Court Digest

Arizona
Mom convicted of killing kids pleads not guilty to murder conspiracy
A woman sentenced to life in an Idaho prison for murdering her two youngest children and another woman has pleaded not guilty to charges in Arizona of conspiring to kill her estranged husband and her niece’s ex-husband.

Lori Vallow Daybell, dressed in an orange jail uniform, stated her name and birthdate when a judge asked her to do so during a five-minute arraignment hearing Thursday in state court in Phoenix. Her trial is scheduled for April 4.

Keith Terry, Vallow Daybell’s attorney, did not immediately return a phone call and email Thursday morning after the hearing seeking comment on his client’s behalf.

In 2019, Vallow Daybell still lived in a Phoenix suburb with her children, 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow and then-16-year-old Tylee Ryan. She was estranged from her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, at the time, and he had written in divorce filings that she claimed to be a goddess sent to usher in the Biblical apocalypse.

Charles Vallow was shot and killed by Vallow Daybell’s brother, Alex Cox, that summer. Cox told police he acted in self-defense and he was never charged. Cox died later that year of what investigators said were natural causes.

Shortly after Charles Vallow died, Vallow Daybell and her kids moved to Idaho. Prosecutors said she made the move to be closer to her then-boyfriend, Chad Daybell, and that together the two plotted to remove any obstacle to their happiness.

Chad Daybell has also been charged in the murders of the two kids and his late wife. He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

Over the next several weeks, Vallow Daybell’s two children disappeared and Chad Daybell’s then-wife, Tammy Daybell, died of what was initially believed to be natural causes. But authorities became suspicious when Lori Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell married just two weeks later, and determined Tammy Daybell had been asphyxiated.

Extended family members had also grown worried about the missing kids and police launched a multi-state investigation looking for the children. Their bodies were later found buried in Chad Daybell’s yard.

Meanwhile, another person connected to the family reported an attempted shooting. Brandon Boudreaux, who had recently divorced Vallow Daybell’s niece, said someone driving a Jeep had shot at him outside his home. The Jeep matched the description of one that had been purchased by Charles Vallow before his death.


Florida
Tampa teen faces murder charge in mass shooting
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A 14-year-old boy has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of a 20-year-old during a Halloween weekend mass shooting that left two people dead and 16 injured in Tampa’s Ybor City, officials said.

“This defendant is a perfect example of why we must take a strong stance against juvenile gun violence in our community,” Hillsborough State Attorney Suzy Lopez said during a Wednesday night news conference announcing the charges.

The teen is also charged with attempted aggravated battery and attempted murder in connection to the shooting, Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said. He said bullets and shell casings connected the teen to the 20-year-old victim, Harrison Boonstoppel.

The shooting happened after an argument broke out between two groups in the early morning hours of Oct. 29 as people were celebrating Halloween in one of Tampa’s entertainment districts.

Later that day, detectives arrested Tyrell Stephen Phillips, 22, who was charged with second-degree murder with a firearm. He is accused of killing 14-year-old Elijah Wilson.

A judge last week ordered Phillips to remain in jail until his trial. During that hearing, the man’s father, also named Terrell Phillips, told the judge the shooting was in self-defense and asked that he be released from jail, WFLA reported.

“My son is righteous and he’s responsible and he’s accountable and he has an incredible amount of integrity,” Terrell Phillips said.

The man’s attorney, David Parry, said during the hearing that the younger Phillips fired because he thought someone in the other group reached for a gun, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

The prosecutor suggested that the teenager charged with the murder of Boonstoppel, who the AP is not naming due to his age, had a previous criminal record. He will be charged as an adult, which is allowed under Florida law for many violent and non-violent felonies.

“He’s no stranger to the juvenile justice system, but he will no longer be treated like a juvenile,” Lopez said.

Police are searching for other suspects. Neither the teen nor Phillips have been charged with any of the other shootings that happened that night.

Boonstoppel’s mother spoke about her son during Wednesday’s news conference.

“I have been the mother of mothers watching over him my whole life,” Brucie Boonstoppel told reporters. “This is just senseless and we have to do something as a community to make it better for everybody, and I plan on doing that.”


New York
Lawsuit accuses college of negligence for harboring ex-con
NEW YORK (AP) — The New York college where ex-convict Lawrence Ray moved into his daughter’s campus housing and began grooming her friends for abuse has been sued by two former students and the sister of one of the students who say they suffered years of abuse because of the college’s negligence.

The plaintiffs allege in their lawsuit filed Nov. 21 in Manhattan federal court that Ray made little attempt to hide the fact that he had moved in with his daughter in 2010 and was allowed to remain on the campus of Sarah Lawrence College “while he committed acts of manipulation, grooming, sexual abuse, food deprivation and sleep deprivation.”

A college spokesperson said in a statement Thursday, “Larry Ray committed heinous crimes for which he properly has been held responsible, convicted, and sentenced. We hope that sentencing has brought some resolution to Ray’s victims, for whom the College has deep sympathy. We will not comment on any aspect of this litigation, beyond noting that we believe the facts will tell a different story than the unproven allegations made in the complaint that has been filed.”

Ray was convicted in April 2022 of charges including racketeering, conspiracy, forced labor and sex trafficking after weeks of testimony chronicling his manipulative relationship with young people in his daughter’s circle. Ray had moved into his daughter’s dorm at Sarah Lawrence, a small liberal arts school, after finishing a prison stint for a securities fraud conviction.

Ray was sentenced in January 2023 to 60 years in prison by a judge who called him an “evil genius” who used sadism and psychological torture to control his victims.

The plaintiffs in the civil lawsuit say they were abused and manipulated by Ray for years, first at Sarah Lawrence and later in other locations including a Manhattan condominium and a home in Piscataway, New Jersey.

They say college officials ignored the presence of a then-50-year-old man who moved into his daughter’s dormitory in the fall of 2010 and “immediately integrated himself into the lives of the young people who lived in it.”

Ray lived in the dorm for nearly an entire academic year, the lawsuit says, and during that time several students, community members and parents contacted the college to complain about Ray’s abusive behavior, yet the college “did nothing to investigate or intervene to prevent harm to Plaintiffs.”

The plaintiffs say Ray made himself so thoroughly at home that he once set off a fire alarm by cooking a meal.

Ray was the only person in the dorm room when firefighters and college security arrived, the lawsuit says, and no one from the college asked Ray what he was doing there. Nor was he monitored after the fire “to ensure he was not residing at the dormitory with the college students,” according to the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified damages for their pain and suffering as well as health care costs and lost potential income.


Oregon
Power company to pay nearly $300M to settle lawsuit over wildfires
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Electricity utility PacifiCorp will pay $299 million to settle a lawsuit brought by 463 individual plaintiffs who were harmed by devastating wildfires in southern Oregon in 2020.

The settlement announced Tuesday comes after the utility lost a similar lawsuit in June for wildfires in other parts of the state, The Oregonian reported.

The utility has faced several lawsuits from property owners and residents who say PacifiCorp negligently failed to shut off power to its 600,000 customers during a windstorm over Labor Day weekend in 2020, despite warnings from state leaders and top fire officials, and that its power lines caused multiple blazes.

The fires were among the worst natural disasters in Oregon’s history. They killed nine people, burned more than 1,875 square miles (4,856 square kilometers) and destroyed upward of 5,000 homes and other structures.

The settlement ends three years of legal wrangling with victims of the Archie Creek fire, which devastated communities along the North Umpqua River east of Roseburg. It is for a much smaller amount than the damages awarded by a jury in June to a different group of homeowners in connection with four other fires that broke out around the state.

In the June case, the jury ordered PacifiCorp to pay more than $70 million to 17 homeowners, with additional damages to be determined later for a broader group of victims that could include the owners of about 2,500 properties. That award came on top of an earlier verdict expected to amount to billions of dollars.

PacifiCorp vowed to appeal the June verdict, and more trials are set for next year to determine damages for additional plaintiffs in the case.

The settlement announced Tuesday means the utility will avoid the risk of trial and being ordered to pay additional damages, such as for emotional distress.

In a regulatory filing, PacifiCorp said the settlement amounts are consistent with amounts previously estimated and established in accounting reserves for the wildfires.

“PacifiCorp has settled and is committed to settling all reasonable claims for actual damages as provided under Oregon law,” the company said in a statement. “These settlements are in addition to settlements with other individuals and businesses, and hundreds of insurance claims PacifiCorp settled where homeowners and businesses have received insurance payments for their real and personal property damages and alternative living expenses.”

The plaintiffs’ lawyers declined to comment on specifics but heaped uncharacteristic praise on the company for settling.

“I want to congratulate the new CEO and the General Counsel of PacifiCorp for stepping up and doing the right thing by their ratepayers who lost their homes during the Labor Day 2020 fires,” Mikal Watts, the plaintiffs’ co-lead counsel, said in a statement. “Today’s settlement is the result of one thing — good lawyers and good corporate leadership.”

More lawsuits could be coming. PacifiCorp, owned by billionaire Warren Buffett’s investment conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, said in another recent financial filing that some government entities have informed the company that they are considering taking legal action. Total damages sought in the lawsuits filed so far is about $8 billion, the company said, excluding any doubling or tripling of damages, which could occur if jurors decide the utility’s conduct was bad enough to merit punitive damages.

PacifiCorp has asked state regulators to limit its liabilities to only the actual damages, which are determined by attempts to total up the amount of lost property or other costs suffered by victims because of the wildfires. State regulators have not yet made a decision.