The woman known as the “Doomsday Mom” is preparing to appear in an Arizona courtroom, and Lori Vallow has discussed her choice to serve as her own legal representative in her most recent murder case.
Vallow has opted to defend herself against murder conspiracy charges linked to the passing of her fourth spouse, Charles Vallow, in Maricopa County.
“I’m fighting for my life here,” Vallow said in an interview with True Crime Arizona.
Investigators search for human remains at Chad Daybell’s residence in Salem, Idaho, on June 9, 2020. (John Roark/The Idaho Post-Register )
Vallow is scheduled for trial almost two years after an Idaho court handed down a life imprisonment sentence for the deaths of her children, Joshua “J.J.” Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 16, in 2019. She was also found guilty of participating in a plot with her fifth husband, Chad Daybell, to kill Daybell’s wife, Tammy.
Daybell was also convicted in the three murders and sentenced to death.
Vallow insists she is ready for the trial and has been “working on my case for five years” and knows her case “better than an attorney can learn it in two years.”
“Here’s the thing, when you waive your speedy trial, then they can keep you here as long as you want,” Vallow told True Crime Arizona. “There are intelligent, strong, beautiful women in here that have been here for eight years because of family tragedies. It’s the same, like, my case, a family tragedy, not crime. A family tragedy, and they’re waiting, and they’re facing the death penalty for a family tragedy.”
