Lori Vallow’s indictment over Brandon Boudreaux murder conspiracy revealed days after Idaho conviction
Officials in Arizona announced they would pursue charges over attempt on Boudreaux’s life but existence of indictment was previously not known
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Lori Vallow was indicted by a grand jury in Maricopa County for conspiracy to commit the murder of Brandon Boudreaux more than a year ago, according to a report.
Vallow was charged on 24 February 2022 under the late Allister Adel, who was the county attorney at the time, Justin Lum of Fox 10 Phoenix reports.
The indictment states that Vallow and her late brother Alex Cox agreed that “at least one of them or another would engage in conduct constituting the offence of first-degree premeditated murder” on 2 October 2019.
Police in Gilbert, Arizona, say that Cox, who died in December 2019, shot at Mr Boudreaux outside his home from the back of a jeep after he returned home from the gym that morning.
This is the third time that Cox is named as a co-conspirator in a grand jury indictment of Vallow.
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First in the murder charges for which she was convicted in Idaho; second on the murder conspiracy charge in the death of Charles Vallow in Chandler, Arizona; and now third in the attempted murder of Mr Boudreaux.
On Friday, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office in Arizona announced that in addition to pursuing charges against Vallow over the murder of her fourth husband Charles Vallow, they also plan to prosecute her in the attempted murder of Mr Boudreaux. It was not known that she had been indicted by a grand jury at that point.
The Attorney’s Office made the announcement after Vallow was found guilty on all six charges at her trial for the murder of her children Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow, and for her role in the conspiracy to murder her current husband’s late wife Tammy Daybell.
In July 2019, two months before the murders of the children, Charles Vallow was shot dead by Cox at the family home. He claimed he shot his brother-in-law in self-defence.
The preponderance of evidence at Vallow’s trial in Boise, Idaho, suggests that his death was the first step in a wider plot by Vallow and her current husband Chad Daybell to rid their lives of “obstacles” as they termed their spouses and her children, as the court heard in text messages entered into evidence.
Mr Boudreaux was married to Vallow’s niece Melani Pawlowski (she remarried in November 2019 to Ian Pawlowski, who testified at Vallow’s trial). Melani was very close to Vallow and believed in many of the same bizarre doomsday prophecies espoused by her and Mr Daybell.
This ultimately ended her marriage to Mr Boudreaux with whom she shared custody of their five children. From evidence heard at Vallow’s trial, it is apparent that he too was considered an “obstacle” and — in their beliefs — a “dark” spirit had possessed him.
Google location data allegedly showed Alex Cox travelling from Idaho to Gilbert, Arizona, in early October 2019.
On 2 October an attempt was made on the life of Mr Boudreaux when he was shot at after returning home from the gym. He had earlier taken his older children to school and dropped the youngest off at Ms Pawlowski’s home.
The shots were fired from the back window of a grey Jeep Wrangler that had had its back spare tyre removed. Video footage from a storage facility in Idaho showed Cox and Vallow placing the spare tyre in a storage facility the day before he drove south to Maricopa County and then taking it back out a few days later.
Mr Boudreaux gave heartbreaking testimony at Vallow’s trial about the end of his marriage to Ms Pawlowski and broke down as he recalled having to be the person who identified JJ Vallow’s remains.
Questions linger over Ms Pawlowski’s involvement in the attempt on her former husband’s life. She was present in court in Boise for Vallow’s trial as her husband testified, but did not take the stand herself much to the surprise of those closely watching the case.
Other women — Zulena Pastenes and Melanie Gibb — who were close to Vallow and involved in the strange rituals she conducted as part of their shared beliefs about the second coming did testify.
Cox died in December 2019, after telling Ms Pastenes — whom he had married shortly before — that he feared he would be the “fall guy” for Mr Daybell and his sister.