"I understand she was very sociable," Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone said of Vallow's behavior on the day-long drive. "The entire trip, she talked quite a bit."
Lori Vallow arrived in Arizona in the early morning hours of Thursday ahead of her next murder trial.
The infamous cult mom, 50, is being held without bond on counts of first-degree murder and first-degree premeditated murder, according to inmate information from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.
Sheriff Paul Penzone said at a new conference on Thursday that Vallow's extradition had been complicated by inclement weather, forcing deputies to make an 18-hour drive to retrieve the prisoner from the Pocatello Women's Correctional Center in Idaho rather than fly.
They then travelled another 18 hours to extradite a very spirited Vallow from Idaho to Arizona, according to Penzone.
"I understand she was very sociable," Penzone said of Vallow's behavior on the day-long drive. "The entire trip, she talked quite a bit. I don't know that she gave any specific statements related to the investigation, but I just know that they said she was very chatty."
Vallow certainly seemed happy, smiling as she arrived at 2 a.m. and later in her booking photo.
These latest charges both stem from grand jury indictments in cases that were reexamined in the wake of Vallow's arrest by Idaho police back in 2020.
In 2021, a grand jury indicted Vallow for conspiring to kill her fourth husband Charles Vallow, who was fatally shot by her brother Alex Cox in July 2019. Cox told police at the time that he confronted Charles about abusing Vallow and shot his sister's then-estranged husband in self-defense after being hit with a baseball bat.
In February 2022, a separate grand jury indicted Vallow for conspiring to murder Brandon Boudreaux, her nephew-in-law. Police believe that in October 2019, just three months after the death of Charles, Cox attempted to kill Boudreaux by shooting him as he left the gym.
At the time of the shooting, Boudreaux was in a contentious divorce battle with Melani Pawlowski, the niece of Vallow and Cox.
Boudreaux was one of the first witnesses to take the stand earlier this year at Vallow's Idaho trial, which ended with a jury convicting her of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and grand theft in the deaths of her children Tylee, 16, and J.J., 7, as well as conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the death of Tammy Daybell.
Vallow is already serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole in Idaho following that conviction.
At the time of her death, Tammy was married to Vallow's fifth and current husband, Chad Daybell.
Vallow was first arrested back in 2020, months after her children disappeared in Idaho.
At the time, she and Daybell were enjoying an extended honeymoon in Hawaii.
It was not until months after her arrest that the bodies of her two children were discovered, buried on Daybell's property.
The jury deliberations were brief in that case after the prosecution described how the two children were allegedly killed by Vallow's brother Cox in their closing argument.
“JJ’s voice was silenced forever by a strip of duct tape placed across his mouth. A white plastic bag was placed over his head where it was secured tightly with duct tape wrapped around and around from his forehead to his neck," prosecutor Rob Wood said in his closing. "The evidence says he struggled and we’ll never know how long he fought before they wrapped tape around his wrists and ankles. He stopped breathing, his heart stopped beating and he died. It was a brutal, horrific murder of a 7-year old boy with special needs."
Wood then turned his attention to the death of Tylee.
"She was burned and buried in Chad Daybell’s backyard. What was left of her body they dumped in a green bucket and buried in a pet cemetery on top of a piece of her skull," Wood said.,
Wood also noted that Tylee had been "burned and dismembered" in his closing.
He then noted in his closing argument that Vallow shopped for a wedding dress on the day Tammy was allegedly murdered in her sleep.
In the end, Wood said the entire case boiled down to three things: "money, power, and sex."
Daybell will stand trial for his alleged role in their murders early next year. Not attending trial or testifying in any of these trials however is Cox, who suddenly died in December 2019 from a blood clot.
Vallow and Daybell's alleged beliefs were first described in a 2021 probable cause affidavit filed by the Chandler Police Department in Arizona, which included the allegation that Vallow was involved in her husband Charles' death.
"It was discovered that Lori Vallow believed she was an exalted Goddess and she and Chad were directed to lead 144,000 people in preparing for the end of the world," reads the affidavit.
It goes on to say: "It was discovered that Lori and Chad believed that they had extraordinary abilities. Some of these abilities included the power to teleport and cause harm to others, the ability to call up natural disasters, the ability to pray away demonic spirits attached to others and also visionary capabilities. Because of these abilities provided to them, they felt that they were qualified to tell whether someone had a 'light' or 'dark' scale associated with them. This scale would indicate whether or not they had demonic spirits attached to them."
Among those Vallow is alleged to have said had a "dark" scale were her ex-husband Charles and children J.J. and Tylee, according to the affidavit.
Vallow's former attorney said that his client is innocent of these latest charges during the course of her trial in Idaho while Daybell entered a plea of not guilty to the charges he is facing in Idaho.
It is expected that Vallow will enter a plea in this latest case when she appears in court next week.
