Lori Vallow Daybell plans to rest her case at Arizona trial without putting on witnesses, evidence

Jacques Billeaud, Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) — Lori Vallow Daybell plans to rest her case at the Arizona trial where she is charged with conspiring to murder her estranged husband.

The case’s prosecutor on Wednesday finished presenting the state’s case against Vallow Daybell, who will have to say for sure on Monday whether she intends to end her case without putting on any evidence or witnesses in her defense.

If she follows through on her plans, closing arguments will be held Monday.

Vallow Daybell, who isn’t an attorney but has still chosen to defend herself, has had difficulties lining up witnesses. Though she has gotten subpoenas served on a few witnesses, two other people were stricken from her witness list by a judge, and at least five others haven’t been located or served with subpoenas to testify.

Prosecutors say she conspired with her brother, Alex Cox, to kill Charles Vallow so she could collect money from his life insurance policy and marry her then-boyfriend Chad Daybell, an Idaho author who wrote several religious novels about prophecies and the end of the world.

Cox, who claimed he acted in self-defense when he fatally shot Vallow, died five months later from what medical examiners said was a blood clot in his lungs. Cox’s account was later called into question.

Vallow Daybell has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, she would face a life sentence without the possibility of release until serving at least 25 years.

She has already been convicted in Idaho of killing her two youngest children and conspiring to murder a romantic rival, for which she was sentenced to life in prison.

Last week at the Arizona trial, Adam Cox, another brother of Vallow Daybell, testified on behalf of the prosecution, telling jurors that he believes his sister is behind the killing of Charles Vallow.

The trial over Vallow’s death will mark the first of two criminal trials in Arizona for Vallow Daybell. She’s scheduled to go on trial again in early June on a charge of conspiring to murder Brandon Boudreaux, the ex-husband of Vallow Daybell’s niece, Melani Pawlowski.