and what made lindsay s story all the more convincing, said 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 wife s 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 in that spa. that is not a coincidence. that is what she saw. the prosecution s theory? somehow, sitting in that spa that morning, chris was overcome by some private fury, who kno
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 had discovered a secret, not in chris past, but in cristi s. there had been infidelity in the marriage in the past, six years prior. while chris hall was in idaho. 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 cristi s co-workers at the clinic where she was an x-ray technician, several said they noticed a sudden change in her usually vibrant personality. one co-worker told them more. that she was contemplating a divorce. if true, and it was only an if, it might well persuade a
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, chris version of events in the spa differed in one crucial detail from what lindsay described seeing that first time she peered over the wall and into the hall s backyard. that specifically, me holding her down in there, there s nothing that took place in that jacuzzi that would explain that. there was no sex. there was no i don t 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 cristi s 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 hall s or lindsay patterson s, 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 w
you know, broken-up words, and he s crying, and we re crying. that was when he said they think i hurt mom. he was very upset. but he didn t 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, chris s 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 hall s backyard. that specifically, me holding her down in there, there s but investigators were getting a good look at christie s 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 hall s or lindsay patterson s, 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 no
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. 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 chris s past but in cristi s. there had been infidelity in the past. but listen to this. the defense had one more very significant witness. a witness who oozed credibility.