OAN’s James Meyers
12:10 PM – Thursday, September 7, 2023
Lori Vallow Daybell, the so-called “cult mom” who is serving a life sentence for murdering her two children, has filed an appeal to her conviction in Idaho.
Advertisement
According to court documents, the convicted murderer’s attorney said her legal team intends on arguing if Vallow was mentally competent to stand trial in the deaths of her children, Tylee Ryan and Joshua “J.J.” Vallow.
Additionally, Vallow’s attorney is asking the Supreme Court whether prosecutors “repeated requests for a continuance” violated her right to a speedy trial and the court’s setting and whether the court was wrong for allowing prosecutors to amend the grand jury indictment filed against Vallow.
Vallow was convicted on two counts of first-degree murder by a jury in May, for murdering her children, allegedly with her husband, Chad Daybell. Vallow was also accused of conspiring to kill Tammy Daybell, Chad Daybell’s first wife, in October 2019.
She spent over 1,200 days in local jail prior to her sentencing hearing, which ended with her being ordered to serve three life sentences without parole.
During the ending of the trial, District Judge Steven Boyce of Fremont County stated Vallow “removed” her “children from their home in Arizona, alienated them from friends and family” and brought them to her home in Idaho “to murder them.”
“You had so many other options. You chose the most evil and destructive path possible,” he told the defendant in court. “I don’t think to this day you have any remorse for the effort and heartache you caused.”
Boyce added Vallow does have “mental health issues.” Her diagnosis from February stated that she suffers from a “delusional disorder” mixed with hyper-religiosity” and a “continuous and unspecified personality disorder” with narcissistic features, Boyce said.
The two children were found in shallow graves on Chad Daybell’s Idaho property, in June 2020, several months after they disappeared from their home in September 2019. Tylee’s remains were burned while “J.J.’s” were bound in duct tape.
Prosecutors argued that Vallow killed her children in an effort to secure “money, power and sex.”
Furthermore, Chad Daybell has yet to face trial for his charges in connection with the murders of the two children. He will be tried separately in April of next year on two felony counts of conspiracy to commit destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence, and two felony counts of destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts