Idaho jury deliberates case against slain kids' mom

BOISE, IDAHO >> An Idaho jury is weighing the fate of a woman charged in the slayings of her two youngest children and a romantic rival in what prosecutors say was a strange doomsday-focused plot.

Lori Vallow Daybell wanted the victims' money, so she used sex and power to manipulate her brother and a lover into carrying out the crimes, Idaho prosecutors told jurors Thursday at the close of the weekslong case.

“Money, power and sex,” Madison County Prosecutor Rob Wood said, urging the jury to convict Lori Vallow Daybell in the deaths of 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, and her fifth husband's previous wife Tammy Daybell.

“What does justice for these victims require? It requires a conviction on each and every count,” Wood said.

Defense attorney Jim Archibald countered that there was no evidence tying his client to the killings but plenty showing she was a loving, protective mother whose life took a sharp turn when she met her fifth husband, Chad Daybell, and fell for the “weird” apocalyptic religious claims of a cult leader.

Daybell told her they had been married in several previous lives and she was a “sexual goddess” who was supposed to help him save the world by gathering 144,000 followers so Jesus could return, Archibald said.

Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell are both charged with murder, conspiracy and grand theft in the three killings. Prosecutors say the two worked with Vallow Daybell's brother, Alex Cox, to carry out the crimes. Cox died in December 2019 and was never charged.

The two youngest children were receiving Social Security survivor benefits from the earlier deaths of their fathers, and prosecutors say Vallow Daybell continued to collect those checks after the children were killed. Chad Daybell increased Tammy Daybell's life insurance policy, prosecutors said, and Vallow Daybell married him just two weeks after his previous wife was asphyxiated in their home.

Both defendants have pleaded not guilty. Vallow Daybell faces up to life in prison if she is convicted.