it had to be a freak accident. so, said the defense, lindsey patterson didn t really know what she saw. in fact, if she really witnessed chris hall drowning his wife, why didn t she claim to see cristi s body in the spa when she looked again. it didn t make sense. but the highlight was the hall s daughter testimony, emotional, quite powerful. it put the prosecutor in a strange position, at odds with the victim s own family. the kids were so clear, if we had any inkling he had done this, believe me, we would have said so. we would have seen it. i think that s what they truly believe in their hearts. and you know, weighs on me greatly, but my job is to get justice for cristi hall. now it was up to a jury to decide. after six days of testimony, two days of deliberation, they couldn t.
his wife. the girls could stop waiting. he wasn t 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, it s the farthest thing from truth. and one that felt infected by some kind of madness, said the girls. cristi was the love of his life. after all, the center for everything for him. how could someone so happy in his marriage and his life 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 she was. it was odd. didn t think much of it at that time. 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.
all, and he understood what was necessary to help them sort out what happened. i can t even start to imagine what you re going through, okay? just, you know, it s 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. we re 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 didn t 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 courtney s room to make sure she was awake, then went right back outside and saw his wife floating face down in the spa.
chris hall had never been violent, argued the defense. it had to be a freak accident. so, said the defense, lindsey patterson didn t really know what she saw. in fact if she really witnessed chris hall drown his life, why didn t she claim to see the body in the spa when see looked again. it weighs on my greatly but my job is to get justify. after six days of testimony, two days of deliberations, the jury couldn t decide. it was a deadlock.
chris hall s daughters sat through every miserable minute of their dad s trial for murder. here at the courthouse in riverside, california. their review of the prosecutor s portrait of their father it was a lie, they said. it s hurtful to us to hear someone basically say that he knows our parents better than we do. and he knows our father s a sociopath and that we re blind to it. and he knows that there was hidden violence in our parent s manlg and we didn t see it. you re basically telling us that we didn t know our whole lives were a lie. and there s the top it off, there s no proof of this. chris hall had never been violent. argued the defense. no motive, no reason to suddenly turn on his wife. it had to be a freak accident. so said the defense, lindsey patterson didn t really know what she saw. in fact, if she really witnessed chris hall drowning his wife, why then didn t she claim to see the body in the spa when she