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LONDON — High-level talks aimed at bringing a pause to fighting in Ukraine disintegrated Wednesday after Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff pulled out of the meeting, dealing a blow to Kyiv’s hopes for a short-term peace agreement.

While ministerial talks that had been planned to take place in London fell apart, President Donald Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg still planned to meet with Ukrainian presidential chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, who arrived in London early Wednesday along the Ukrainian defense and foreign ministers.

“Despite everything, we continue working for peace,” Yermak said in a post on X.

The setback comes during a week in which the Trump administration has doubled down in efforts to push Kyiv and Moscow towards a truce. Next week marks 100 days of a second presidential term for Trump, who promised to end the war on his first day back in office. Rubio suggested last week that the U.S. may walk away from ceasefire efforts failing any further progress.

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce confirmed Tuesday that Rubio would skip the meeting hours after saying the opposite. “That is not a statement regarding the meetings. It’s a statement about logistical issues in his schedule,” she said.

Despite initial plans to attend the slated talks, neither Rubio nor Witkoff were in London on Wednesday, a European diplomat told NBC News.

The U.K.’s foreign ministry issued said in a statement that “the Ukraine peace talks meeting with foreign ministers today is being postponed,” with top officials from France and Germany also confirming their absence.

Expectations that Kyiv and Moscow would make a deal to end their three-year-long war this week remained low after the U.S. presented Ukraine and its European allies with peace proposals last week in Paris that both sides saw as unacceptable, according to NBC News’ international partner, Sky News.

Under a “terms sheet” offered by Rubio and Witkoff, a land-for-peace deal would recognize Russia’s currently illegal annexation of Crimea and work towards lifting European Union sanctions on Russia. Both parties have since rejected the terms.

After months of upbeat statements on indirect U.S.-led talks, but limited practical engagement, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday suggested for the first time that he would be open to bilateral ceasefire talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The Financial Times reported Tuesday that Putin had also offered to halt fighting along current front lines, leaving around a fifth of Ukraine’s territory in Russian hands.

Zelenskyy has not responded to such a suggestion but he rejected the suggestion Tuesday that his country would give up its claim to Crimea.

“There’s nothing to talk about here,” he said of the disputed peninsula in a media conference Tuesday. “This is against our Constitution.”

Despite the collapse in Wednesday’s talks, Putin is still planning on another meeting with Witkoff in Moscow this week, according to Russian news agency TASS.

In a media conference Wednesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov welcomed the Trump administration’s continuing mediation efforts.

“We continue our contacts,” Peskov said. “Still, of course, there are many details regarding the settlement, a lot of details which need to be discussed, where we need to bring positions closer to one another.”

Before Rubio and Witkoff changed their plans, the U.K. and France — two leaders of Europe’s “coalition of the willing” — had originally hoped instead to negotiate security guarantees and reconstruction projects with the U.S., and provide details of plans to ramp up their defense spending.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Tuesday that Europe would attempt to make clear to the U.S. what their “red lines” would be in any negotiations and settlement with Russia. A French diplomatic source later said that Barrot would not be able to travel to London due to a scheduling conflict.

British Foreign Minister David Lammy said Tuesday a post on X that he had held a “productive” phone call with Rubio and that “the U.K. is working with the U.S., Ukraine and Europe for peace and to put an end to Putin’s illegal invasion.”

Rubio echoed the sentiment, posting that “I look forward to following up after the ongoing discussions in London and rescheduling my trip to the U.K. in the coming months.”

As the Vatican prepares for the election of a new pope, many around the world are doing their own preparations — by watching a movie about it. 

After news of Pope Francis’ death broke Monday, the film “Conclave” had a viewership boost across streaming platforms it was available to watch on, according to Luminate, an entertainment data analytics company.  

Edward Berger’s drama, which won the Oscar this year for best adapted screenplay, goes behind the scenes of the Vatican for the secretive process of electing a pope. The process is complicated further by power-hungry cardinals, played by Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow. (The film’s distributor is Focus Features, a unit of NBC News’ parent corporation, Comcast.) 

Since its release in October, the movie has spawned a fervent fan base online, with many social media users circulating a slew of viral memes and passionate fan edits comparing it to pop culture staples like “The Real Housewives” and “Mean Girls.”  

Existing fans and a new wave of viewers sought it out this week as tributes to Pope Francis poured in from around the world.

From Sunday to Monday, viewership spiked 283%, according to Luminate, which measures viewership data across major platforms in the United States, including Peacock, Netflix, Paramount+, Max and Disney+. The movie was watched an average of 1.8 million minutes Sunday. The number surged to 6.9 million minutes watched Monday, Luminate said.  

A spokesperson for Focus Features did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the streaming data.  

On social media, many pointed out that the film’s plot mirrored current news headlines, including stories about who could succeed Pope Francis.

Some “Conclave” fans did not appear surprised by the film’s resurgence in the zeitgeist.  

“I think there’s a lot of grief and pain attached to current events, and being able to use Conclave memes as a common/shared language of community offers some brevity and humor to a clandestine process and historical event that will significantly alter the trajectory of many peoples’ lives,” said the administrator behind Pope Crave, a fan account on X that is dedicated to all things “Conclave.”  

Pope Crave, who has 16,000 followers on X, asked NBC News by email to use only their username, citing a need for “separation” between their professional work and “fandom extracurriculars.” 

“I cannot speak for the religious breakdown of ‘Conclave’ fans, but it doesn’t shock me that Catholic fans of the film would be engaged in the actual papal conclave outcomes,” Pope Crave said. “And for the non-Catholic ‘Conclave’ fans, I would hypothesize there’s something to be said about the abrupt relevance and sudden application of their film knowledge and fandom enthusiasm to a seismically important current global event that holds importance to over 1.25 billion practitioners (and even more non-believers).”

Michael Moreland, a professor of law and religion at Villanova University, said the mass appeal of “Conclave” captured how, even in a secular modern age, there is still pervasive intrigue around “the ancient rituals of the Catholic Church.” 

The conclave process involves a gathering of Catholic Church cardinals, who are senior advisers to the pope (based in the Vatican or around the world), under age 80. Bound by an oath of secrecy, the cardinals vote in the Sistine Chapel via paper ballots until a pope is elected by a two-thirds majority. 

“All the charisma and the mystery around Catholicism and the ways in which these men in the College of Cardinals go about assembling and deliberating and voting in the secret process that no one except one of them has seen,” Moreland said, “all of that is very fascinating.” 

“Conclave” paints a relatively accurate picture of the way candidates rise and fall throughout the intense balloting process, which can last for however many days it takes to reach the required two-thirds vote, Moreland said. He was disappointed, however, in the film’s outsize focus on “crude right-left divides.” 

“The significance of the theological and spiritual aspects of Catholicism and this process of electing a pope was kind of reduced into partisan politics,” he said.  

On Tuesday, “Conclave” was made available to stream on Amazon Prime. The timing was coincidental, according to Amazon, as the movie was already scheduled to release on the streaming platform this month. 

As of Tuesday afternoon, many stars of “Conclave” had not yet issued any statements about Francis’ death.

However, in February, when he was in critical condition, the cast addressed the timeliness of the film at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.   

“The film has ended up extremely timely … and it’s about the social organism electing a leader,” Lithgow, who played Cardinal Tremblay, one of the film’s antagonists who is among the front-runners to become the next pope, told reporters.  

“You cannot help seeing ‘Conclave’ and not thinking what happens when different tribes quarrel with each other trying to decide on who is their leader,” he added. “That’s one big reason why people are paying attention to ‘Conclave,’ beyond the fact that it’s simply a beautiful film that you just don’t see storytelling on film like that much anymore.” 

The funeral for Francis will be at 10 a.m. local time (4 a.m. ET) Saturday in St. Peter’s Square in front of St. Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican said. The conclave will follow the funeral.

People are turning to this Oscar-winning film to find out how a conclave works

Procession carrying Francis’ body to St. Peter’s Basilica begins

Second congregation to be held after Francis’ body is transferred

Inside gelato shop that served Pope Francis’ favorite treats

Francis’ body to be transferred to St. Peter’s Basilica today

Pope Francis’ death leaves Catholic Church at a crossroads after he charted a progressive path

It was March 13 when Nedizon Alejandro Leon Rengel called his brother Neiyerver Adrián Leon Rengel to wish him a happy birthday.  

Alejandro never heard back from him. Federal agents detained Adrián on his way to his job at a Dallas barbershop. 

For the next five weeks, Alejandro has searched for Adrián, trying to learn where he was: deported to another country? Held in an immigration facility in the United States?  

He and Adrián’s live-in girlfriend called Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Texas, getting shifted from office to office with different responses. 

Sometimes they were told Adrián was still in detention. Another time they were told that he had been deported back to “his country of origin,” El Salvador, even though Adrián is Venezuelan. (Alejandro provided NBC News with audio recordings of the calls.) 

Their mother went to a detention center in Caracas, Venezuela, where deportees are held when they arrive from the United States, Alejandro said, but she was told no one by her son’s name was there.  

They enlisted the help of advocacy groups. Cristosal, a nonprofit organization in El Salvador working with families of presumed deportees to get answers from the U.S. and Salvadoran governments, had no answers. Same with the League of United Latin American Citizens, known as LULAC.  

Alejandro’s 6-year-old niece asked him almost every day: When will her dad call her? 

“For 40 days, his family has been waiting to hear his fate,” LULAC CEO Juan Proaño said. 

Finally, on Tuesday, an answer. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed to NBC News that Adrián had, in fact, been deported — to El Salvador.  

The news “saddens me a lot” and “shattered me,” Alejandro said after he heard about his brother’s whereabouts from NBC News.  

DHS didn’t respond when it was asked whether Adrián was sent to CECOT, the mega-prison in El Salvador. But Alejandro fears that’s the case, given the many Venezuelans who were sent to CECOT from Texas a few days after he was detained.

“There, [El Salvador President Nayib] Bukele says demons enter their hell,” Alejandro said about the prison, speaking on the phone from the restaurant where he works. “And my brother is not a criminal. At this moment, I don’t feel very good. The news has hit me like a bucket of cold water.” 

The Rengel family’s experience echoes the experiences of others who have encountered the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts — sometimes their family members seemingly disappear after having been taken by immigration authorities. 

The administration has prioritized deporting men alleged to be members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which it has designated as a foreign terrorist organization under the 1700s-era wartime Alien Enemies Act. 

“Neiyerver Adrian Leon Rengel, entered our country illegally in 2023 from Venezuela and is an associate of Tren De Aragua,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told NBC News by email. “Tren de Aragua is vicious gang that rapes, maims, and murders for sport. President Trump and [DHS] Secretary [Kristi] Noem will not allow foreign terrorist enemies to operate in our country and endanger Americans. They will always put the safety of the American people first.” 

Asked for details and documents supporting DHS’ allegations of criminality, McLaughlin responded: “We aren’t going to share intelligence reports and undermine national security every time a gang member denies he is one. That would be insane.” 

Adrian’s family denies he is a member of the gang. 

“For me, it’s a forced disappearance, because he’s not communicating with anyone, they’re not permitting him a right to anything, and they’re not giving him a right to a defense — from what I understand, here we’re all innocent until it’s proved contrary,” Alejandro said.  

“Then the only offense we have here is to be a migrant and be Venezuelan, and now the government has turned against this nationality,” he said, adding the government believes “we all belong to Tren de Aragua.” 

Adrián, 27, came to the United States in 2023 by appointment through the CBP One app. Alejandro provided NBC News a photo of a printout confirming his brother’s June 12, 2023, appointment.  

Adrián had also applied for temporary protected status, according to a Dec. 1, 2024, document from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a part of DHS that handles immigration benefits. 

In November, Adrián’s car wasn’t working, so he got a ride with a co-worker, Alejandro said. Police in Irving, Texas, stopped the co-worker, who had outstanding traffic violations, and detained them both after they found a marijuana trimmer in the co-worker’s vehicle, Alejandro said.  

Police charged Adrián with a Class C misdemeanor of possession of drug paraphernalia, punishable by up to a $500 fine.  

“I don’t know why that charge was leveled against him, because first, it wasn’t his car,” said Alejandro, 32. “Second, the belongings in the car were not his.” 

Documents provided by Alejandro show Adrián pleaded guilty/no contest — the document doesn’t specify which he pleaded — and was fined $492. Alejandro said his brother was paying the fine in monthly installments.  

Adrián had a crown tattoo with the initial “Y,” the first letter of his ex-wife’s name, on his hand, Alejandro said. When he was arrested in November, officers told him they were linking him to Tren de Aragua “because of that tattoo,” Alejandro said. 

That’s why he later covered it with a tiger tattoo, Alejandro said. ICE has pointed to tattoos, including those of a crown, as indicators of membership in Tren de Aragua. Adrián also has a tattoo of his mother’s name on one of his biceps.  

“We are not criminal people. We are people who studied professions in Venezuela. We had careers; we’re not people who are linked with any of that,” said Alejandro, who had jobs in banking and insurance in Venezuela and other Latin American countries but now works at a restaurant.  

Adrián graduated from high school in Venezuela with a focus on science, Alejandro said, later taking a barber course amid the country’s dismal economy.  

Adrián emigrated to Colombia with his then-wife and daughter and worked there for a several years. When the area became unsafe, he moved his wife and daughter back to Venezuela and then went to Mexico and applied for a CBP One appointment to enter the United States.  

Adrián came to the United States “because we all know the political, social and economic situation in Venezuela” and he wanted to make enough money to buy his daughter a house back home, Alejandro said.  

Before he got confirmation that his brother was in El Salvador, Alejandro said, he would sometimes get on his knees and pray. “I’ve had moments where I think ‘at any moment he’s going to call’ and then moments when I’m shattered and I don’t know what to do.” 

“I never, ever thought I would go through a situation like this,” he said, adding that the only thing he thought would happen when he came to the United States himself as a migrant was that “they either give you asylum or they deport you. Not a forced disappearance.” 

Country music star Jelly Roll is a step closer to being granted a pardon for crimes he committed, including robbery, in his younger days, a Tennessee sheriff said.

Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall said Tuesday on X that the state Board of Parole voted to endorse a pardon for the singer, legally known as Jason B. Deford, 40. The Associated Press reported that the vote was unanimous, with one member recusing.

Under Tennessee law, the matter is now before Gov. Bill Lee, who can grant a pardon, grant a commutation erasing Jelly Roll’s criminal record or turn down the request.

Spokespersons for the board and for the governor did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night.

Hall said he asked Lee to pardon Jelly Roll roughly a year ago, and he indicated that Tuesday’s vote was part of that endeavor.

Jelly Roll, known for his face tattoos and prodigious presence, sharpened his rap skills in prison before he blended them with country music for a career that earned him four Grammy Award nominations in February.

He has used his experience as a basis for some of his music and to inspire others imprisoned, attracted to lives of crime or otherwise marginalized with little sense of hope.

He speaks at prisons, rehabilitation programs and schools. In April, he accepted an award for his advocacy from the World Literacy Foundation at its annual summit at Oxford University, where a host likened him to a modern-day Johnny Cash.

Jelly Roll has said he’s not allowed to vote because of his criminal convictions.

He said he spent most of the years between ages 14 and 25 behind bars, with his most consequential conviction being for a robbery. He admitted on a podcast last month that he sold drugs in his Nashville neighborhood, where “the only people who had money did crime.”

He said a low point in life was when a prison guard came to his cell to report his daughter had been born — 17 years ago.

“I had the one pair of clothes that I was incarcerated in,” he said on the “SmartLess” podcast. “I had zero money. In fact, I was in debt. It was the most honest accountability and self-reflection moment in my life.”

Jelly Roll rapped in prison, he said, and eventually more than 200 prisoners surrounded him for Friday night performances. “We’d beat on the walls,” he said on the podcast, referring to makeshift rap beats.

“It felt like we’d be free for the night,” he said.

He was released from prison in late 2016, according to state records. He didn’t immediately break through in music, but he clawed at his dreams, “living in a van and doing $50 shows,” he said on the podcast.

His music told some of his story. “Save Me” in 2020 includes the lines “Somebody save me, me from myself/I’ve spent so long living in Hell/They say my lifestyle is bad for my health/It’s the only thing that seems to help.”

Testifying in favor of new legislation to address fentanyl overdoses, Jelly Roll told Congress last year that a passenger jet’s worth of synthetic opioid users die every day, often relatively unnoticed, in the United States.

The deaths don’t capture the attention of a plane crash because the people who died are less valued, he said. “America has been known to bully and shame drug addicts,” he told federal lawmakers in January 2024.

Jelly Roll said he’s doing his part for those entangled in drugs and the justice system.

“I’m a guy that proves it’s never too late to change,” he said on the podcast.

“Because so many of the matters we handle on behalf of our clients, across practice areas, require productive interaction and engagement with the federal government—and because so many of our clients also value a productive relationship with the federal government and have significant commercial relationships with the federal government- we immediately understood that the effects of the executive order would destroy the firm, even if we ultimately prevailed in court,” Karp wrote.

Part of the firm’s agreement was to provide the administration tens of millions of dollars in free legal work for causes the president supports, but Karp said the administration “will not determine what matters we take on. We obviously could not ethically have agreed to such a condition.”

Another of the firms that struck a deal was Wilkie Farr & Gallagher LLP. K. Lee Blalack II of O’Melveny & Myers LLP, who is representing the firm, told the lawmakers in a letter that his client’s agreement “is consistent with Wilkie’s practices and core values, including client service and serving as a steward for the Firm’s employees, its clients, and the broader community.”

Blalack wrote that Wilkie “received outreach from the Administration in late March” and “began discussions with the Administration about a potential alternative resolution” to head off a Trump EO. He added that “nothing in the agreement will require our client to change course with respect to its values or its operations.”

Kirkland’s W. Neil Eggleston wrote that under the agreement, they would “continue to operate with the merit-based philosophy that is and has always been the essence of Kirkland and to provide substantial pro bono services on a non-partisan basis.”

In a joint statement, Blumenthal and Raskin said the responses were “inadequate” and troubling. “These responses only deepen our concern about what conditions are in place to coerce these firms into providing free legal services to the President’s pet causes — and what other provisions of their agreement these firms may be hiding,” the statement said.

Evacuation orders were issued in New Jersey, and traffic on the major Garden State Parkway was being diverted, due to a wildfire that began Tuesday and grew to more than 3,200 acres, officials said.

Around 3,000 people have been told to evacuate from the are of the Jones Road Fire in Ocean County, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said.

The service announced on social media shortly before 12:30 p.m. that the fire was burning in the Greenwood Forest Wildlife Management Area in Barnegat Township.

The cause remains under investigation. It was 5 % contained Tuesday night.

No deaths or injuries have been reported, but the state forest fire service said that 1,320 structures were threatened.

The Garden State Parkway runs north and south through the state. Southbound traffic was being diverted at Exit 80, and northbound traffic was bring diverted at Exit 63, New Jersey State Police said.

The southern part of Ocean County and the state are under either abnormally dry or drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

The New Jersey Forest Fire Service lists the region as being in a “high” fire risk.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said Tuesday that President Donald Trump called him over the weekend to discuss the arson attack on the governor’s home in Harrisburg roughly a week after the incident.

Shapiro said that Trump called Saturday morning and that he was “very gracious.”

“I appreciated that the president called me,” Shapiro, a Democrat, told reporters at the annual Easter Egg Hunt in Harrisburg, held at the Governor’s Residence. “I actually didn’t take his call because it came from his cellphone and I didn’t have that number in my phone, so I didn’t know who it was. As soon as I heard his message, I called him right back.”

“He was very gracious,” Shapiro said, adding that Trump asked about his wife and children as they “talked for a couple minutes about what transpired at the residence.”

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The six days between the April 13 arson attack and Trump’s call contrasted sharply with Shapiro’s efforts in the immediate aftermath of attempt on Trump’s life at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July.

Shapiro swiftly condemned the assassination attempt, calling violence against any political party or leader “absolutely unacceptable” on social media the day of the shooting. He also worked with law enforcement and called the Trump campaign, though he did not speak with Trump directly.

Shapiro’s home sustained significant damage this month after a man allegedly broke into the governor’s residence while Shapiro and his family were inside and used Molotov cocktails to start multiple fires.

Trump did not forcefully condemn the attack, even as others in his administration and prominent Republicans publicly commented on it.

Asked whether a motive in the attack had been identified, Trump said last week that he had not heard about one, adding that the attacker “was not a fan of Trump.”

“He’s probably just a whack job. And certainly a thing like that cannot be allowed to happen,” Trump said at the time.

Shapiro said Tuesday that his call with Trump lasted close to 20 minutes and that they spoke about “a whole host of other topics” besides the arson attack.

“He’s attuned to the issues that are important to me,” Shapiro said, adding that he knows “the issues that are important to him.”

Shapiro on Tuesday talked about one of those issues — tariffs — saying he hopes Trump “will re-adjust his tariff plan to make Americans and companies confident in investing in capital again.”

“I’ve been critical of these tariffs because they’re going to drive up prices, and we’re already seeing that. And because it’s going to have companies and individuals, families, keep their capital in their pockets because they’re worried about the future, and with the uncertainty and the chaos that these tariffs bring, it’s going to be more capital staying on the sidelines,” he said.

LOS ANGELES — A California jury on Tuesday convicted a judge of fatally shooting his wife after an argument at their Anaheim Hills home in 2023, the district attorney’s office said.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson was convicted of second-degree murder around six weeks after an earlier jury deadlocked 11-1 in favor of a guilty verdict, leading to a mistrial. The case was re-tried, resulting in Tuesday’s conviction.

Ferguson, 72, shot his wife, Sheryl, on Aug. 3, 2023, but said the shooting was accidental.

Prosecutors said he shot her in the chest with a .40-caliber Glock handgun while he was drunk during an argument over money. He then texted his court bailiff that, “I just lost it. I just shot my wife,” prosecutors said.

Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said the murder case was emotional because he has known Ferguson and his wife for three decades, and their adult son since since he was a child.

“Jeff Ferguson took the life of Sheryl. He took her strength, he took her body, he took her will to live and crushed it,” Spitzer said after the guilty verdict.

During the trial, it was revealed that Ferguson drank alcohol at lunch and then returned to hear cases.

Spitzer said his office will review cases that have been adjudicated by Ferguson while he may have been under the influence of alcohol, or where something inappropriate may have occurred.

“That system is being set up as we speak,” Spitzer said.

Ferguson has been a superior court judge since 2015, and before that was an Orange County deputy district attorney for more than 30 years.

Ferguson’s attorney, Cameron J. Talley, said that they respect the jury’s decision but disagreed with it.

“The jury made its statement, we respect that,” Talley said. “At the same time, we still believe in Jeff Ferguson. We believe that he is not guilty, and there will be an appeal in this case.”

Ferguson faces up to life in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for June 13.

“Doomsday mom” Lori Vallow Daybell was convicted Tuesday of conspiring to kill her fourth husband, Charles Vallow.

A Maricopa County Superior Court jury found Vallow Daybell guilty of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the July 2019 fatal shooting.

Vallow Daybell, who represented herself at trial, told jurors that her brother, Alex Cox, shot Charles Vallow in self-defense following a family argument. Cox died later that year from a pulmonary embolism and was never charged.

According to Vallow Daybell, her husband got into an argument with her daughter, Tylee Ryan, and threatened the teen with a bat. Charles Vallow was at his estranged wife’s home in Chandler, Arizona, to take their son, Joshua “JJ” Vallow, to school.

Vallow Daybell, 51, was convicted in Idaho in 2023 of killing her two children and her husband’s first wife, Tammy Daybell. She’s already serving life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Prosecutors in the Arizona case dismissed Vallow Daybell’s self-defense claim, arguing that she had several reasons for wanting her husband dead, including her desire to start a life with another man.

“Lori Vallow wanted to be Lori Daybell, wife of Chad Daybell. And in July of 2019, Lori Vallow wanted to keep the same lifestyle that she had with Charles. And she could get all of this if Charles was dead,” prosecutor Treena Kay said in her opening statements.

Kay continued: “She could marry Chad Daybell and become Lori Daybell. She would get a million-dollar life insurance policy from Charles Vallow. She would get Social Security for herself and their son, JJ, as the child of a dead spouse. And all of this would be true if Charles Vallow was dead.”

The prosecutor added that Vallow Daybell labeled people who disagreed with her as “dark” or “possessed by evil spirits” and used religion to justify Charles Vallow’s death.

Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell, a doomsday author, married in November 2019.

In her closing argument on Tuesday, Vallow Daybell said prosecutors tried to “retrofit a crime that doesn’t exist.”

“Under Arizona law, I had the right to self-defense. Tylee had the right to self-defense. Alex had the right to self-defense. This event was not planned or expected. It was shocking,” she said. “This event was not a crime. It was a tragedy. Don’t let them turn my family tragedy into a crime.”

During Vallow Daybell’s trial, the jury heard from a medical examiner who testified that Charles Vallow could have been lying on a firm surface like a floor when he was shot. The fatal shot went through his heart, medical examiner Derek Bumgarner said.

Adam Cox told the court that he had “no doubt” his sister conspired with their brother to kill Charles Vallow. He testified that before the shooting, Vallow Daybell had been making odd religious comments and that he and Charles Vallow wanted to hold an intervention to address it.

Other testimony included Chandler police officer Cassandra Ynclan, who told the court that Vallow Daybell “seemed very kind of ordinary and kind of nonchalant” on the day of her husband’s death.

The state rested its case last week. Vallow Daybell rested without presenting any evidence or calling any witnesses.