Court hears Lori Vallow Daybell's appeal in Idaho killings of 2 of her children, romantic rival

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The Idaho Supreme Court is scheduled Monday to hear Lori Vallow Daybell’s appeal of her convictions in that state for killing her two youngest children and conspiring to murder a romantic rival.

She is asking the court to reverse her convictions in the deaths of Joshua “JJ” Vallow, Tylee Ryan and Tammy Daybell, whose husband married Vallow Daybell weeks later. JJ was 7, and Tylee was 16. Vallow Daybell holds doomsday religious beliefs and has claimed that people in her life were possessed by evil spirits.

The children went missing in 2019. Their bodies were found buried in rural Idaho on the property of Vallow Daybell’s new husband, Chad Daybell, an author of several religious novels about prophecies and the end of the world.

Vallow Daybell was sentenced to three life sentences in the state, while Chad Daybell was sentenced to death for the three killings.

Vallow Daybell was convicted separately in Arizona for conspiring to murder her estranged husband and her niece’s ex-husband, the latter of whom survived.

In the Idaho appeal, her lawyer argued that a lower court denied her a speedy trial, that it would not let her keep the attorney of her choice — the judge ruled that there was a conflict of interest because the lawyer had represented both her and her husband — and that it should not have allowed jurors to hear about the shootings involving Charles Vallow and Brandon Boudreaux in metro Phoenix.

Months after filing for divorce from Vallow Daybell, Charles Vallow was fatally shot in July 2019 in Chandler by Vallow Daybell’s brother, Alex Cox, whose claim of self-defense was later called into question by investigators.

Nearly three months after Charles Vallow’s killing, someone parked in a Jeep fired a gunshot at Boudreaux, the ex-husband of Vallow Daybell's niece, as he was driving up to his home in Gilbert, another Phoenix suburb. The shot narrowly missed Boudreaux.

Prosecutors say Vallow Daybell conspired with Cox to kill Charles Vallow so she could collect money from his life insurance policy and marry Chad Daybell, then her boyfriend. Cox, who was identified by prosecutors as the person who shot at Boudreaux, later died from a blood clot in his lungs.

Vallow Daybell received two life sentences for her Arizona convictions, and she has appealed those as well.

FILE - Lori Vallow Daybell sits during her sentencing hearing at the Fremont County Courthouse in St. Anthony, Idaho, July 31, 2023. (Tony Blakeslee/EastIdahoNews.com via AP, Pool, File)

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Uganda is withdrawing troops deployed for years in Somalia under an African Union peacekeeping force that helped repel militants in the Horn of Africa nation, military authorities said on Monday.

Ugandan troops are returning home under the terms of a bilateral agreement with Somali authorities, military spokesman Col. Chris Magezi said in a statement.

“The first cohort of troops under the phased withdrawal operation have already arrived back in Uganda,” the statement said.

All Ugandan troops are expected to depart Somalia by the end of 2027. Magezi told The Associated Press that thousands of Ugandans remain deployed in Somalia.

Ugandan troops were first deployed to Somalia in 2007 under the banner of an African Union mission presently known as the AU Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia, or AUSSOM.

It was a very dangerous deployment at a time when the extremist rebels of al-Shabab had to be dislodged from markets and other public areas in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. Many Ugandan peacekeepers were killed or wounded over the years, although authorities have not said precisely how many. Other peacekeepers came from countries such as Burundi and Kenya.

The exit from Somalia of Ugandan peacekeepers coincides with the end of the United Nations’ political mission there and as Somali authorities assert a need to take more charge of internal security arrangements.

The United Nations Transitional Assistance Mission in Somalia closed on Saturday after more than three decades of successive missions that helped rebuild a country shattered by civil war. The mission advised Somali leaders and helped resolve political disputes over the years.

Somali authorities see the closure as a milestone in the country’s ability to manage its own affairs. But opposition figures and analysts warn that it comes at a time when the president’s right to remain in office is contested and al-Shabab persists in its campaign.

United Nations aid agencies will remain in Somalia and a separate U.N. office will continue providing supplies, transport and other support to African Union troops and some Somali security units.

FILE - African Union (AU) soldiers stand with their armored vehicles near a checkpoint in Mogadishu, Somalia, on Feb. 7, 2017. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh, File)