The Daybells have had their day in court – or, at least, their latest two days. 

In her first public appearance since she was sentenced to life in Idaho for murdering her children and conspiring to murder her fifth husband’s then-wife, the so-called “Doomsday Cult Mom,” Lori Vallow Daybell, was in an Arizona courtroom last week for a “scheduling hearing” ahead of her upcoming trial for conspiring to murder her fourth husband, Charles Vallow.

Meanwhile, back in Idaho, on the following day, Lori’s fifth and current husband, Chad Daybell, was in court for a procedural hearing of his own, ahead of his murder trial due to start April 1. Chad is charged with the same murders for which Lori was convicted last year: the murder of her children, Tylee Ryan, 16, and JJ Vallow, 7, and the murder of his first wife, Tammy, 49. Unlike Lori, Chad could face the death penalty if convicted.

Lori and Chad subscribe to an extremist brand of Mormonism known for doomsday beliefs, and prosecutors say Lori plotted to murder her children in 2019 in order to free her up for – and fund – her new life with Chad, a doomsday author who would be excommunicated from the Latter Day Saints church for “apostasy.” Idaho prosecutors also say that Lori plotted with Chad to murder Tammy so the doomsday couple could be together. 

Chad and Lori are said to believe they were married in a past life, and are chosen people destined to survive the end of days, which they believed to be imminent. The couple categorized the people around them as “dark” or “light” and believed that their spouses and children had become dark “zombies.” 

But prosecutors argue that in the end, the murders were motivated less by religion than by Lori’s and Chad’s lust for “money and sex.” Lori thought (incorrectly, it turned out) that she was the beneficiary of Charles’s life insurance policy. And with Tylee out of the way, she could help herself to the Social Security benefits Tylee received from the estate of her late father and Lori’s third husband, Joseph Ryan. Chad collected a six figure life insurance pay out when Tammy died. Lori and Chad used that money to fund an open-ended trip to Hawaii after Tylee and JJ disappeared.

Lori is already serving three consecutive life sentences in Idaho for murdering Tylee and JJ, an autistic child whom she and Charles had adopted (JJ was actually Charles’ blood nephew). She was also convicted in the same trial of conspiring to murder Tammy, who had been married to Chad for 28 years and was the mother of his five children.

Chad and Lori married on a Hawaii beach just two weeks after Tammy suddenly died in October 2019. They used a $35.99 malachite ring that Lori had purchased using Charles’s Amazon account. The purchase of the ring, Charles’s grieving parents would discover, took place before Tammy died.

At the time of her sentencing, in July, 2023, Lori told the court that she had had “many communications with Jesus Christ” that led her to the knowledge that her children were “happy and busy in the spirit world” – a fitting end to a trial that was filled with testimony about Lori’s “doomsday” beliefs. In her bizarre statement to the court, Lori also remarked that “because of my communications with my friend Tammy Daybell, I know that she is also very happy and extremely busy.”

Lori has since been extradited to Arizona to face more charges: two counts of conspiracy to commit murder in connection to the violent death of Charles, and the attempted murder of her niece’s ex husband, Brandon Boudreaux. She has pleaded not guilty to both charges.

Charles died when he was shot, in July 2019, by Lori’s brother, Alex Cox, who claimed that Charles, who was estranged from Lori at the time, charged him in Lori’s house in Arizona after Charles had arrived to pick up Tylee and JJ for a visit. Prosecutors claim, though, that Alex ambushed Charles after he and Lori allegedly “agreed with Alexander Cox that at least one of them or another” would kill Charles. 

Then in October of 2019, also in Arizona, someone believed to be Alex took a shot at Brandon Boudreaux, who was the ex-husband of Lori’s niece, Melani Pawlowski. The shooter missed. Melani had been dabbling in Lori’s extreme religious practices, and had been in an ugly custody dispute with Brandon.

Alex never faced any charges for the attack on Brandon. He died mysteriously “of natural causes” later that year. Alex, an amateur stand-up comedian, has also been connected to the murders of Lori’s children and Tammy. Prosecutors believe he may have carried out all the killings – and attempted killings – at the behest of Lori and Chad.

Lori and Chad gained national prominence when they moved to Hawaii with Tylee and JJ missing. The couple repeatedly claimed to law enforcement, and reporters, that the children were safe. Lori was eventually arrested and sent back to Idaho where she spent months in jail, refusing to divulge the children’s whereabouts. Eventually, Idaho police dug up their bodies in a pet cemetery in Chad’s backyard. Chad, it should be noted, had worked as a gravedigger.

Wednesday marked Lori’s latest appearance in court. And if people were expecting a somber-looking, guilt-ridden mother, they would be sorely mistaken. The former beauty queen was full of smiles as she graced the courtroom with a face full of garish prison makeup framed by curled and highlighted hair.

The case scheduling conference lasted less than five minutes, and concluded with the judge noting the trial start date of April 24 might not be realistic given the amount of evidence involved. At the time, the defense team shared they were waiting to receive 20 terabytes of data.

“A large amount of discovery is about to be disclosed – approximately 88,000 pages of discovery,” Judge Justin Beresky said. “I imagine that’s going to take some time for the defense to get through.”

Judge Beresky set April 24 as the next scheduling conference and granted Lori’s request to skip that hearing.

On Thursday, Chad appeared in Idaho for a hearing of his own. He is charged with conspiracy to commit murder and first-degree murder in relation to the deaths of Tammy, Tylee and JJ. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Thursday’s pre-trial conference saw Chad’s attorney, John Prior, share that he planned to call about seven expert witnesses during his client’s trial, jury selection for which is slated to begin on April 1 and could take up to two weeks.

At that same conference, prosecuting attorney Lindsey Blake and Mr. Prior agreed that they expect the trial to last eight weeks. If convicted, Chad could face the death penalty after an Idaho court denied his motions to strike the death penalty from his trial. This means a penalty phase of the trial would start after a guilty verdict to decide if Chad should be sentenced to death or spend his life in prison.