Lori Vallow trial: Jury selection set to begin for doomsday cult mom | What you need to know
The ruling on the dismissal of the death penalty only applies to Vallow, whose trial is set to begin April 3.
The trial of Lori Vallow Daybell is ready to get underway Monday. The Idaho woman is accused of killing her two youngest children, as well her husband's ex-wife, in a sensational case that's had many twists and turns.
All eyes are on an Idaho courtroom, where a jury will determine if Vallow killed her two children, 7-year-old Joshua "JJ" and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan. She is also accused in the death of her husband's late wife, Tammy.
A separate trial will be held for her husband, Chad Daybell, who is also accused in their murders.
Both have pleaded not guilty.
"What we can expect to see, at least from the defense, is some sort of effort to make Lori Vallow Daybell look like she's insane -- that she's suffering from delusions, she suffering from mental illness, and that she didn't know what she was doing," said attorney David Glass.
The news of her children's deaths came after the grandparents reported them missing in 2019 and after Vallow privately married the doomsday author in Hawaii and joined his religious group.
After nine months of searching, the children were found buried in a shallow grave on their stepdad's Idaho property.
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"It's like the world just stopped," said Larry Woodcock, the biological grandfather of JJ. "Iit was a hard day for us. Very hard day."
But prosecutors have painted a grim story. They say they used doomsday beliefs to kill the children, and that they killed Tammy to steal her social security funds and insurance money.
"Ever since she's been involved in this doomsday cult, that is not the same Lori that we knew for 13 years," Woodcock said.
RELATED: 'Doomsday cult' changed mom of missing Idaho children, grandfather says
According to court papers, a friend said Vallow had told her around JJ's disappearance that he was a zombie and 'a person's true spirit was stuck until the host body is physically killed.'
"If Lori is convicted, we'd expect the maximum possible penalty that the court can give, which would be life in prison without parole," Glass said.
