Cox, 51, was charged in the death of his brother-in-law but died of blood clots in December 2019 before being tried in court.
Earlier this year, the suspect’s current husband, Chad Guy Daybell, 56, was sentenced to death in an Idaho court for the murders of his first wife, Tamara “Tammy” Daybell, 49, and Vallow Daybell’s children.
Lori Vallow Daybell is represented by the Office of the Legal Defender, which serves indigent defendants from Maricopa County. Efforts Wednesday to reach her attorneys were unsuccessful.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Lori Vallow Daybell in Phoenix District Court for locus standi hearing
