Just days before the commencement of her second trial in Arizona, Lori Vallow Daybell, also known as the “cult mom,” has filed a motion to have the judge removed. She claims the judge harbors a “personal bias or prejudice against her.”
Judge Justin Beresky presided over her previous trial last month, during which she was found guilty of conspiring with her brother, Alex Cox, to murder her fourth husband. This occurred a few months before her marriage to Chad Daybell and the subsequent disappearance of her two children. The bodies of 7-year-old JJ Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan were later discovered on Chad Daybell’s property. Both Lori and Chad were found guilty of murder in Idaho concerning the children’s deaths.
They were also found guilty in relation to the death of Daybell’s former wife, Tammy Daybell, who died weeks before his marriage to Lori. Vallow Daybell received three life sentences, while Chad Daybell was sentenced to death. Lori was not charged in connection with the shooting death of her previous husband, Charles Vallow, or the attempted murder of her niece’s former husband, Brandon Bourdeaux. That trial is set to begin next month.
Vallow Daybell complains in her motion — she is representing herself in the Arizona trials — that Beresky has refused to recuse himself, “knowingly and willingly violating the code of Judicial Conduct,” according to KSAZ. She complains that a rule related to speedy trials was also violated and that Beresky has displayed religious discrimination against her.
Daybell also mentions religion, bringing up his comment “I guess to the extreme that you are comparing yourself to these biblical figures I will allow it.” She says media networks aired this “malicious act by Judge Beresky”, discriminating against her religious beliefs. pic.twitter.com/sn22k85CuG
— Justin Lum | 林俊豪 (@jlumfox10) May 28, 2025
Vallow Daybell previously asked Beresky to step down during a hearing for the upcoming trial on May 14.
“You denied every single one of my motion for the year and a half that I’ve been here,” Vallow Daybell said during the hearing. “Every single one of my motions [have] been denied.”
Beresky pointed out that he had granted several of her motions, specifically noting one just a few minutes before her statement.
“File motions that have a legal basis, and I might grant them,” Beresky said.
Earlier this month, a judge denied Vallow Daybell’s request for a new trial based on her contention that one of the jurors in the murder conspiracy trial knew about her convictions in Idaho.
While Vallow Daybell was found guilty in the conspiracy to murder trial, she won’t be sentenced until the attempted murder trial concludes.
