Was this drowning really an accident . Shes got a huge gash on her head. Something like that is not consistent with just falling down. A husband and father is suddenly under suspicion. Hes crying and were crying. He said, they think i hurt mom. Three daughters stand by their dad. And one prosecutor stands firm. Hes holding his wife of almost three decades under the water. My job is to get justice for cristi hall. Was it murder . Hello and welcome to dateline extra. Im craig melvin. In this hour, a story that calls to mind the master of suspense. A plot straight out of an Alfred Hitchcock film. A young woman peers into her neighbors yard and sees something for a few seconds. A man, a woman, and a moment that was unsettling. Was it some kind of accident . A crime . Maybe even a murder . What she saw and what she did would set in motion a chain of events that would divide a family and a jury. Here is keith morrison. We know the truth. And we know everything that happened. How do we know what we know . Its emotionally unsatisfying not to have that answer. Though it is, even if weve seen something, or if we think we have. And dothus the question at the heart of the whole puzzle. Is this woman right . I know what i saw. And i know the conclusion of my story. Of course she does. Of course she does. So why does this other woman think this . She doesnt know for sure what she saw. A question, we say, on which all the rest will turn. Why dont we begin here. Calimesa, california, Riverside County. Historic missions. Suburbs creeping around the rim of mountains on the eastern flank of los angeles. Here is why chris and cristi hall had come to live out their golden years, though they were far from old when it happened. Just experienced, with life and each other. As far back as i can remember, its always been chris and cristi. They were never thought of as separate. They were a unit. These are the three daughters. Courtney, the eldest, is a teacher. Brianna, a personal trainer. And ashton, the youngest, just returned from playing professional volleyball in europe. All of them of course have heard scores of times the story of how their parents met. It was 1978. Cristi had gone to see a relative at the air force base in nearby San Bernardino. Quite by chance, while she was there she encountered a Security Guard who, to her at least, looked just like elvis. It was Blair Christopher hall. Chris to his friends. Apparently she was a little flirty at the gate. [ laughter ] in short order, chris and cristi got married. She was 17. He, 20. And as the girls grew up, they said they never doubted for a single moment the powerful bond of love. Their parents with them, and with each other. They were probably closer with their parents than most children. Theyre the parents i hope to one day be. Cristi, the vivacious but you of the family. Chris, her perfect mirror. My dad is a little more kicked back, quiet, relaxed. Theyre the perfect balance. Chris was a Police Officer in San Bernardino until he was shot in the line of duty. Then he went off to become police chief in two small towns in idaho. Then in 2005, anticipating an empty nest and eventually retirement, the halls boston this place in calimesa. Life seemed to have hit a sweet spot. We happened to be laying on the bed with her. We started talking. She was like, i am just im so happy that i have you girls and dad. It was one of those conversations that you dont have every day. Still, there was work to be done. It was not a new house. It could use some remodeling. Particularly the bathroom. Courtney was still living with her parents as the work began. Theyre going to be doing the tile work and stuff. So we wouldnt have a shower for that day. So, shower out of commission, they decided to wake up early, put on their bathing suits and rinse off in the outdoor spa before the contractor arrived at 6 45 a. M. It was june 7th, 2007. Chris got up first, turned on the spa to warm it up, then called brianna at her college dorm in san diego. Your wakeup call, baby. Get out and go on that run. Back at the house, courtney dozed through her first wakeup. While chris and cristi made their way outside to the spa. Just after 6 30, chris looked in on courtney again. Second call. And headed back to the spa. Lifes last normal moments. 6 37 a. M. I got up out of bed. I was putting on my robe. I heard this panicked, panicked scream from my dad yelling for me. I ran down the hallway to the back porch and i saw him just trying to pull out my mom out of the spa. Emergency. It was she who dialled 911 as she and her father struggled to lift her mother out of the spa. It was the first moments of the worst day of our lives. Is it possible for people to understand what its like to be in that situation . I dont think so. To see just both your parents in the worst times that youve ever seen them. Obviously my mom unconscious. And my dad just panicked and for the first time in my life, seeing him just that way, not knowing what to do. Because he was a cop, he was used to dealing with these kinds of things. He was a cop used to dealing with those kind of things with people that were not his wife. So courtney took charge. After calling 911, she started cpr on her mother with her father. Emt and firefighter eric norwood was the first to respond. He just started, help my wife, oh, my god, help my wife, help my wife. Chris hall was kneeling at his wifes side, more in the way than anything, and so hysterical they had to move him out of the way. He didnt want to leave her. He kept holding her hand, yelling her name. The paramedics worked on her for 20 minutes. No vital signs. None. No words to describe the fear and the anxiety. Youre losing your mother and watching her go right in front of you. We tried to save her together. We just couldnt. The ambulance rushed her off to the hospital where she was declared dead. She had drowned in the family spa. A private family tragedy. Except maybe not so private after all. Someone was watching. Returning now to someone was watching, here is keith morrison. On the morning of june 7, 2007, brianna hall was driving home from college, to what she didnt know. Her elder Sister Courtney had called and said it was bad. She said there was an accident and you need to come home right away. It was courtney who eventually broke the news to ashton and brianna. Their mother, their fathers wife of close to 30 years, was dead. But neither courtney nor countries waited at the house to tell them what happened or to comfort them. Nor did they linger over the body at the hospital. They couldnt. Because father and daughter were escorted to several squad cars and driven to the Police Station to talk about the accident. What was that ride like . Quiet. I remember crying the whole time. I couldnt comfort had i father. He couldnt comfort me. We got to the station and they said that my dad would be a few more minutes. Chris, so frenzied at the scene, had calmed down by then. He was a cop among cops, after all, and he understood what was necessary to sort out what happened. I cant even start to imagine what youre going through, okay . Just, you know, its a death investigation, and we have to do this. Happy to help, he said. Whatever would get him back home to comfort his daughters as quickly as possible. Were all so close. Chris told investigators what happened. How, as courtney slept, he and cristi were in the spa bathing. She got out, went in, went to the bathroom, got some more coffee, tried to wake up courtney. Courtney didnt wake up, apparently. She came back out. As cristi returned to the spa, said chris, they passed each other on the patio. He went in the house, stopped by courtneys room to make sure she was weawake, then went right ba outside and saw his wife floating face down in the spa. He called courtney, he said, and they began a frantic effort to revive her. In your gut, tell me what happened. She slipped or something. I dont know. Thats the only thing i can think of. But chris apparently hadnt noticed the nasty threeinch lacerationcristis head. And here the point of the Police Interview is revealed. Shes got a huge gash on her head, okay . Something like that is not consistent with just falling down. Not consistent with just falling down . Why would the police think that . I mean, youve been around for a while. I know where youre going. And no. Why in fact was this expolicechief being questioned at all about the apparently disastrous accident that killed the love of his life . And the answer was right next door. When chris and cristi hall took their outdoor bath that morning in june, someone was watching. Her. I got up at 6 00. Got my coffee. Lindsay patterson was on leave from her i. T. Job in the navy, visiting her mom who lives just over the backyard wall from the hall house. Lindsay was inside, in the bathroom that faced away from the hall house and out onto the street, when she heard a noise. It was a horrible scream. It was just, something was wrong kind of scream. A womans, she thought. She went outside to tell her mom. I said, did you hear that scream . She said, yeah, but i think its just kids playing in the playing in the pool. Kids, at six something in the morning . Lindsay walked over to the sixfoot brick wall between their yard and the halls. She stepped on the planter, she said, and looked over the wall. At that point i saw a man with his hand, one hand on top of a womans head and one hand on her back, and she was face down in the water. Like something was going on . Yeah, thats what i assumed. That is, she thought she was looking at a sex act in progress. I dont know why it didnt seem right. But something made me want to look again. Thats 90 seconds, she said, between her first and second looks. This time, she said, she only saw the man in the spa. Hes leaning back, just relaxed in the hot tub. But i dont see her. Hes got his elbows back, hes kind of looking around like nothing. Where did the woman go . Lindsay told her mom something seemed strange. She again tells me, lindsay, stop being nosy, dont worry about it. But it just didnt seem right. It wasnt enough time for her to have gotten out and gone inside the house. So, said nancy, she went to the wall again. Her third and final look. At that point he was getting out of the jacuzzi. And he was in a very big rush. Shes still nowhere to be seen. The look on his face was almost undescribable. It was almost as if he had just gone into another world. It was scary. It was instinct that told her something was wrong, said lindsay. So she called 911. 911, state your emergency. A woman was killed. Now, hours and hours later, the detectives confronted chris with list ndsays story. Why, they asked, didnt her story match his . Im not going to say shes lying, she sounds like a truthful kid, whatever. But i dont know. I cant explain what shes saying she saw. So now that question we posed as we began. Did Lindsay Patterson really know what she saw . I love to eat. I love hanging out with my friends. I have a great fit with my dentures. I love kiwis. Ive always had that issue with the seeds getting under my denture. Super poligrip free. It creates a seal of the dentures in my mouth. Even well fitting dentures let in food particles just a few dabs of super poligrip free is clinically proven to seal out more food particles so youre more comfortable and confident while you eat. Super poligrip free made even the kiwi an enjoyable experience try super poligrip free. But on the inside, i feel chronic, widespread pain. Like most people. 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This is a power plant. This is tim barckholtz. Thats me this is something he is researching at exxonmobil using fuel cells to capture Carbon Emissions at power plants. This is the potential. Reducing co2 emissions by up to 90 . While also producing more power. This could be big. Energy lives here. After his wifes drowning death in a backyard spa, police asked chris hall to explain what happened that morning. What chris did not know was that his neighbor had also talked to police. And she told a very different story than the one chris was telling. Here again is keith morrison. Chris and cristi halls three daughters clung together in grief and shock, all through the dismal evening hours of that worst of all days, june 7, 2007. Waiting for their father to return from the Police Station. And they wondered, why was it taking so long . Then the phone rang. And they had their answer. You know, brokenup words, and hes crying, and were crying. That was when he said they think i hurt mom. He was very upset. But he didnt sound surprised when he said no, he was crying. He was crying. He was upset. Very upset. But by the time Police Investigators were questioning chris, remember, they had heard from Lindsay Patterson. And at the station, chriss version of events in the spa differed in one Crucial Detail from what lindsay described seeing that first time she period over the wall and into the halls backyard. That specifically, me holding her down in there, theres nothing that took place in that jacuzzi that would explain that. There was no sex. There was no i dont even think we had any contact while we were in the jacuzzi other than when i was getting her out. But investigators were getting a good look at christies body and saw wounds that to them suggested a struggle and more than one nasty blow to the head. So the police had to choose. Which version, chris halls or Lindsay Pattersons, was more likely the true story of what happened . Tom dove is a senior investigator for the riverside d. A. I think they felt this was enough to say this was not an accidental drowning. It was purely much more suspicious than that. And so before the night was over, chris hall was arrested and charged with the murder of his wife. The girls could stop waiting. He wasnt coming home. It was obviously a tragedy, losing our mother that day. But this is a tragedy on top of a tragedy now. Because knowing our parents, its the farthest thing from truth. And one that felt infected by some kind of madness, said the girls. Chr cristi was the love of his life. How could he be accused of harming her . She was happy too, they said, as happy as she had ever been, they knew based on that mother daughter talk they had not long before she died. She kept reiterating how happy it was. Me and brie will always cherish that. That being the last time we actually saw her. Kind of burned into your memories. Yeah. But right or wrong, the legal trigger had been pulled. Chris hall spent almost two months in jail, until his daughters received the payout from crisountrie cristis life policy and used the money to bail him out of jail. Then he went home to prepare, with the help of his daughters, for a murder trial. Its very surprising to have a client in a murder case out on bail. But he was a special man. And this was a special situation. These are attorneys who would eventually defend him, although at first they only heard about the case. Steve harmon and paul gretch. Youve said two things. Special man, special situation. I think both of us can say this is a man that we like and we know. We dont feel he could have done anything like this. Chris hall and his daughters prepared for a trial which they hoped would make clear to everybody, the police, the neighbor, the world, that chris would not, could not, did not harm the love of his life. There was never, in 30 years of marriage, never one moment of violence. There was no motivae for this mn to kill his wife. They had a look at the neighbors eyewitness account and suggested it was really not conclusive at all. It was tragically incomplete. She saw three snapshots. What is missed by everyone is the wife getting into the jacuzzi, slipping, falling into the jacuzzi, hitting her head, going unconscious, and drowning. See this sharp corner sticking out into the spa . Hitting your head on this would certainly have opened a gash and knocked cristi out, said the attorney. She didnt see what was really happening during the times when she was not looking. That scream that made Lindsay Patterson look over the wall . Linds lindsay, they pointed out, was in a bathroom facing the street, not in the backyard when she heard it. It could have been anybody. And courtney, near the spa, didnt hear anything. We think she misinterpreted what she saw. Lindsay concedes she didnt know what she was seeing in those glimpses that morning. Something was wrong. Yet you hadnt really seen anything. But i knew something was wrong. I dont know if in my brain i was putting things together. But from between the scream, the position that he was holding her, and the not just not having enough time for her to have gone inside. Its like youve got three different snapshots. Right. Of something going on there. Right. And had to kind of work out what this was. Yeah. I wasnt thinking at that point, oh, this man murdered his wife. But now, based largely on that account, chris hall would go on trial for murder. And it was a trial for his daughters too. He loved her. They were each others best friends. And this is just this is not fair to him because he truly loved her more than more than anyone. And yet the prosecutor was going to try to prove that this family man and former cop murdered his wife. Could it be done . 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I live right here in auburn, i absolutely love this community. Once i moved here i didnt want to live anywhere else. I love that people in this community are willing to come together to make a difference for other peoples lives. Together, were building a better california. Im dara brown with the hours top stories. President trump speaking at the opening of the mississippi civil rights museum, prompting a number of black leaders to boycott the event. His second speech down south in 24 hours. On friday night he was in pensacola, florida, continuing his support of alabama gop Senate Candidate roy moore. Massive wildfires continue to burn out of control in california. At least 175,000 acres burned, 200 were prompted to evacuate as more areas are now threatened. Now back to dateline. Chris hall was charged in the drowning death of his wife cristi. As prosecutors were preparing to lay out their case, halls daughters stood by him, proclaiming his innocence. Would anything change their minds about their dad . Here again is keith morrison. Burke strunsky is a hard charging man, exmember in Good Standing of the d. A. s office, now Senior Deputy in riverside. That takes skill, persuasive pour. Strunsky would lead them in the case against family man chris hall. Mr. Hall on the surface looks like a loving family man. He looks like a good father. Hes somebody that had the support of his family. But strunsky was buying the loving father and family man bit. When he heard about chris halls obvious grief, the wailing that went on after the socalled accident, the phrase that crossed his mind was, its an act. I think it was a wonderful performance by the defendant of acting like a bereaved husband. But when you look at his actions, how little he did to help his wife. Who tried harder to save cristi . Not chris, said the prosecutor. But his daughter. She called 911. She helped him get the body out of the spa. She is the only one that did chest compression. He had no interest in truly helping his wife. A matter of opinion, of course. But prosecutor strunsky poked around in chris halls past as a policeman. And what did he find . This man had an uncanny ability to fabricate stories. Seven years earlier, while hall was chief of police in cascade, idaho, he was charged with and convicted of misuse of public money, embezzled 9,000, spent ten months in jail. A white collar crime, hardly murder. But what struck the prosecutor is that he says hall tried to cover it up. To plant a fraud, to lie about it, not just lie about it, but lie about it effectively. I think that was very telling about who we were dealing with. Suddenly the prosecutors prospects were looking better. At the trial, strunsky made Lindsay Patterson his star witness, of course. It was her story, after all, that got the whole thing started. But almost as important, he called the Riverside County medical examiner who testified that those lacerations in cristis could not in his opinion have been the result of a single accidental fall. And the bruising on her face and body was the hallmark of a homicide. The totality of injuries were not consistent with somebody slipping and falling and then a rescue attempt. And there was a clump of hair in the bottom of the spa, instinct entwined with a broken hair clip. That, he said, came from a violent struggle. When you lose that amount of hair, its not explained by any fall. There were minor hiccups in the case. Lindsay patterson, for example, was a little inconsistent about how long she looked over the backyard wall that first time she saw something going on. Was it just a few seconds . Or as long as a minute . But either way, said the prosecutor, lindsay was sure she saw physical contact. That was the important thing. He was given the opportunity to explain any physical contact that could in any way reasonably explain what Lindsay Patterson saw. In other words, were they washing each other, were they involved in a sex act . Was there anything she could have misinterpreted . And at the end of the day, youre not just stuck with the fact that Lindsay Patterson made a mistake. You have to actually believe that Lindsay Patterson really hallucinated about everything she saw. And what made lindsays story all the more convincing, stayed prosecutor strunsky, was she told it before finding out what happened to cristi. She dialled 911 a full minute and a half before anyone from the hall house did. Before lindsay had any idea how it would end. Here is what the jury heard her say in that call. And i saw him put her underwater and hold her there. And she was still on the phone with 911 when chris hall came outside and found his wifes body floating in the spa and called out for courtney. Investigator tom dove. I heard it best described during the trial as a cosmic coincidence that someone could see something that they perceived to be more than just some kind of kinky action in a jacuzzi in the morning, and then that actually turn out to be true, that a woman was actually drowned but that spa. That is not a coincidence. That is what she saw. The prosecutions theory . Somehow, sitting in that spa that morning, chris was overcome by some private fury, who knows what. The hidden violence, is what strunsky called it. And then killed his spouse when he thought nobody was looking. Chris hall ambushed his wife, grabbed her by the hair, slammed her head twice into the concrete edge. Hes holding his wife of almost three decades under the water, showing absolutely no mercy, no remorse. And absolute desire to end her life at that point. And then the piece de resistance. He then gets out of the spa, walks into the house where his plan is to wake his 22yearold daughter, who he can use as an alibi witness. One little quibble. Why . In fact, as convinced as he was of halls guilt, strunsky conceded the why was a problem. He didnt legally have to know, he said. But he just didnt. There it was. Its emotionally unsatisfying not to have that answer, not to know the entire narrative of what happened. But you would want to know why this guy, married to this woman for almost 30 years, apparently happily, would suddenly turn on her and drown her in the pool. Right. And im not sure we got the answers to that specific question. Kind of an important question, isnt it . Its an important question, and a question that we ask in all spousal homicides. So, proof enough . Or reasonable doubt . Almost three years after cristi halls death, a riverside jury would have to decide. With my moderate to severe Crohns Disease i kept looking for ways to manage my symptoms. 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The jury in chris halls murder trial heard dramatic testimony from his neighbor, Lindsay Patterson. Patterson claimed she had seen hall in the spa with his wife moments before she drowned. She said chris halls hand was on his wifes head and back while she lay face down in the water. Now it was the defenses turn to show that chris hall loved his wife, would never harm her, and that her death was a tragic accident. Here again is keith morrison. Chris halls daughter sat through every miserable minute of their dads trial for murder here at the courthouse in riverside, california. Their review of the prosecutors portrait of their father . It was a lie, they said. It was hurtful to us to hear someone basically say he knows our parents better than we do. And he knows our father is a sociopath, and that were blind to it, and he knows there was hidden violence in our parents marriage and we just didnt see it. Youre basically telling us we didnt know our whole lives were a lie. And theres no proof of that. Chris hall had never been violent, arced tgued the defensd no motive, no reason to suddenly turn on his wife, it had to be a freak accident. So, said the defense, Lindsay Patterson didnt really know what she saw. In fact if she really witnessed chris hall drowning his wife, why then didnt she claim to see cristis body in the spa when she looked again . It didnt make sense. But the highlight was the daughters testimony, emotional, quite powerful. It put prosecutor strunsky in a strange position, at odds with the victims own family. If we had any inkling, we would have seen it, they say. They truly believe that in their hearts. This weighs on my greatly. But my job is to get justice for cristi hall. After six days of testimony, two days of deliberations, the jury couldnt decide. It was a deadlock. The judge declared a mistrial. Chris hall walked out of court with his family, free. But not quite in the clear. And nothing at all like a victory for the hall daughters. What was it like to get that hung jury . What did you think then . That was tragic. That was devastating to us. You expected a not guilty verdict . Yes. Not a doubt. Deputy d. A. Burke strunsky was disappointed too. He was also determined to retry the case. First he sent his investigator on a mission to explore the life and marriage of chris hall. And what do you know. In idaho, where hall had been a disgraced police chief, the investigator uncovered a startling accusation. Chris was a great, great con man. Former los angeles Police Officer jerry winkel is a county commissioner in idaho now. But once upon a time he was chris halls friend, that is, before a night of poker and booze when he said paul made a disturbing relevant veg ining r had shot himself in the leg in order to get Retirement Benefits. Chris had been drinking beer. He came out and told me that he had shot himself. But there was more. D. A. Investigator tom dove discovered a secret. Not in chriss past but in cristis. There had been infidelity in the past. The affair was relatively brief, years earlier. But she had been in phone contact with the man just days before she died. Had chris found out . Impossible to know. But when investigator dove talked to cristis coworkers at the clinic where she was an xray technician, several said they noticed a change in her usually vibrant personality. One coworker told them more. That she was contemplating a divorce. If true, it might persuade a jury. Prosecutor strunsky also needed to explain why Lindsay Patterson didnt see cristis body when she looked over the wall the second time . The prosecution hired a water expert to do a recreation of the hall spa. Shes been assisting Law Enforcement with drowning investigations for 20 years. She got in the spa. From the center of the pool and towards where lindsay was standing, anywhere i was laying, you could not be seen from lindsays viewpoint. Once i sank below the surface and hit the bottom, you could not see me at all from lindsays viewpoint. And now the prosecutor was ready. In may 2011, one year after the first jury deadlocked, Burke Strunsky went back to court armed with new evidence for a brandnew panel of halls peers. Jurors heard medical experts testify about the injuries to cristis head and once again heard the 911 call. Cristis coworkers testified for the prosecution. And his oncefriend testified. I was ashamed to admit he was once a Police Officer. Wellknown attorneys steve harmon and paul gretch entered the scene and came out swinging. That story about cristis affair, for example . Theres a shadow hanging over this, a very human shadow, which was that she was having a little affair, right, had a boyfriend. Yes. If the husband knew about it. But the wife never, ever mentions it and tells the husband. No one tells the husband. Quite right, said the judge. And because there was no evidence that chris knew about his wifes affair, he ruled it out of the trial. The story about hall shooting himself for Retirement Benefits . That was just absolutely a lie. Thats wrong. There was never, never any evidence or indication or not even a moments breath that he shot himself. Anyway, the story was prejudicial, said the judge, so he threw that out too. As for what Lindsay Patterson says she saw, chris hall holding his wifes head underwater, the defense had prepared its own visual demonstration, had taken pictures from her angle at the wall to show that it could look like two people were touching in the spa even if they werent. This is what she described seeing in her testimony. But on the closeup, what do you notice . Theyre not touching but theyre in position where they could be. But thats different than actually touching. Again, the hall daughters were there every minute. Their fathers enduring champions. And this time, more family members came to court. Two of cristis own siblings testified for chris. And said the same thing. We have not a doubt in our minds that this was not a moment of violence. This was not a murder. The victims own center and own brother. Thats an amazing thing to see. Perhaps it was. But listen to this. The defense had one more very significant witness. A witness who oozed credibility. The sitting medical examiner for neighboring San Bernardino county, who stuck his neck way out to disagree publicly, in a court of law, with the medical examiner from riverside. He found this to be an accidental death, not a homicide. This was not some ordinary hired gun. This was a public official who said straight out that cristis head injuries should and perhaps should be explained by an accidental fall. He didnt rule out homicide . He didnt rule out homicide. But but he said the preponderance of the evidence was towards an accidental drowning. What ive always been astounded by with this case is that the hall family lived so close to the San Bernardino border, if cristi had slipped and fell four or five blocks over, the pathologist in that county would never have filed criminal charges. An accident of geography. So now a second jury would have to sort through these two sets of allegations, these two opposing realities, and decide whether chris hall would return and embrace home and his loving daughters or a pair of handcuffs and a life in prison. Chris halls first trial ended in a deadlocked jury. But with new evidence presented by both sides during his retrial the jury was able to reach a verdict. Now with the conclusion to our story, heres keith morrison. May 2011. For the second time, 12 men and women of Riverside County, california filed out of the courtroom. A second jury to make a life decision about chris hall. Did he murder his wife . Which of the medical examiners should they believe . Whose account of the defendants character . And perhaps most important, what did Lindsay Patterson see when she peeked three times into the halls backyard . Do you ever have those sort of little dark moments of the soul where you think i may have misinterpreted, misremembered . That is something ive thought about every day, whether i misinterpreted, whether i think i saw something that wasnt there. I didnt see everything. Yeah. But i saw what i saw, and i know the conclusion of my story. I know it. I know it right here. Of course, chris halls daughters say they knew the truth too, real thing, in their hearts. I think that we were the three most critical jurors in that courtroom. Believe me, if we had heard anything or had any inkling that our father could have done this, as much as it would hurt him, as much as we love our father, we would want that justice for our mother. The jurors deliberated two days, then broke for the long weekend. It was memorial day. Halls daughters felt good. Things can only go so wrong for so long before something has to actually go right. We just did a lot of talking about the future and, you know, this being over, this being finished. Honestly, i was concerned about dad and how he was finally going to be able to grieve for the loss of his wife. Then it was tuesday 8 45 in the morning. The jury gathered and minutes later, a signal. They were ready. Chris hall and his daughters rushed to court. And in the end it was very quick. Guilty of firstdegree murder. Their father would not be coming home, probably ever. Hes being cuffed and potentially put away for life, and, yeah, it hurts, and we are angry about that. You can still hear those daughters accusing you of unfairly convicting their father. I can. Absolutely. It weighs on me. But at the same time i know who im dealing with when it comes to chris hall. In fact, he is the one thats stolen their mother from them. It had been a peculiar fact of this case that the victims and defendants families had stood solidly together against the prosecution. But what no one knew was the truth was more complicated. After the verdict at chris halls sentencing a letter was introduced. It was from another of cristi halls brothers, billy carlton, who until now had said not one public word about the case. We would like to ask his honor for the maximum sentence, wrote billy. The pain that my family has suffered through this tragedy is unforgivable. I didnt want to hurt the girls, but i had to say what was on my mind. There was a deep divide in cristis family, said billy. Some of her relatives believed chris was innocent, but he and he says others, including cristis uncle steve mundy, silently urged on the prosecutor. Half the family was convinced he was innocent, and half the family was convinced he wasnt. And thats hard to do when you have a big family and you all have to be together every once in a while. And when it involves a member as beloved as cristi was. Exactly. Does that explain why this sort of group of people in the family decided to just let justice take its course . We had talked about it quite a bit. I think so. Youve got to know when to show up sometimes and when to not show up, just to keep whats left of the family as together as you can have it. Thank you so much for coming. When it was over, hall convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life, some of cristis relatives met with prosecutor strunsky and thanked him. They wanted me to thank you. Thank you for putting the man away because hes a murderer. And the hall daughters . Having lost their beloved mother, fought to save a father they adored. And, having lost that fight, arent quite sure what theyll do now. Its a devastating reality. It really is. Especially for a family that to say we were close is an understatement, you know. To go from that to being not able to be there with each other is its the greatest heartbreak that anyone could ever experience i think. Thats all for this edition of dateline extra. Im craig melvin. Thank you for watching. It was very exciting. They met in vegas. A professional poker player. He said he was making good money at it. A former trapeze artist. She fell for him. But she didnt gamble on this. I could smell the odor of decay and blood. Or this. At every turn there was another woman. Married, with a child and women in multiple cities. What else is he capable of . Capable of murder . He had an