“Apocalyptic” Mom Lori Vallow was all smiles in court on Tuesday as his lawyers asked a judge to send the case to a grand jury because of the “confusing” indictment.
Lawyers for Vallow, accused of killing two of her children and stealing their Social Security benefits, also told a judge they ‘just wanted a fair trial’ during the courtroom hearing. Idaho County Hearing.
The 49-year-old mother and husband Chad Daybell, 52, have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, conspiracy and grand larceny in connection with the 2019 deaths of Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7, and 17 year. Tylee Ryan.
Vallow’s attorneys on Tuesday asked the judge to separate his conspiracy to commit murder and his conspiracy to commit theft charges, arguing they could confuse a jury.
“I have a problem with the state saying, ‘Hey, we can cram all of these things into one conspiracy charge,’ and as long as they find one of these conspiracies, then the conspiracy is achieved. “, attorney John Thomas said during Tuesday’s proceedings, Fox News reported. “It doesn’t make much sense that way.”
One of the conspiracy charges was filed because prosecutors said the couple planned to kill Vallow’s daughter and steal Social Security benefits the child was receiving because her father died. The other conspiracy charge is the same, but in relation to the death of her son.
“Conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to commit grand larceny are two separate conspiracies,” Thomas continued. “We think it would be confusing for a jury to be able to determine what items were met, when the items were met, and how well the items were met.”
The prosecution, meanwhile, argued that the charges were not confusing at all.
“One was to murder Tylee Ryan and steal the Social Security money allocated to him, and the other was to kill JJ Vallow and steal and collect the Social Security money allocated to him” said prosecutor Rob Wood. “We believe the jury will find that there was this agreement, that they agreed to commit these two crimes.”
Judge Steven Boyce said he would review the arguments and make a decision later.
Vallow’s children disappeared in 2019 and the couple never reported them missing and refused to help detectives with their investigation after extended family members reported the children had not been seen since months.
The couple fled to Hawaii where they were arrested in connection with the children’s disappearance.
The burned bodies of the two children were eventually found in a makeshift grave near Vallow’s home in rural Idaho.
Lawyers for the ‘cult mum’, who pleaded not guilty, argued she was mentally unfit to stand trial – but she was deemed fit to stand trial on the charges against her after spending 11 months in a psychiatric hospital.
Vallow and her husband tied the knot just two weeks after the unexpected death of Chad Daybell’s ex-wife. While death was believed to have been of natural causes, the body was later exhumed by investigators.
Vallow is further charged with conspiracy to murder her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, who was allegedly shot and killed in Arizona by her brother, Alex Cox. Cox later died of natural causes.
With pole wires