Transcripts For KNTV Dateline NBC 20130225

Of mountains around the eastern flank of los angeles. Here is where chris and kristy 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 kristy. They were never thought of as separate. Theyre a unit. These are their three units, courtney is a teacher, rihanna a personal trainer, and ashton, the youngest, here 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. Kristy had gone to see a relative in nearby San Bernardino. While there she encountered a Security Guard who, to her at least, looks just like elvis. It was Blair Christopher hall, chris to his friends. Apparently she was flirty at the gate. In short order chris and kristy 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. We were probably closer with our parents than most children. They are the parents i hope to one day be. For years chris hall 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 tune o towns in idaho. Then in 2005 anticipating an empty nest the halls bought this place which they loved for the backyard pool and spa. And life in the spring of 2007 seemed to have hit a sweet spot as ashton and brianna remember their mother telling them. We were on the bed with her and she just started talking. Shes like, i am 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. Could use some remodeling, particularly the bathroom. Courtney was still living with her parents as the work began a. They were 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 7, 2007. Chris got up first, turned on the spa to warm it up and then called brianna at her college dorm. Heres your wakeup call, babe. Get out and go on that run. Back at the house, courtney dozed through her first wakeup while chris and kristy made it out to the spa. After 6 30 chris looked in on courtney again. Then went back to the spa. Lifes last normal moments. 6 47 a. M. I got out of bed, put on robe and 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 t spa. 911 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 both your parents in the worst times that you have ever seen them, obviously my mom unconscious and my dad just panicked. For the first time in my life, seeing him just that way, not knowing what to do oh. He was a cop. He was used to dealing with those kinds of things. Hes a cop used to dealing with those 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 first to respond. He just started, help my wife, oh, my god, help my wife. Chris hall kneeling at t his wifes side, more in the way than anything and so hysterical it was hard for the emts to help. It took us a little bit to get him out of the way. He didnt want to leave her. He was holding her hand, yelling her name. The paramedics worked on kristy for more than 20 minutes. No vital signs. None. No words to describe the fear and a anxiety. Youre losing your mother. Youre 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. Coming up it was a horrible scream. A witness, but to what . What exactly did she see . I dont know. You know, i i cant explain what shes saying is he she saw. When dateline continues. X,s more than a paycheck. We know all the hammering, shaping, driving, serving, planning, writing, nursing and teaching it took to earn it. So we give you the power to keep as much of your hardearned money as possible. 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Thick, creamy, with 0 fat and twice the protein. Of regular lowfat yogurt mmm huh. I want an oikos dannon oikos greek nonfat yogurt. Too delicious to be so nutritious. Dannon a talking car. But ill tell you what impresses me. A talking train. This ge locomotive can tell you exactly where it is, what its carrying, while using less fuel. Delivering whatever the world needs, when it needs it. After all, whats the point of talking if you dont have something important to say . On the morning of june 7 thd, 2010, briana hall was on the road to san diego driving home from college to what she didnt know except her oldest sister had called and it sounded bad. She said there was an accident. You need to just 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 chris waited at the house to tell the sisters 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 separate squad cars and driven to the Police Station to talk about the accident. What was that ride like . Quiet. I just remember crying the whole time. I couldnt comfort my father. He couldnt comfort me. We got to the station, and my dad said he would just be a few more minutes. Chris, so frenzied at the scene, had calmed down by then. He was a cop among cops, and he understood, he said, what was necessary to help them sort out what happened. I cant even start to imagine what you are going through, okay . Just, you know, its a death investigation, and we have to do this, okay . Happy to help, he said. Whatever would get him back home to comfort his daughters as quickly as possible. This is going to kill them. They were all so close. Chris told investigators what happened. How as courtney slept he and cristi were out in the spa, bathing. She got out, uh, went in, went to the bathroom, uh, 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 then, he said, stopped by courtneys room to make sure she was awake, and then went right outside, and saw his wife floating face down in the spa. He called courtney then, he said. And they began a frantic effort to revive her. I could tell we were losing her. From what . A fall . Must have been. In your gut tell me what you were thinking. She slipped in. She slipped or something. I dont know. Thats the only thing i can think of. But chris apparently hasnt noticed the nasty three inch laceration on cristis head. And here suddenly the point of the Police Interview is revealed. The gash she has on her head she got a gash on her head . 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 . You know, i mean, you have been around for a while. I know where you are going. No, theres nothing. Why would this expolice chief be questioned at all about the apparently disastrous accident that killed the love of his life . 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. Lindsey patterson was on leave from her i. T. Job in the navy, visiting her moms house just over the backyard wall from the hall house. Lindsey was inside in the bathroom that faced away from the hall house and out in the street. When she heard a noise. It was a horrible scream. It was just something was wrong kind of scream. A woman, she thought. She went outside to tell her mom. I said did you hear that scream . And she said yeah, but i think its just kids playing in the pool. Kids at 6 00 in the morning . Lindsey walked over to the six foot 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 then one hand on her back, and she was face down in the water. Like something was going on. 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. 90 seconds between her first and second looks, and this time she said she only saw the man in the spa. He was leaning back just relaxed in the hot tub, but i dont see her. He had his elbows back, and he was kind of looking around like nothing. Where did the woman go . Lindsey told her mom something seemed strange. She said lindsey, stop being nosey and 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 lindsay, 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. So she called 911. 911, state your emergency. I heard a woman scream. So now hours and hours later the detectives are confronting chris with lindseys story. Why, they ask, didnt her story match his . So am i supposed to believe the witness is lying . I wouldnt say shes lying. I mean, i dont know. You know, i i cant explain what she is saying she saw. So now that question we posed as we began, did Lindsey Patterson really know what she saw . Coming up she didnt see what was really happening. What had really happened. There would soon be a turn in the case. This was not an accidental drowning. It was purely much more suspicious than that. 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Chris and cristi halls three daughters clung together in grief and shock all through the dismal evening hours that worst of all days june 7th, 2007, waiting for their father to return from the Police Station. And they wondered, why was it taking so long . Then the phone range. They had their answer. You know, broken up words, and he is crying, and were crying, and thats when he said they think i hurt mom. He was very upset. But he didnt sound surprised when he said 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 Lindsey Patterson, and at the station chriss version of events in the spa differed in one Crucial Detail from what lindsey described seeing that first time she peered over the wall and into the halls backyard. That specifically me holding her down in there, theres nothing that took place that would explain that. There was no sex. I dont even think we had any contact when we were in the jacuzzi other than when i was getting her out of the jacuzzi. But investigators were getting a good look at cristis body and saw wounds that to them suggested a struggle and more than just one nasty blow to the head. So the police had to choose which version chris halls or Lindsey Pattersons was more likely the true story of what happened. Tom dove led the investigation for the riverside d. A. I think they felt there was enough to say this was not an accidental drowning. It was purely much more suspicious than that. 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 the truth. And one that felt infected by some kind of madness, said the girls. Cristi was the love of their fathers life, after all, the center of everything for him. How they wondered could anyone 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 it, they said, based on that motherdaughter talk they had not long before she died. She just kept reiterating how happy she was. Kind of odd. Me and bri of course didnt think much of it at the time, but the last time we actually saw her kind of burned into your memory. Yeah. Right or wrong, the legal trigger had been pulled. Chris hall spent almost two months in jail until his daughters received the payout from cristis Life Insurance policy and used the money to meet his Million Dollar bail. Then he went back to what was to be his retirement retreat, to prepare with the help of his daughters for a murder trial. Thats 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, though at first they only heard about the case. Steve harmon and paul grech. You have said two things there. Special man, special situation. I think both of us can say that this is a man that we like and that we know and we dont feel he could have done anything like this. So 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 motive for this man to kill his wife. Harmon and grech had a look at neighbor Lindsey Pattersons 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 her 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 Lindsey Patterson look over the wall . Lindsey was in a bathroom that faced the street. She wasnt in the backyard when she says she heard it. Could have been anybody. And courtney who was inside her own house near the spa didnt hear a thing. We dont think that she is lying. We just think she misinterpreted what she saw. Lindsey to a certain degree concedes she didnt know what she was seeing in her glimpses that morning. Something was wrong. Yet, you hadnt really seen anything. No. But i knew something was wrong. I dont know if in my brain i was putting things together from between the scream, the position that he was holding her, and them not just not having enough time for her to have gone inside. So its like you kind of got three different snapshots. Right. Something going on in there. Right. And had to kind of work out what this was. Yeah. You know, i wasnt thinking at that point, oh, this man just 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 anyone. Coming up, the case begins. Evidence is revealed in court. You lose that amount of hair, its not reasonably explained by any kind of fault. And secrets are revealed from the past. This man had an uncanny ability to fabricate stories. When someone was watching continues. Sion . Well. 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At t mobile share makes it affordable for the whole family to share data on all their devices. And when you connect a tablet, you save 100. At t. Rethink possible. Ive always had to keep my eye on her. But, i didnt always watch out for myself. With so much noise about health care. I tuned it all out. With unitedhealthcare, i get information that matters. My individual health profile. Not random statistics. They even reward me for addressing my health risks. So im doing fine. But shes still going to give me a heart attack. Were more than 78,000 people looking out for more than 70 million americans. Thats health in numbers. Unitedhealthcare. This is a hardcharging man. Exmember in Good Standing of the San Francisco d. A. s office. Now Senior Deputy d. A. At riverside. That takes skill. Persuasive powers. He would need them in the murder case against the former police chief and family man chris hall. Mr. Hall on the surface looks like a loving family man. He looks like a good father. He was somebody that had the support of his family. So he did. But strunski wasnt buying the loving father and family man bit. When he heard about chris halls very 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 bereeved husband. 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 compressions. He had no interest in truly helping his wife. A matter of opinion, of course. But the prosecutor poked around in chris halls past as a policeman. 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 19,000. 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 plan a fraud, 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 he made Lindsey 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 on cristis head could not, in his opinion, have been the result of a single accidental fall. He argued the type of bruising on her arms and face were consistent with homicide. They 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, still entwined with a broken plastic hair clip. That, said the prosecutor, could only have come from a violent struggle. When you lose that amount of hair, its not reasonably explained by any kind of fall. There were minor hiccups many the case. Lindsey 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, lindsey 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 explain what Lindsay Patterson missaw. In other words, were they washing each other . Were they involved in a sex act . Was there anything that she could have misinterpreted . At the end of the day youre not just stuck with the fact that Lindsey Patterson made a mistake. You have to actually believe that Lindsey Patterson really hallucinated about everything she saw. And what made lindsey ae story all the more convincing, said the prosecutor, was she told it before finding out what happened to cristi. She dialed 911 a full minute and a half before anyone from the hall house did. Before lindsey had any idea how it would end. Heres what the jury heard her say in that call. He held her under the water. Just held her there. She was still on the phone with 911 when chris hall came outside and found his wifes body floating in the spa, called out for courtney. Oh, now hes going outside. The prosecutions theory . Somehow sitting in the spa that morning chris was overcome by some private fury. Who knows what . The hidden violence is what strunski called it, and 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. He is holding his wife of almost three decades under the water showing absolutely no mercy and no remorse and absolutely a desire to end her life at that point. And then 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, strunski conceded the why was a problem. 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. You 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. Im not sure we got the answers to that specific question. Kind of an important question, isnt it . Its an important question. A question that we ask in all spousal homicides. So who can know . Or reasonable doubt . Almost three years after cristi halls death a riverside jury would have to decide. Coming up. You expected a not guilty verdict . Oh, yeah. Yeah. Without a doubt. There was a surprise in store for both sides in and out of the courtroom. She was having a little affair, right . When dateline continues. Wow these are good. Fishyfishy fish. Fish. Mcbites. Mcbites fish. Fish. Mcbites. Mcbites fish. Fish. Mcbites. Mcbites fishyfishy fish mcbites are succulent and breaded to perfection so take a trip to micky ds and get. Get. Get. Get you some [ male announcer ] get hooked on mcdonalds new fish mcbites. Pop em with tangy tarter or spicy buffalo sauce. Catch em while you can. More. To love. Fishyfishy ba da ba ba baa more. To love. Fishyfishy sleep in my contacts. Relax. Air optix® night day aqua contact lenses are approved for up to 30 days and nights of continuous wear, so its okay to sleep in them. Visit airoptix. Com for a free 1month trial. 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 hurt us to hear someone basically say that he knows our parents better than we do, and he knows our father is a sociopath, and were blind to it, and he knows theres 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. Theres no proof of that. Chris hall had never been violent, argued the defense, had no motive, no reason to suddenly turn on his wife. It had to be a freak accident. So, said the defense, Lindsey Patterson didnt really know what she saw. In fact, if she had really witnessed chris hall drowning his wife, why then didnt she claim to see cristis body in the spa when she looked again . Didnt make sense. But the highlight was the hall daughters testimony. Emotional. Quite powerful. So it put prosecutor stromski at odds with the victims own family. They were so clear. If we had any inkling we had done this, believe me, we would have said so. We would have seen it. I think thats 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 is up to a jury to decide. After six days of testimony, two days of deliberation, they couldnt. 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. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Without a doubt. The d. A. Was disappointed too, and 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 winkle became a county commissioner up in idaho, but once upon a time he was chris halls friend. That is, before a night in poker and booze when he said hall made a disturbing revelation that he had shot himself in the leg when he was a cop in order to get medical Retirement Benefits. Chris had been drinking beer, and he came right out and told me that he had shot himself. But there was more. D. A. Investigator tom dove had discovered a secret. Not in chriss path, but in cristis. There had been infidelity in the marriage for six years prior while chris hall was in custody in idaho. Cristis 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 of them said they noticed a sudden change in her usually vibrant personality. One coworker offered more. She told us she was contemplating a divorce. If true, and it was only an if, it might well persuade a jury. Also, prosecutor stromski needed to explain what Lindsay Patterson saw or didnt see. Why didnt see see cristis drowned body when she peeked over the wall a second time . We were not able to explain to the jury why she didnt see cristi at that point, and i think that allowed the defense to make the argument that cristi hall was inside. The prosecution hired a water expert to do a recreation at the hall spa. They shot this video which said the prosecutor shows that if an injured cristi had sunk under water, she would not have been visible from lindseys viewpoint. And now the prosecutor was ready. In may 2011 one year after the first jury deadlock burt went back to court armed with his new evidence for a brand new panel. Jurors heard medical experts testify about the injuries to cristis head and, once again, heard lindseys 911 call. He is holding her under the water. Cristis coworkers testified for the prosecution. And jerry winkle traveled from idaho to tell the jury what he thought of chris hall. I was ashamed to admit that he was once a Police Officer. But if the prosecution had upped its game in the year between the two trials, and so had the defense. Thats when well known attorney steve and paul entered the scene. They came out swinging. That story about cristis affair, for example just a shadow hanging over all of this stuff. Very human sort of shadow, which is 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, says the judge, and there was no evidence that chris knew about his wifes affair, he ruled it out of the trial, and 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 Lindsey Patterson says she saw chris hall holding his wifes head under water, 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. Thats different than actually touching. And, again, the hall daughters were there every minute. Their fathers enduring champions. This time more family members came to court. Two of cristis own siblings testified for chris. 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 sister and own brother, thats an amazing thing to see. Perhaps it was, but listen to this. The defense said 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 could and perhaps should be explained by an accidental fall. They didnt rule out homicide. He didnt rule out homicide, but he said the preponderance of the evidence was toward an accidental drowning. Ive always been astounded by with this case 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 never would have filed criminal charges. An accident of geography. Now a second jury would have to sort through these two sets of allegations, these two opposing realities and decide whether chris hall would turn and embrace home and his loving daughters or a pair of happened handcuffs and a life in prison. Coming up things can only go so wrong for so long before something has to actually go right. Guilty or not guilty . This time the answer from the jurors would be unanimous. And coming up friday on dateline did you kill Travis Alexander . Yes, i did. Inside the steamy trial that has riveted the country. I hate to put it this way, but i felt a little bit used. Jodi arias, charged with killing her lover, she says, in selfdefense. He attacked me and i defended myself. 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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. I know it. Of course, chris halls daughters say they know 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 and as much as we love our father, we would want that justice for our mother. The jurors deliberated two days and 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 for us. We just did a lot of talking about the future and, you know, this being over, this being finished, and 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. In the end it was very quick. Guilty of first degree murder. Their father would not be coming home. Probably ever. He is being cuffed, and potentially put away for life, and, yeah, it hurts, and we are angry about that. You can still hear those daughters of thinking you unfairly convicted their father. 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 that has stolen their mother from them. It had been a peculiar fact of this case that the victims and defendants families had stood solidly to her 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. 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 silently urged on the prosecutor. Half the family was convinced he was innocent. Half the family was convinced he wasnt. Thats hard to do when you have a big family. You all have to be together once in a while. When it involves a member as loved as cristi was exactly. Does that explain why this kind of group of people in the family decided just to let justice take its course . We talked about it quite a bit, and youve got to know bh to show up sometimes and when not to 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 christys relatives met with the prosecutor and thanked him. They wanted me to thank you. Thank you for putting that guy away because hes a murderer. And the hall daughters having lost their beloved mother, have now also lost the fight to save the father they adored. Its a devastating reality. It really is. Especially for our family that, you know, to say that we were close is an understatement. You know . To go from that to being not able to be there with each other, its the biggest heart break that anyone can ever experience, i think. Chris hall is now appealing his conviction. Thats all for this edition of dateline sunday. Well see you again for dateline friday at 8 00, 7 00 central. Im lester holt, and for all of us at nbc news, good night. [ midtempo music plays ] woman excuse me, could you give me a hand . Yeah. You know, my husband just passed away. Oh, im sorry. Yeah, and i just picked up his ashes. Oh, my gosh. I know. And he wrote me this last letter. Okay. But i left my glasses at home, and i cant read it. Would you read it for me . Yeah, no problem. Oh, thank you so much. My dear shirley, if you are reading this, ive passed on. I want you to know that you are truly the love of my life. But i must tell you something that has been bothering me for years. Several years ago, i cheated on you twice with judith. [ gasps ] i hope you can forgive me. Yours always, harry. Judith . unbelievable. [ laughs ] well, you know what . Im happy for him. Ive been cheating on him for over 25 years with his business partner. Oh, my god. You know, good for you, honey. Come on, darling. Lets dump you off the space needle. Thank you so much. [ laughs ] [ Twisted Sisters were not gonna take it plays ] were not gonna take it