'Doomsday' Cult Mom Lori Vallow Bizarrely Smirks In Court After Suffering Blow Ahead Of Triple Murder Trial

The couple, who married two weeks after Tammy’s death, earned national fame when they jetted off to Hawaii after the children vanished. They were later returned to Idaho where the children were found buried on Daybell’s property in rural Idaho in June 2020.

Vallow and Daybell, the leader of the alleged doomsday cult loosely based on Mormon theology, pled not guilty to first-degree murder.

Prosecutors claim the conniving couple allegedly went on the murderous spree as part of a botched plot to pocket social security cash and collect on insurance money.

The January 19th hearing before 7th District Judge Steven Boyce also gave the Vallow’s lawyers a chance to argue against a death penalty punishment if they are convicted — and asked for the case to be delayed until 2024.

“We don’t believe the state is going to be able to prove Lori was a major contributor to the crime,” Vallow’s attorney John Thomas said. “We don’t believe Lori actually participated in any of these events or that she even knew about them. She didn’t anticipate them happening and certainly was not a participant.”

The motions for delaying the trial and the face-to-face defense strategy meeting were denied. Judge Boyce said he would issue written rulings on the death penalty issue later.

He also denied a motion by Madison County Prosecutor Rachel Smith to sequester the jurors during the expected 10-week trial. "This case involves the death of two children and the death of a mother of multiple children," Smith said.

The remains of Joshua and Ryan were found in June 2020, nine months after their mysterious disappearance. Vallow reportedly told a friend that the children had become zombies and the only way to exorcise their bodies of evil was to kill them.

Daybell's attorneys previously asked for the couple's trial to be separated, but a judge did not approve it.

Vallow is also facing a conspiracy to commit murder charge in Arizona in connection to the death of her first husband, Charles Vallow, who was gunned down by Vallow's brother in 2019. The brother claimed the shooting was in self-defense. He later died of natural causes.

Vallow was spotted smiling as she left the courthouse wearing a bulletproof vest and sporting a stylish hairdo — a bizarre reaction for a grieving mother about to go on trial for her children's murders.