The brother of Lori Daybell, the mother convicted of murdering two of her children in a so-called doomsday plot, took the stand on Thursday during her latest trial in Arizona, where she is charged with conspiring with their other brother to kill her fourth husband.
Adam Cox, a witness for the prosecution, testified that he had “no doubt” his two siblings conspired to kill Charles Vallow upon learning that his brother fatally shot him during a confrontation at Lori Daybell’s home in Chandler, Arizona, in July 2019.
Lori Daybell, 51, dubbed the “doomsday mom,” is representing herself in the ongoing Phoenix trial. She has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in connection with Vallow’s killing.
She told jurors that the evidence will show that Alex Cox, who died months after the incident from natural causes, shot her husband in self-defense, and that she and Vallow were happily married for 13 years.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, said the shooting was a ploy for Lori Daybell to get rid of her estranged husband so that she could get his $1 million life insurance policy and marry her current husband, Chad Daybell. Prosecutors further said she invoked their religious beliefs as justification for the murder and gave her brother “religious authority” to kill Vallow because they believed he was possessed by an evil spirit they referred to as “Ned.”
Both Lori and Chad Daybell were found guilty of first-degree murder for the deaths of her children, Joshua “J.J.” Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 16, who went missing months after Vallow was killed. In two separate trials in 2023 and 2024, prosecutors argued that the couple thought the children were possessed zombies and murdered them so that they could be together. The children’s remains were found on an Idaho property belonging to Daybell in June 2020 following a monthslong search.
Lori Daybell cross-examines her brother, Adam Cox, during her murder trial in Phoenix, Arizona, April 10, 2025.
Pool via ABC News
Adam Cox told the jury on Thursday that he traveled to Chandler the day before Vallow was killed to stage a surprise intervention on Lori Daybell to address what they found to be concerning religious beliefs that went beyond what was accepted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“It seemed like Charles was just desperate, and he wanted to do anything he could to this last ditch effort to try to shake Lori loose of whatever she was under, some spell, that he said,” Adam Cox said.
He testified that he had been texting with Vallow the morning of the shooting, as Vallow went to the home to pick up J.J., his and Lori Daybell’s adopted son, and bring him to school.
Adam Cox said he had reached out to his brother after arriving in Arizona but never heard from him, so he was shocked to learn from Vallow that Alex Cox was also at the home that morning. “They are planning something,” prosecutors said Adam Cox texted Vallow, while showing their message exchange in court.
“Nobody in my family said they heard from him or knew where he was, all that’s very suspicious to me. And then Alex being at Lori’s house that morning, it felt like something was really off,” Adam Cox said.
Adam Cox said his two siblings didn’t tell him about the shooting, and that he didn’t learn that his brother killed Vallow until days later, from a Google search.
“I had this knot in my stomach, just probably one of the worst feelings I’ve ever felt in my life,” Adam Cox said of the discovery.
He said he found it “extreme” that Alex Cox would bring a loaded gun and extra ammunition to his sister’s house when he knew her young son would be there.
He said he told his family he believed Lori Daybell and his brother conspired to kill Vallow.
“Lori had told people that Charles was no longer living, that some guy named ‘Ned’ was inside of his body, that there was a zombie living inside of him. Alex didn’t respond to any of my text messages when I was supposed to be with him, and he was at that house that morning. Lori talking crazy about how she’s a translated being — all these things all added up into that moment and that morning, once I found out on Saturday that Charles was shot and killed, no doubt in my mind that they killed him,” he said. “That’s a feeling that I got.”
Lori Daybell gives her opening statement in her murder trial in Maricopa County, Arizona, April 7, 2025.
Pool/ABC News
In her brief cross-examination, Lori Daybell, referring to her brother as Mr. Cox, asked him if it was the case that they have not been close over the past 20 years, to which he responded, “Yes.”
“Did you see or hear or personally witness me conspire with my brother Alex Cox to murder my husband?” she asked, to which Adam Cox responded, “No.”
Lori Daybell is currently serving life in prison without parole for the murders of her two children. She has denied killing them.
Chad Daybell was sentenced to death after being convicted of murdering the two children, as well as his first wife, Tamara Daybell, and now awaits execution on Idaho’s death row.
