An Idaho judge on Tuesday ordered “cult mom” Lori Vallow Daybell committed to a mental health facility to undergo treatment before a decision is made on whether she’s mentally fit to stand trial for allegedly killing her two children, a report said.
Vallow will be turned over to the state’s Department of Health and Welfare for up to 90 days for treatment to “restore her competency,” EastIdahoNews.com reported.
If her treatment is successful, court proceedings in her case will resume as previously scheduled, according to the report. If not, the pause in proceedings will continue for up to 180 days, the report said.
Vallow was ordered committed by District Judge Steven Boyce, who wrote that she “does lack (the) capacity to make informed decisions about treatment.”
The judge added, however, that “the defendant is not dangerously mentally ill.”
Vallow and her husband, Chad Daybell, were indicted on murder charges in May in the deaths of her two children, 17-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow.
Chad was also charged with the death of his ex-wife, Tammy Daybell, who was previously said to have died in her sleep.
A grand jury in Idaho indicted the couple for murder and conspiracy to commit murder for the deaths of the kids. They could face life in prison if convicted.
As part of conspiracy charges against the pair — who are members of the doomsday cult Preparing a People — prosecutors wrote that they espoused and taught “religious beliefs” with the purpose of “justifying” the kids’ deaths.
The pair also texted one another about “death percentages” for Tammy and JJ, and said Chad’s ex-wife was in “limbo” and “possessed by a spirit named Voila,” prosecutors allege in the documents.
Police found the decomposing remains of JJ and Tylee last June, buried in a pet cemetery on Chad’s property in Rexburg, Idaho.
