Lori Vallow pleads not guilty to murder in fatal shooting of her 4th husband

Lori Vallow, the mother convicted of murdering two of her children in a so-called doomsday plot, was arraigned in Arizona Thursday morning on charges alleging she killed her fourth husband and plotted to kill the ex-husband of her niece.

Lori Vallow, 50, was extradited from Idaho to Arizona last week and booked in Maricopa County on first-degree murder and first-degree premeditated murder. She has been held without bond since her initial court appearance on Nov. 30.

The court entered a not guilty plea on her behalf for both counts.

Her trial has been scheduled to start on April 4, 2024.

Prosecutors asked for more time before the trial, arguing that the date wasn't scheduled properly for a first-degree murder case, which is "automatically complex." Lori Vallow's attorney objected. The judge kept the date as is and said the matter will need to be discussed at the next court appearance, scheduled for Jan. 18, 2024.

The court proceedings come after she was indicted by a Maricopa County grand jury in 2021 in connection with the killing of her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, who was fatally shot by her brother in 2019 during a confrontation at her Arizona home.

She was subsequently indicted by a Maricopa County grand jury in 2022 for allegedly scheming with her brother to kill Brandon Boudreaux, the ex-husband of her niece.

Lori Vallow, also known as Lori Vallow Daybell, is currently serving life in prison without parole at the Pocatello Women's Correctional Center in Pocatello, Idaho, after a jury found her guilty of two counts of first-degree murder for the 2019 deaths of her children, Joshua "J.J." Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 16.

Lori Vallow denied murdering her children, saying in court at her sentencing in July: "Jesus Christ knows the truth of what happened here. ... No one was murdered in this case. Accidental deaths happen. Suicides happen. Fatal side effects from medications happen."

Her attorney filed a notice of appeal in October in the case.

J.J. and Tylee were last seen in September 2019 and, following a monthslong search, their remains were found on an Idaho property belonging to her fifth husband, Chad Daybell, in June 2020.

Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell, the author of religious fiction books, both reportedly adhered to a doomsday ideology. She once claimed she was "a god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ's second coming in July 2020" and didn't want anything to do with her family "because she had a more important mission to carry out," according to court documents obtained by ABC News.

Friends have said Lori Vallow's 13-year marriage to Charles Vallow started to deteriorate after she became a fan of Daybell's books, with the two separating in 2019. Their blended family had included Tylee from Lori Vallow's third marriage, and Charles Vallow's nephew J.J., whom they adopted.

While at his estranged wife's home in Chandler, Arizona, to take J.J. to school in July 2019, Charles Vallow was fatally shot by her brother, Alex Cox. Her brother told police he shot his brother-in-law in self-defense. Police were investigating the claims when Cox himself died from natural causes months later.

Following a yearslong investigation, prosecutors alleged that Lori Vallow conspired with Cox to murder Charles Vallow, calling the case "complex" and "difficult."

Three months after the shooting of Charles Vallow, Boudreaux called 911 in October 2019 to report that someone driving by in a Jeep shot his vehicle outside his home in Gilbert, Arizona. He told police at the time he thought Cox was behind the wheel.

The indictment against Lori Vallow in the shooting alleges that she and Cox planned to murder Boudreaux. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office released the indictment in May with no further comment due to the pending case.