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 wake-up call, baby. get out and go on that run. back at the house, courtney dozed through her first wake-up. 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. life s 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 it s like to be in that situation? i don t think so. to see just both your parents in
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 hall s friend, that is, before a night of poker and booze when he said paul made a disturbing revelation, that he had shot himself in the leg in order to get retirement benefits.
happened. she slipped or something. i don t know. that s the only thing i can think of. but chris apparently hadn t noticed the nasty three-inch laceration on cristi s head. and here the point of the police interview is revealed. she s 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, you ve been around for a while. i know where you re going. and no. why in fact was this ex-police-chief 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.
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. they re 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. they re 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
hall s brother, 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 didn t want to hurt the girls. i had to say what was on my mind. there was a deep divide in the family said billy. some of the relatives believed chris was innocent but he and he said others including cristi s uncle steve mundy urged on the prosecutor silently. half the family was convinced he was innocent and half was convinced he wasn t. that s hard to do when you have a big family and you all have to be together once in a while. when it involves as member as loved as cristi was. exactly. does that explain why this kind of group of people in the family decided to just let justice take its course? we talked about it quite a bit. you ve got to know when to show up sometimes and when not to