Lori Vallow Daybell murder conspiracy trial nears conclusion as prosecution rests 

PHOENIX (CN) — Lori Vallow Daybell will call no witnesses nor testify in her ongoing murder conspiracy trial, she told a Maricopa County judge Wednesday afternoon. 

State prosecutors, who accuse Vallow Daybell of conspiring with her brother to murder her ex-husband Charles Vallow in July 2019, rested their case-in-chief Wednesday and plan to give closing arguments Monday.

They say the defendant, inspired by her cult-like religious beliefs of zombies and demonic possession, sought to benefit from Vallow's life insurance and social security payouts to fund her new life in Hawaii. But Vallow Daybell disputes that the murder was planned and claims that her brother Alex Cox killed her ex-husband in self-defense.

Representing herself, Vallow Daybell made a verbal motion for Rule 20 Judgment of Acquittal, which allows a judge to bypass a jury verdict if one believes no reasonable jury could find a defendant guilty. 

“The state has provided no evidence that I agreed with anyone to engage in this conduct,” Vallow Daybell told Judge Justin Beresky in his Phoenix courtroom. “There was no plan to murder Charles.”

Beresky denied the motion and asked Vallow Daybell to begin her case-in-chief. 

“The defense will rest,” she replied. 

The decision likely came out of necessity — the state has repeatedly objected to the defendant’s witness list, nearly all members of which were never subpoenaed or disclosed to the prosecution after the legal deadline to do so.

Prosecutors had the chance to interview only one potential witness, another brother of Vallow Daybell’s, but her paralegal couldn’t get ahold of him as of Tuesday morning. 

Beresky will read final instructions to the jury at 10:30 a.m. Monday before the parties give their closing arguments. 

On the final day of testimony, Maricopa County Prosecutor Treena Kay spent most of the jury’s time reviewing text messages extracted from the defendant’s phone by Chandler Police Detective Nathan Duncan, who confirmed the veracity of the messages from the witness box. 

“I will be like Nephi,” Kay read from a message the defendant sent to Alex Cox days before Cox shot Vallow twice in the chest in Vallow Daybell’s Chandler, Arizona home. The siblings’ text conversations confirm the defendant knew her ex-husband and other family members planned to hold an intervention over her newfound religious beliefs.

Inspired by Mormon Doomsday author Chad Daybell — whom she married in Hawaii after they murdered her two children in September 2019 — Vallow Daybell told friends and family that dark spirits possessed her children and ex-husband to stop her from completing her spiritual mission: to lead the survivors of the apocalypse. 

“Nephi” refers to the character in the Book of Mormon whom God instructed to kill the character Laban to obtain brass plates that chronicled his heritage, meaning God had instructed the defendant to do the same, Duncan explained. 

The texts also revealed that Vallow Daybell told Cox about the planned intervention and invited Cox to the house at the same time so that he could carry out their mission. 

Vallow Daybell asked Duncan on cross examination whether he knew that Cox was a standup comedian, and therefore could have been joking when he mentioned Nephi. Duncan said he did not know. 

The defendant added that the Book of Mormon contains four books of Nephi, totaling 25 stories, suggesting that she could have been referencing any one of them.

“You really have no idea what I was referring to when I reference Nephi in that text message,” she said.

“No,” Duncan answered, though he explained that he asked multiple members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints who Nephi is, and all brought up the story of Nephi killing Laban. 

Duncan also reviewed texts between the defendant and Daybell, who over a series of messages wrote Vallow Daybell a love story about them with their names changed to James and Elena. The names refer to the biblical character James the Less and his wife Elena, whom Daybell said he and Vallow Daybell existed as in their past lives. He also told Vallow Daybell once was Mary French, the great-grandmother of LDS founder Joseph Smith. 

The defendant didn’t mention those texts when she questioned Duncan. 

A week after Vallow was killed, the defendant texted Daybell about Vallow’s life insurance policy, irritated that she was removed as the beneficiary months prior. 

“It must have been Ned before we got rid of him,” she texted to Daybell, referring to the name of the spirit she said possessed Vallow. She told him she would still receive $4,000 per month from social security. 

“Interesting if he changed it after he had two bullets in his chest,” Daybell replied in a text. 

Vallow Daybell said that wasn’t possible. 

The parties will convene Thursday morning to finalize jury instructions before Beresky reads them on Monday. Though Vallow Daybell told Beresky today that she rests, she will have to do so before the jury Monday morning, and is allowed to change her mind between now and then.

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