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hi, everybody. good to have you with me. i'm thomas roberts here at msnbc headquarters. it's 8:00 p.m. in the east and we're about two hours from nightfall in texas as we monitor tropical storm harvey. the storm has lost its strength but the winds are not that big of an issue because the rain is what is the biggest headache. potential catastrophic flooding

for certain areas. this is what the damage looks like. this is rockport, texas, where one person is now confirmed dead and at least a dozen more injured and the life-threatening impacts will no doubt last for days to come. more than 300,000 people are without power. houston, the nation's fourth largest city, is now under a flash flood warning and as texas takes a beating from this historic storm, we have a flurry of news that's come out of the white house with president trump pardoning controversial sheriff joe arpaio. his former defense attorney is going to join us with reaction and confirmation about the exception of this pardon and the white house removes sebastian gorka just after days of the departure of steve bannon. so did gorka leave on his own, resign or was he fired? and president trump officially bans transgender recruits from

the military. a lot to talk about over the next hour. but we do want to begin with the deadly storm churning over texas. tropical storm harvey is lingering at a near standstill over a large portion of texas pummeling certain areas with torrential rainfall. flooding is taking shape in certain areas and harvey could unleash 25 inches of rain over texas through next week. if that is not enough, tornadoes are threatening the area as well. we have this video that came into us of a funnel cloud that was forming in the cypress area of houston and more tornadoes could form overnight. again, we're roughly about two hours from nightfall and i want to go to victoria, texas, where catie beck has been following the storm and there has been a lot of iterations of this storm. catie, explain what you're seeing right now. >> reporter: we're in victoria,

texas, where there's no shortage of rain. there's a shortage of gas because of situations like these. this was what was hanging over the gas station here in victoria, texas, as you can see this awning and completely collapsed here in the parking lot. as you can see these pumps here, not in use anymore. the streets here are seen significant flooding. several neighborhoods are going to be very difficult to pass through in just a few hours. several of them already are. this rainfall is collecting and the debris from the roads is clogging those drainage ways. so the longer that we stay here, the more we see that the rainfall is having an impact on these areas. we've talked to so many folks who have stayed throughout the storm. they did get supplies and they are in good spirits but they're sitting inside in the dark with no air conditioning in texas. so they are sort of braving the elements and they know more is to come. the damage has been untouched at

this point. there isn't anyone making any repairs. there isn't anyone attempting to restore the power and that's because there's still a lot more weather yet to come. thomas? >> catie, talk about the temperatures. there's wind and we see driving rain. what have the temperatures been like throughout the day? >> reporter: they've been pretty bearable here and that's probably because of the wind. while it wasn't what it was, there is still somewhat of a breeze. we spoke to one woman who had a pecan tree fall on her house and she said typically this time of year it would be a lot hotter and it would be miserable but it's been pretty bearable. in terms of supplies, there's absolutely not a single store open anywhere. there's no place to get hot food. there's no place to get groceries and there's really no place to get gas. so if you weren't prepared, you're in serious danger. there's no option for anyone

that lives here for the next few days, likely. >> catie beck in victoria, texas, thank you. we're going to continue to follow what harvey has done to this area in and around texas. houston is flood prone. it's 80 feet above sea level. the national weather service putting out this flash flood warning for the nation's fourth largest city. heavy rain expected to continue from now until several days further into the week and could bring catastrophic and life-threatening flooding. joining me now by phone is harris county sheriff ed gonzalez. i understand you just surveyed damage from what we had video of from the formation or activity of a storm in cypress. >> we saw extensive damage to

one particular neighborhood where a lot of damage was seen structurally and it left a raft of damage. one truck was overturned. a gentleman ran inside his house and it went in and expanded back out and back in. so people were pretty terrified and that was pretty impressive. >> sir, what are the biggest calculations you're taking into account considering it's roughly after 7:00 there, nightfall comes, i believe it's going to be 8:50. as nightfall comes, what are you thinking about as not to be blind sided certainly for the community you serve and for the people serving on your force. >> reporter: sure. well, we've tried to prepare for every scenario out there. so everybody is working very hard. we have a collaborative response with local public safety

agencies and we're monitoring a lot of the waterways and sheds. we have them crossing through our region. some residents have reported water rising 6 to 8 inches every 45 minutes. some have compared it to tropical storm alice that was devastating some time ago. we're monitoring that in anticipation of what areas we may need to respond to with high-water rescue vehicles and other apparatus. >> we heard from the governor earlier today and he was explaining at that time -- and this was about six or seven hours, 338,000 people were without power. can you explain for houston and the area you're serving for the millions of folks, do you have any hard numbers of folks that are without power? >> not at the moment. we were pulled away obviously to this tornado that touched down and it was continuing to move. thousands were without power earlier this morning but our local provider here was quickly

trying to restore power so that did not seem to be too much of an impact but we did see some streets that were not passable and we were trying to assess all of that. but i'll have to get some current numbers for the electrical grid. >> sheriff gonzales, there are certainly questions for the people concerned about their safety for the days to come but mainly have people taken heed of the warnings and really paid attention to either shelter in place or to get to a shelter that's being provided and set up by the red cross or travel to see family or have you experienced calls with people needing help? >> no, it seems that everyone is fairly well prepared there were low-lying areas so we're prone to flooding but folks seem to be well-stocked with some necessities and some of the stores still have supplies and everyone is taking caution. as we saw what these tornadoes,

there was a lull in the action when all of a sudden those struck pretty wickedly so those people's lives have been upended now. >> it's amazing that it can come out of nowhere and it's absolutely deadly. >> yes. >> "hardbalharris county sherf gonzales, thank you. shanna mendola is with us tracking hurricane harvey. the way that the jet stream has locked harvey into place, stalling it out. >> exactly. we need the jet stream to move to get it out of the way and it's sandwiching the storm right in the middle of the high in the west and high in the east. so we're watching for any movement. until that happens, we've got a serious situation with the northeast side of what's now tropical storm harvey producing a lot of that rain, the instability and why we're seeing lightning and possible tornadoes

in the houston area because of the bands getting pulled in from the gulf. this is the current update from the national hurricane center. 40 miles northwest is where we see the center of circulation. we're moving a little bit. the last update, it was stationary. we've got a east-northeast movement at 2 miles per hour, about the speed of a human walking down the street. that's how fast this storm is moving. you can see how slow it is going and it's basically stationary, not moving very much at all. okay. long-term power outages as we have the 60-mile-per-hour winds and damaging winds and possible tornadoes in these bands. if you take a look at the track, again, still very similar to our last update. it takes a slow turn towards the northeast and common we see it weaken a bit to a tropical low

but then by the time we hit wednesday, winds are still at 35 miles per hour and produce a lot of rain and with that repetition of rain, again, today, tomorrow, monday, all the way through wednesday. a lot of rain on the way here to cause major flooding and we're watching for that as well. past amounts, looking at 13 inches. we've got galveston at 6.81 and austin at 4.67 inches. the most is 40 inches in the heaviest spots. victoria could be one of them. we're keeping a close eye on the storm and we'll follow it all night long for. >> you we've been following that for the last 24 hours. shanna, thank you so much. we'll talk later in this hour. we want to talk about the hurricane of headlines that came out of the white house yesterday with the presidential pardon of a man once called america's toughest sheriff. to some, former arizona sheriff

ar p arpaio is dedicated to protecting our borders and others say he terrorized the people of arizona during his tenure. after a racial profiling lawsuit, a judge ordered sheriff arpaio to stop detaining latinos he suspected of being undocumented immigrants when not charged with a crime. the justice department found that arpaio ignored the court order and convicted him in contempt of court and the conviction came on july 31st. earlier this week, it was the president in phoenix, kind of teasing up a pardon coming for the former sheriff. joining me now in phoenix is arpaio's attorney jack. let me ask, "the washington post" has done kind of a deep

dive into but at what point did your client, the former sheriff, understand that this potential pardon could come? >> well, the president has been talking about it very publicly for at least the last couple of weeks. there was a rally, as we all know, earlier this week, in which he spoke about it directly, even though it was sort of unexpected. i got a call later in the day on friday, yesterday, about the pardon and the first question was, will the sheriff accept the

pardon? and not just for this conviction but for potential charges which is the case you were referring to earlier. >> so jack, has the president called sheriff arpaio directly about this? do you know if they've discussed it? >> my understanding is that there have been no direct communications between the sheriff and the president. i had the one call with white house counsel and my understanding is that the sheriff was also contacted by white house counsel last week to, again, confirm he would accept the pardon. other than that, there was been no direct contact and certainly no direct contact from the president and sheriff joe. >> "the washington post" is reporting, though, that your fellow colleague, lawyer on the case, mark goldman, wrote toon mcgann after the phoenix rally saying that he would hope that

this pardon would come quickly and before sentencing because it would place the sheriff in an untenable and unprecedented position. did you ever advise your client about appealing the conviction? if he believes he's innocent, why not fight it. >> we've filed an appeal in the middle of the case. to try to get them a jury trial and we spent a lot of time to try to do that and wound up with judges who said, you know what, wait until the end of the case. and the courts have to look at that and review that issue and give you a jury if you're entitled to one. we spent a lot of time and money on appeals. the judge, unfortunately, refused to give him a jury and the answer is, the sheriff's not a young man. he's 85 years old. if the judge wanted to, she could sentence him and make him serve a potential sentence or

pay a fine even before we appealed and what's the point? it's a lot more time and money that the government would have to spend and my client would have to spend for my time. it's the right thing to do. the president is a check on the system whether people like it or not. >> that probably was not on, you know, his brain when he was detaining people or potentially violating their constitutional rights in service of his position. that was probably not a calculation that went through his brain. isn't this kind of an unparallel situation where we have the president going out of his way to pardon someone only after their conviction roughly 20-plus days ago without a formal appeal sought. why would you tell your client

to accept the pardon? >> i'll answer your last question first, which is, acting like a check on the system. you mentioned about how he's an older man and people who are detained weren't showing that kind of sympathy, basically. to people questioning what is going on here, it wasn't about racial profiling. there's a lot of misinformation about that. this was a conviction for defying an order that said that the sheriffs office cannot enforce federal immigration law, that they were not deputized as federal immigration officers. when the sheriff office got that order, they didn't understand it because they said we can still work with the federal immigration officers to enforce the law. it's a very vague and ambiguous order. it's an oversimplification to say this is about people being detained or racial profiling.

this is really about clear orders to law enforcement and making it clear to them what they're supposed to do. when it's not clear, it creates a problem where they can get accused of criminal contempt and wind up in front of a judge who it is like trying a contempt of court case without a trial. a lot of people say sheriff arpaio acted as judge and jury for so many people and how is this our criminal justice system serving itself for some whoun says they are an advocate and a law man. again, if he believes he's innocent, why not fight it? so many people would say a pardon is an admission of guilt. >> it's a great question because when a pardon comes to this point in the case, it undoes the effect of the conviction. it's just like if the defendant dies in the middle of the case. it moots out the case. meaning, it's as if he was never convicted and that's the effect of the pardon here.

he's not guilty, so to speak, in the eyes of the law as a result of this pardon. what it says, at the end of the day, is that it's part of the system and a constitutional check and i think what we're hearing is the president has been following this case and he never believed it was right to prosecute the sheriff and the conviction was wrongful. >> when you think about what this means for the former sheriff, do you think he'll do that? >> we know the sheriff likes to get out there and talk to the press. he'll be having press conferences very soon. at this point, i've done my job as best i can as the defense attorney and this week we'll be filing a motion to dismiss the case. >> appreciate your time in all of this and it really has been a fast 24 hours when we think about how quickly this shaped up. thank you, sir.

joe arpaio's attorney. coming up next, we take you to rockport, texas. that's one of the areas hardest hit by harvey when it made land fall. there was one confirmed fatit in this area because there was a fire. first responders were not able to get there in time because of the severity of the cat 4 storm that hit overnight. back with more after this. don't let dust and allergens get between you and life's beautiful moments. flonase outperforms the #1 non-drowsy allergy pill. it helps block 6 key inflammatory substances that cause symptoms. pills block one and 6 is greater than 1. flonase changes everything. if you have moderate to severe ulcerative colitis or crohn's, and your symptoms have left you with the same view, it may be time for a different perspective. if other treatments haven't worked well enough, ask your doctor about entyvio, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohn's. entyvio works by focusing right in the gi-tract to help control damaging inflammation

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if they got a call for help, there's no way the officers could be out in the middle of this one. >> we just got word, it's a category 4 hurricane. i hope and pray people evacuated. >> some buildings have been obliterated. >> there's very little they could do to respond to the fires when they're also dealing with the hurricane. >> so tropical harvey going through rockport. one confirmed death and homes and cars destroyed and trees

toppled and power lines down. we want to go to gabe with more. gabe? >> reporter: this is rockport, texas. this home obliterated. several other homes and businesses in this downtown area also destroyed. at least 12 people were injured here in this county, according to the local officials. one person was killed in a house fire that local authorities say first responders just couldn't get to. this is where harvey's eye came crashing through. some local residents decided not to evacuate and said they regretted the decision. they said it was a terrifying ordeal and they were able to clearly remember the calm of the storm while they were inside the eye and then afterwards it just got that much worse. we spoke with one woman who rode out the storm with her boyfriend and sister and she thought she would not make it out alive. her home was destroyed.

she doesn't know what will happen next. we've been hearing a lot about the fairfield hotel where storm chasers and media decided to stay. it was designed to withstand a category 5 hurricane but the wall of the building came crashing down. it was incredible to see the power of the storm and we were able to look at the ocean from the fourth floor. the rest of the building is still standing. the manager said he's never seen anything like it. this is an ongoing situation for the state of texas. we're getting a break in the rain here in rockport but other parts of the state are going to deal with this meandering storm for days. more than 1,000 people are still involved in search and rescue

operations. thomas? president trump getting heat for deciding to pardon former sheriff joe arpaio. plus, the pushback that's been coming from republicans and new responses, one from speaker ryan straight ahead. t between you and life's beautiful moments. flonase outperforms the #1 non-drowsy allergy pill. it helps block 6 key inflammatory substances that cause symptoms. pills block one and 6 is greater than 1. flonase changes everything. tha...oh, burnt-on gravy?ie. ...gotta rinse that. nope. no way. nada. really? dish issues? throw it all in. new cascade platinum powers through... even burnt-on gravy. nice. cascade.

was sheriff joe convicted for doing his job?

he should have had a jury but i predict he'll be just fine. okay? >> there we have president trump tweeting a decision late last night, a pardon for former sheriff joe arpaio. "the washington post" reported that the president spoke with jeff sessions back in the spring about dropping the government case against arpaio altogether before he was convicted. that conviction coming july 31st. and here was arpaio's attorney about why he would accept thepa of this conviction. >> when a pardon comes at this point in the case, it undoes the effect of the conviction. it's just like if the defendant dies in the middle of the case, it basically moots out the case, meaning that he was never convicted. that's the effect of the pardon here. he's not guilty in the eyes of

the law as a result of this pardon. at the end of the day, it's a part of the system and a constitutional check and the president has been following this case and he never believed it was right to prosecute the sheriff. >> victoria and reynado, "the washington post" is detailing in the report that the president met with the attorney general to try to get the case scrapped. and then we have arpaio being convicted 26 days ago and accepting the pardon. as a former prosecutor, does this pass the judicial smell test? >> wow. well, i don't know about the smell test. what i'll say is this. i think the attempt by the

president or the reported attempt by the president to kill off the arpaio investigation is the most important piece of obstruction evidence that has come out since the comey testimony. there is no question -- and i was discussing it just moments ago on twitter at length, thers no question that mueller and his team are going to be looking at that very closely. because it's another data point. it's commonsense that a pattern of behavior so everything he told sessions and sessions told him that's going to be looked at by mueller and his team to determine what he knew, et cetera. >> we know that this question dates back to the spring. the white house watched this play out, the white house counsel reaching out, according to "the washington post," to find out if his legal team would

advise him to accept this pardon. and when it comes to mike flynn and seeing if he can let it go, is this kind of parallel to that? >> yeah, definitely, that's a good point. it doesn't seem like president trump understands the traditions of how federal investigations work, which means, when you're the president, you can't just call up the attorney general and say, hey, can we let this go of a federal investigation. if barack obama did that a few years ago with some of his supporters in the states, in a fox news on the right would have lit him up. they would have said, this is an abuse of power. and so because trump didn't do -- didn't drop the charges then because he knew that would create a bigger problem for him a few months ago, you know, now

we're at this point where he actual did something that's legal although when speaker ryan is criticizing something that trump did for a fellow republican, that means there isn't a ton of support for what trump did yesterday. >> so victoria, we know obviously former presidents as recent history demonstrates under president obama and bush, they gave pardons. it was roughly two years into their administrations. david frohm said it was from minor offenses and did not involve law enforcement agents convicted of crimes against over whom people they had jurisdiction. so specifically for latino americans, what kind of signal and message do you think this is going to send because of the racial turmoil we seem to be in right now just on the heels of charlottesville? >> exactly. so i think over the past couple of days, thomas, what we've been seeing is president trump return to the marquise issue of

immigration. that is what launched his campaign and that is what shored up the support for him winning the white house. we had his rally a couple of days ago in phoenix. there's a lot of talk that daca, the deferred action program for dreamers, is going to be taken away. threat of a shutdown if money isn't given for the wall. so i think this fits that larger pattern of him digging in his heels. maybe he's threatened politically because of the mueller investigation, because of russia. and this is his safe space, thomas. he knows that he can hunker down on immigration and we know that it doesn't matter what the latino population -- he didn't win the election based on the latino vote and he knows he doesn't need to cater to them. >> we know that arpaio has called the former sheriff because he lost re-election. >> true. >> and had this conviction. so the community there certainly within arizona and within where arpaio was running in maricopa

county, they spoke loudly. the reaction of the former sheriff last night in speaking to the arizona republic. take a look. >> so looking back, would you have done anything differently with these immigration sweeps? >> no. my guys did nothing wrong and i didn't do anything wrong and i hoped with the help of my attorney we'll outline that at a press conference. >> all right. so we know that a press conference is coming up. we just had jack on moments ago talking about the sheriff having a press availability coming up. but daniellce, there is no lack of remorse here. his attorney was laying out that there wasn't just this pardon but there is protection stemming out from another case that will keep the former sheriff in a bubble of any type of judicial consequence. >> yeah. usually when you get a pardon, the person who is getting

pardoned, the petition, as they are known legally, is supposed to show remorse. you're supposed to file a formal application to the department of justice laying out why you should get a pardon from the president and yet there was no formal, you know, plea by arpaio to, you know, get a pardon. and, you know, his attorney has said that there is -- you know, they didn't understand how to follow the -- you know, the order saying the sheriff couldn't just round up latinos, that there was 18 months of when they were rounding up latinos even though they were ordered not to. so that's the case. there are no other sheriffs in the case who did not also follow it and who were charged. that raises a question of, you know, this does seem like a deliberate effort by arpaio to

circumvent the law that led to this criminal investigation. >> so do you think there will be a domino effect, as pointed out there? obviously this is a special case. we have arpaio, who definitely craved cameras, and will do so again. do you think this will be a domino effect for people caught up in the same type of consequences or crimes against their jurisdictions against them? >> they are going to undermine respect for the law and among the president's friends and associates. i mean, you heard that attorney just a moment ago. he said his client did nothing wrong and his client literally disobeyed a court order egg geej jous egregiously and said now he's not guilty. i hate to break it to you, when

you accept a pardon, you're saying that you're guilty and yet what is going on is this man is against the law and this is not how it's supposed to zork victoria, as a professor and helping to train future legal minds, do you tell students that a pardon is an admission of guilt? >> yes. there's a question of the constitutionality of it and the president was within his purview of doing that but then what precedent does this set for other sheriffs across the country, for other lawmakers. >> all right. i'm not going to turn you into a weather reporter, although i see the rain behind you there. so we'll save that for later. i appreciate it. thank you very much. appreciate it. coming up, we're going to bring you the latest information on harvey. a tropical storm right now.

it is still a threat because it stalled out over the texas coastline. we're talking an area from corpus christi to houston. back with more after this. eauti. flonase outperforms the #1 non-drowsy allergy pill. it helps block 6 key inflammatory substances that cause symptoms. pills block one and 6 is greater than 1. flonase changes everything.

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tropical storm harvey is letting up. in rockport, texas, one person has been confirmed dead after a fire sparked.

there are issues of widespread damage statewide. many more properties have been destroyed. there is warning of storm surges and flash flooding with intense rain expected to continue from now into the next few days. it was earlier today that a funnel cloud touched down in cypress, texas, and it was warned that tornadoes are possible today and into tonight. meanwhile, the predictions of catastrophic flooding have been warned because harvey continues to bring this heavy rainfall and it's a system that has stalled and the torrential rain continues on harvey's saturated ground. i want to go to rosenberg, texas. it's about an hour before nightfall there. explain the conditions.

a >> reporter: i have to tell you, i've covered hurricanes in the past, some dramatic ones. the hurricane comes in and then the hurricane leaves. it's erie on the ground because the bands of rain just keep oncoming over and over again and it is not clearing out. as you say, the storm has stalled and it is just sitting on top of this part of texas and that is what makes it so dangerous. but the difficulty right now i think for officials and the thing that they are going to have to battle is complacency. it's turning into a tropical storm as opposed to a full-blown hurricane. the people i spoke with today, some of them facing evacuation orders, are having a hard time kind of wrapping their head around the fact that it seemed fine. it seemed over, except that it's

not. and this rain just keeps oncoming right now in the houston area. it's a heavy band of rain, torrential rain. and the system here just can't handle it. it is a low-lying city. it floods often. people need to be prepared for it. thomas? >> houston is about 80 feet above sea level. they do have systems in place and they are being strained right now with days of rain to come. stephanie gosk reporting for us, stay safe with you and the crew. i know it's been a long and hard day there. more to come as harvey camps out over that area. coming up next, though, we are going to talk about harvey and what it could mean for trump's political future. how his white house team responds to this. it could really play a lot into his future. thanks for loading, sweetie.

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all right. as we've been covering tropical storm harvey hammering texas and critics have said that the white house waited until there was a perfect storm. basically, a cat 4 hurricane yesterday, to dump some serious news of its own. so within just hours, yesterday, the president pardoned former sheriff joe arpaio in arizona, expanded his ban on transgender people serving in the military, basically reversing what the obama administration had done, and parted ways with sebastian gorka, a close ally of steve bannon. and it's not clear whether gorka resigned or was fired. the president himself, he's at camp david this weekend and these photos show him overseeing the first national disaster that is under his watch. i want to bring in allen smith and elana treen. allen, there's an episode of the series "the west wing" called

take out the trash and it's cynical to suggest that the white house used harvey as a chance to clear a lot of hot topics. are we being too cynical about harvey bringing a lot of cover to three big stories from this white house? >> i really don't think we are. leading into harvey making landfall, the big question was, this is president trump's first major disaster to happen over the course of his presidency. how is he going to respond? he doesn't have experience dealing with national disasters even at the state and local level building themselves up. now it's going to be remembered the most even though his response to harvey, he's been very focused on in his tweets and his administration has been getting faces out on the tv to talk about the hurricane but it

will be buried by the fact that he pardoned joe arpaio right as the hurricane was hitting and that's going to leave his critics saying what was that? >> over the last 13 hours, basically, the tweets from the president have been about h monitoring harvey. when it comes to harvey itself, right now as we're in day one, this really isn't the time to judge the federal response to what's taking mace with harvey, as we know that the system has stalled out. is there anything that stands out to you so far about the federal response, specifically from the white house? >> right. well, a lot of critics are

saying right now that trump going to camp david during this hurricane wasn't a good call. tom bossert who snd sis standin for john kelly as chief executive secretary, trump has a full office and everything is prepared at camp david. he's been teleconferencing in and monitoring the situation. so right now that's all he can see. i think it's a big occasion f him to rise to disaster but time will tell. >> time will tell. there are more national guard troops in texas and the system will have days to come. we have the joe arpaio and the reversal of the transgender ban in the military so recruits that are transgender are not going to be -- allowed to be military

members and also it sets up a lot of problems for those that have come out in the military service. did his directive actually provide some policy insight into how the military is supposed to handle active, loyal, decorative members of the service? >> yeah. look, it's still going to be somewhat of a history because that stuff wasn't really made terribly clear in the directive. and if you look at the fact that this wasn't dumped out during a hurricane, but 8:00 on a friday night, this is something that you don't want to get too much coverage. if he felt the transgender ban was something that was fully flushed out and something that the administration would want to tout, you'd release it during the daytime to get the necessary coverage of it, especially if this is a major thing that your administration is doing. the fact that you'reoing it on a frida night at 8:00 when

people are concerned about a mar storm hitting the coast of texas and louisiana, it makes you question whether everything is even fully formed. >> you would also think that those two stories would be enough. arpaio and the transgender ban for the military but also sebastian gorka and now there are questions whether he was fired or he left we will get some answers but it may take some time. allen smith and thank you at home. that's going to wrap up the situation with harvey. much more to come. i'm thomas roberts. "date line extra" is next. don't let dust and allergens get between you and life's beautiful moments. flonase outperforms the #1 non-drowsy allergy pill.

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this is a tragedy on top of a tragedy now. >> it happened so quickly, their parents in the backyard sparring, their mom in trouble. >> my dad just panicked. >> a sudden slip, a fatal fall. someone else was watching her, too. a curious neighbor just moments

before. >> the look o his face was almost undescribabl >> what had she seen? was this drowning really an accident? >> she's got a huge gash on her head. something that was not consistent with just falling down. >> a husband and father suddenly under suspicion. >> he's crying, we're crying. he said they think i hurt mom. >> three daughters stand by their dad and one prosecutor stands firm. >> he's holding his wife of almost three decades under the water. >> was it murder? i'm craig melvin. a plot straight out of an alfred hitchcock film. a young woman peers into her

neighbor's yard and sees something for a few seconds. a man, a woman and a moment that was unsettling. was it an accident, a crime, maybe even a murder? what she saw and whether she did would set a chain of events into motion that would divide a family and jury. here's keith morris. >> we know the truth and everything that happened. >> reporter: how do we know what we know? >> it's emotionally unsatisfying not to have that answer. >> reporter: even if we've seen something or if we think we have. and thus the question of 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. why does this other woman think this? >> she doesn't know forure what she saw. >> a story on which all the

other will churn. we begin here in california, riverside county, historic missions, sprawling suburbs around the eastern flank of los angeles. here's where chris and christy hall had come oh 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, it's always been chris and christy. they were never thought of as separate. they are a unit. courtney, a teacher, brianna, a personal trainer, and ashton, the youngest, he had just returned from playing professional volleyball in europe and all of them, of course, have heard scores of time the story of how their parents met. it was 1978. christy had gone to see a relative in nearby san

bernardino and while she was there encountered a security guard who, to her at least, looked just like elvis. it was chris. >> apparently she was a little flirty. >> reporter: in short order, chris and christy got married cht she was 17. he, 20. and as they grew up, they never doubted the powerful bond of love, the parents with them and with each other. >> i would venture to say we're probably closer with our parents than most children. >> they are the parents that i hoped to one day be. >> christy, the vif vash jous blue of the family, chris, her perfect mirror. >> our dad is a little more kicked back and relaxed. but they are a perfect balance i think. >> for years, he was a police officer in san bernardino until he was shot in the line of duty. and then he went off to become police chief in two small towns in idaho. and then in 2005, anticipating

an empty nest and eventual retirement, they bought this place back in cala mesa. life in the spring of 2007 seemed to have hit a sweet spot as ashton and brianna remember their mother telling them. >> we happened to be laying on the bet with her and just started talking. she was like, i'm so happy that i have you girls and dad. >> it was one of those conversations that you don't have every day. >> still, there was work to be done. it was not a new house. it could use some remodeling. courtney was still living with her parents as the work began. >> they were going to be doing the tile work and stuff so we wouldn't have a shower for that day. >> reporter: so they decided to wake up early, put on their baiting suits and rinse off in the outdoor spa before the contractor arrived at 6:45.

it was june 7th, 2007. chris got up first, turned on the spa to warm it up and then called brianna at her college dorm in san diego. >> here's your wakeup call, babe, go out on that run. >> reporter: courtney dose through her first wakeup while chris and christy made their way out to the spa. just after 6:30, chris lookedn crtney again, second call, and headed baco the spa. life's last norma moments. 6:37 a.m. -- >> i got up out of bed, i was putting on my robe and i just heard this panicked scream from my dad yelling for me. and i ran down the hallway to the back porch and i saw him just trying to pull my mom out of the spa. >> 911, what's your emergency? >> it was she who dialed 911 as she and her father struggled to lift her mother out of the spa. >> that 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 both your parents in the worst times that you've ever seen them, obviously my mom unconscious and my dad just panicked and for the first time in my life seeing him that way not knowing what to do. >> because he was a cop. he was used to dealing with those kinds of things. >> he's a cop used to dealing with those kinds of things with people who was not his wife. >> courtney took charge. she started cpr on her mother with her father. emt and firefighter eric norwood was the first to respond. >> it just started, help my wife, help my wife. >> chris aay kneeling at his wife's side and so hysterical it was hard to help. >> he didn't want to leave her.

he was just holding her hand and yelling her name. >> they worked on her for 20 minutes. no vital signs. none. >> no words to describe the fear and the anxiety. >> you're losing your mother. >> right. >> we tried to save her together and we just couldn't. >> 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. david. what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. ♪ everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations

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2007, brianna hall was on the road from san diego driving home from college to what she didn't know, except that her elder sister courtney had called and it sounded bad. >> she said there was an accident, you need to just come home right away. >> reporter: it was courtney who eventually broke the news to ashton and brianna. their mother, their father's wife to close to 30 years, was dead. neither courtney nor chris waited at the house to tell the sister what is happened nor did they linger over the body at the hospital. they couldn't. because father and daughter were escorted to separate squad cars and driven to the police station to talk about the accident. >> reporter: what was that ride like? >> quiet. i just remember crying the whole time. i couldn't comfort my father, he couldn't comfort me. we got to the station and they said that my dad would just be a few more minutes. >> reporter: chris so frenzied at the scene had calmed down by

then. he was a cop among cops, after all, and he understood, he said, what was necessary, to help them sort out what happened. >> i can't even start to imagine what you're going through, okay? it was a death investigation and we have to do this. >> reporter: happy to help, he said. whatever would get him back home to comfort his daughters as quickly as possible. >> they are all so close. >> reporter: chris told investigators what happened. how as courtney slept, he and cristi were in the spa bathing. >> she went in, got more coffee, tried to wake up courtney. courtney didn't wake up, apparently. she came back out. >> reporter: they passed each other on the patio. he went in the house, then, stopped by courtney's room to make sure she was awake and then right back 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 can tell we were losing her. >> reporter: from what? a fall? must have been. >> in your gut, just tell me what you think happened. >> i think she slipped in. she slipped or something. i don't know. >> reporter: but chris, apparently he hadn't noticed the nasty three-inch laceration on cristi's head and here suddenly the point of the police interview is revealed. >> the gash she has on her head -- >> she's got a gash on her head? >> she's got a huge gash on her head. >> okay. >> something like that is not consistent with just falling down. >> reporter: not consistent with not just falling down? why would the police think that? >> you've been around for a while. >> i know where you're going. >> reporter: why 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 in june, someone was watching. >> i got up at 6:00, got my coffee. >> she 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. lindsey was inside in the bathroom facing 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. >> reporter: a woman's she thought? she went outside to tell her mom. >> and i said, did you hear that scream? and she said, yeah, you about i think it's just kids playing in the pool. >> reporter: kids? at 6:00 something in the morning? lindsey walked over to the wall and stepped on the planters, she said, and looked over the wall.

>> at that point, i saw a man with his hand -- one hand on the top of a woman's head and then one hand on her back and she was face down in the water. >> reporter: like something was going on? >> yeah, that's what i assumed. >> she thought she was looking at a sex act in progress. >> i don't know why it didn't seem right but something made me want to look again. >> reporter: it was 90 seconds and this time she only saw the man in the spa. >> he's leaning back in the hot tub but i don't see her. he's got his elbows back and he's just kind of looking back like nothing. >> where did the woman go? lindsey told her mom something seemed strange. >> she told me, stop being nosy. don't worry about it. but it just didn't seem right. it wasn't enough time for her to have gotten out and gone inside the house.

>> reporter: so 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 and she's 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. >> reporter: it was instinct that told her something was wrong, said lindsey. so she called 911. >> 911, state your emergency. >> so now, hours and hours later, they confront chris with lindsey's story. why, they ask, didn't her story match his. >> so i'm supposed to believe the witness is lying? >> i wouldn't say she's lying. she sounds like a truthful kid or whatever, but, i mean, i don't know. i can't explain what she saw. >> reporter: so now that

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death in a backyard spa, police asked chris hall to explain what happened that morning. what chris did not kno 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. >> reporter: chris and cristi's three daughters hung together through shock of the 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, broken up words and he's crying and we're crying and that is when he said, they think i hurt mom. i mean, he was very upset. >> reporter: but he didn't sound surprised when he said -- >> no, he was crying. he was crying. >> he was upset. >> very upset. >> reporter: but by the time police investigators were

questioning chris, remember, they had heard from lindsey p patterson and his events differed from one crucial point. >> 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. i don't even think we had any contact while we were in the jacuzzi other than when i was getting her out of the jacuzzi. >> but investigators were getting a good look at cristi's body and saw wounds that suggested a struggle and more than one nasty blow to the head. so the police had to choose, which version, chris hall or lindsey patterson's was the most likely scenario. >> i think they felt there 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 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 knowi our parents -- >> it's 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 father's 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? and she was happy, too, as happy as she had ever been. they knew it, they said, based on the mother/daughter talk just before she died. >> it was kind of odd. >> we will always cherish that.

>> that being the last time we actually saw her -- >> kind of burned into your memory? >> 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 cristi's life insurance policy and used the money to meet his million dollar bail. and then he went back to what was to be his retirement retreat to prepare, with the help of his daughters, for a murder trial. >> that's 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 glitch. >> you said two things there, special man, special situation. >> i think both of us can say this is a man that we like and we know and we boent feel like he could have done anything like this. >> so chris hall and his daughtered prepared for a trial which they hoped to 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 the 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 dash and knocked cristi out, said the attorney. >> she didn't see what was really happening during the times when she was not looking. >> that scream that made lindsey patterson look over the wall, lindsey, they pointed out, was in a bathroom that faced the

street. she wasn't in the backyard when she says she heard it. it could have been anybody. and courtney inside her own house near the spa didn't hear a thing. >> we don't think that she's lying. we think she misinterpreted what she saw. >> and lipd see can concede she didn't know what she was seeing in her glimpses that morning. >> something was wrong. >> and yet you aren't really seen anything. >> no. but i knew something was wrong. i don't know if i was putting things together but between the scream, the position that he was holding her and then not -- just not having enough time for her to have gone inside. >> reporter: it's like you have three different snapshots of something going on. >> right. right. >> reporter: and had to work out what this was. >> yeah. i wasn't thinking at that point, oh, this man just murdered his wife.

>> >> reporter: b >>. >> reporter: but now based largely on that account, he would go on trial. >> he loved her. they were each other's best friends and this is just -- this is not fair to him because he truly loved her more than anyone. >> reporter: and yet the prosecutor was going to try to prove different.

hi, i'm richard lui. texas governor greg abbott warns more rain is expected in the aftermath of hurricane harvey. 20 to 30 inches could fall from corpus christi to houston. president trump asked about the possibility of joe arpaio's

case being dropped. the pardon happened yesterday and the sentencing was to happen in october. for now, back to "dateline extra." chris hall was charged in the drowning death of his wife cristi. as prosecutors were preparing to lay out their case, hall's daughters stood buy him, proclaiming his innocence. would anytng change their minds about their dad? here again is keith morris. >> this is a hard charging man, san francisco d.a.'s office, now senior deputy d.a. in 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,

somebody that had the support of his family. >> reporter: so he did. but he wasn't buying the loving father and family man bit. no. when he heard about chris hall's very obvious grief, the whaling that went on after the so-called accident, the phrase that came across his mind is, it's an act. >> it was a wonderful performance but when you look at his actions, how little he did to help his wife -- >> reporter: who tried harder to save cristi? not chris, says the prosecutor, but his daughter. >> she called 911. she helped him get the body out of the spa. she's the only one that did chest compressions. he had no interest in truly helping his wife. >> reporter: a matter of opinion, of course. but the prosecutor poked around in chris hall's past as a policeman. and what did he find? >> this man had an uncanny ability to fabricate stories. >> reporter: 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 and spent ten months in jail. a white collar crime. hardly murder. but what struck the prosecutor, is that hall tried to cover it up. >> to plan a fraud and lie about it effectively. that was very telling about who we were deang with. >> reporter: suddenly, the prospects for the prosecutor were looking better. he made lindsey patterson his star witness. but almost as important, he called the riverside county medical examiner who testified that those lacerations on cristi's head could not, in his opinion, been the result of a single, accidental fall. and the type of bruising was a hallmark of homicide. >> it was not consistent with

someone slipping and falling and then a rescue attempt. >> reporter: and there was a clump of hair still intwined with a plastic broken hair clip. that could only have come from a violent struggle. >> when you lose that amount of hair, it's not reasonably explained by any kind of fall. >> reporter: there were minor hiccups in 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 reasonably explain what lindsey patterson saw. in other words, was there anything that she could have misinterpreted and at the end of the day, you're not just stuck

with the fact that lindsey patterson made a mistake, you have to actually believe that lindsey patterson really hallucinated about everything that she saw. >> reporter: and what made lindsey's story all the more convincing is she told it before she found 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. here's what the jury heard her say in that call. >> and i saw him put her under waternd hold h there. >> repter: and she was still on the phone with 911 when chris came outside and saw his wife floating in the spa. >> and now he's sitting outside. >> reporter: the investigator, tom dove. >> i heard it best described during the trial as al 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 it turned out that a woman drowned in that spa. that is not a coincidence. that is what she saw. >> reporter: the prosecution's theory, somehow sitting in the spa that morning, chris was overcome by some private fury. who knows what. a hidden violence is what he 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 face twice into the concrete edge. he's holding his wife of almost three decades under the water showing absolutely no mercy or remorse, an absolute desire to end her life at that point. >> reporter: and then -- >> he gets out of the spa, walks into the house where his plan is to wake his 22-year-old daughter who he c use as an alibi

witness. >> reporter: one little quibble. why? in fact, as convinced as he was of hall's guilt, he conceded the why was a problem. didn't legally have to know, he said, but you just didn't. there it was. >> it's emotionally unsatisfying not to have that answer, not to know the entire narrative of what happened. >> reporter: but you'd 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. i'm not sure we got the answers to that specific question. >> reporter: kind of an important question, isn't it? >> it's an important question and a question we ask in all spousal homicides. >> reporter: so proof enough or reasonable doubt? almost three years after cristi hall's death, a riverside jury would have to decide. don't let dust and allergens get between you and life's beautiful moments. flonase outperforms the #1 non-drowsy allergy pill.

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the jury in chris hall's murder trial heard dramatic testimony from his neighbor lindsey patterson. patterson claimed she had seen the hole in the spa moments before she drowned. she says chris hall's hand was on her head and back while she laid face down in the water. now it was the defense's turn to show chris hall loved his wife, would never harm her and that her death was a tragic accident. here again is keith morris. >> reporter: they sat through every minute of their dad's trial for murder here in riverside, california. the review of the portrait of their father, it was a lie, they said. >> it's hard for 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 parents' marriage and we just didn't see it. you're basically telling us that we didn't know our whole lives our parents. >> and there's no proof of that. >> reporter: chris hall had never been violent, said the defense. no reason to 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 had really witnessed chris hall drowning his wife, why, then, didn't she claim to see cristi's body in the spa again when she looked again. it didn't make sense. 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. >> if we had any inkling he had done this, believe me, we would have said so. we would have seen it. >> reporter: i think that's what they truly believe in their

hearts. and, you know, it weighs on me grtly, but my job is to get justice for cristi hall. >> reporter: and now it's up to a jury to decide. after six days of testimony and two days of deliberation, they couldn't. 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 next? >> that was devastating to us. >> you expected a not guilty verdict? >> oh, yeah, not a doubt. >> reporter: the prosecutor was disappointed to and was determined to retry the case. first, he explored 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. >> reporter: former los angeles police officer jerry winkle, a county commissioner up in idaho now. once upon a time, he was chris hall's friend. that is, before a night of 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 hielf. >> reporter: 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 for six years prior while chris hall was in custody in idaho. >> reporter: cristi's 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-worker at the clinic where she was an x ray technician, several of them noticed a change in her usually vibrant personality. one co-worker offered more. >> she told us that she was contemplating a divorce. >> reporter: if true and it was only an if, it might well persuade a jury. but also the prosecutor needed to explain what lindsey saw or didn't see. why didn't she see cristi's drowned body when she peeked overed wall a second time? >> we were not able to explain to the jury why she didn't see cristi at that point. and i think that allowed the defense to make the argument that cristi hall was inside. >> reporter: the prosecution hired a water expert to do a recreation of the hall spa. andrea has been assisting law

enforcement nationwide with drowning investigations for the past 20 years. she got in the spa while it was videotaped from where lindsey was watching. >> from the center of the pool and towards where lindsey was standing, anywhere i was laying, you could not be seen from lindsey's viewpoint. once i hit the bottom, you could not see me at all from lindsey's viewpoint. >> reporter: and now the prosecutor was ready. in may 2011, they started a brand new panel of hall's peers. jurors heard about the injuries to cristi's head and heard lindsey's 911 call. >> i saw him put h under water. >> reporter: cristi's co-workers testified for the prosecution and jerry winkle testified from idaho to tell what he thought of chris hall. >> i was ashamed to admit that he was once a police officer. >> reporter: but if the prosecution had upped its game

in the year between the two trials, so had the defense. that's when the well-known attorneys entered the scene and they came out swinging. that story about cristi's affair, for example -- >> there's a shadow hanging overall of this stuff. a 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. >> reporter: quite right, says the judge. there was no evidence that he knew about his wife's affair. he ruled it out of the trial. and the story about shooting himself for retirement benefits -- >> that was just absolutely a lie. that's wrong. there was never, never any evidence or indication or not even a moment's breath that he shot himself.

>> reporter: 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 wife's head under water, the defense 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 weren't. >> this is what she describes seeing in her testimony but on the close up, what do you notice? >> they're not touching but they're in position where they could be. >> but that's different than actually touching. >> reporter: again, the hall daughters were there every minute. and this time, more family members came to court. two of cristi's own siblings testified for chris. >> they 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 victim own sister and brothe thas an amazing thing

to see. >> reporter: perhaps it was. but listen to this. the defense had one more very significant witness. a witness who oozed credibility. the sitting medical examiner from neighboring san bernardino county who stuck his neck way out to disagree publicly in a court of law with a medical examiner fortunately riverside. >> he found this to be an accidental death, not a homicide. >> reporter: this was not some ordinary hired gun. this was a public official who said straight out that cristi's head injuries could and perhaps should be explained by an accidental fall. he didn't rule out homicide? >> he didn't rule out homicide but the preponderance of the evidence was towards an accidental drowning. what i've 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 two real decide whether chris hall to embrace home and his loving daughters or a pair of handcuffs and a life in prison. ♪ [vo] progress is seizing the moment. your summer moment awaits you now that the summer of audi sales event is here. audi will cover your first month's lease payment on select models during the summer of audi sales event. and life's beautiful moments.ns get between you

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that's why at comcast we're continuing to make4/7. our services more reliable than ever. like technology that can update itself. an advanced fiber-network infrustructure. new, more reliable equipment for your home. and a new culture built around customer service. it all adds up to our most reliable network ever. one that keeps you connected to what matters most. chris hall's 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 a conclusion to our story, here's keith more sawn. >> reporter: 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? who's account of the defendant's character and perhaps most important, what did lindsey patterson see when she peaked three times into the hall's backyard. do you ever have those moments in the dark soul thinking i may have misinterpreted, miss remembered. >> that is something i've thought about every day, whether i misinterpreted, whether i think i saw something that wasn't there. i didn't s everything. >> reporter: after. >> b i saw what i saw. an i knowhe conclusion of my story. i know it. i know it right here, i know it. >> reporter: of course chris hall's 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. if we had heard anything or had any ink ling 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. >> reporter: the jurors dlib waited two days, broke for the weekend, memorial day, hall's daughters felt so good. >> things can only go wrong for something before something has to go right for us. >> we did a lot of talking about the future and this, you know, 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. >> reporter: 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 first degree murder. their father would not be coming home probably ever. >> he's being cuffed and potentially put away for life. and, yeah, it hurts. and we are angry about that. >> reporter: you can still hear those daughters? >> i can. >> reporter: accusing you of unfairly convicting their father. >> it weighs on me. but at the same time i know who i'm dealing with who it woman's to chris hall. in fact he's the one that has stolen their mother from them. >> reporter: it had been a pea cool lar fact that theictims and their family stood together against the prosecutor. but no one knew the truth was more complicated. there was a letter introduced from another of christi hall's

brothers, billy carlton, who had said not one bub word about the case. we would like to ask his honor honor for the maximum sentence, the pain my family has suffered is unforgivable. >> i didn't want to hurt the girls, but i had to say what was on my mind. >> reporter: there was a deep divide, some of believed he was innocent, but he and christi's uncle silently urged on the prosecutor. half the family was convinced he was innocent and half that he wasn't. that's hard to do in a big family and when all have to be together once in a while. >> >> reporter: and when it involved a member as loved as christi. >> exactly. does this explain why this group of people in the family decided to let justice take its court. >> we talked about it quite a

bit. >> you have to know when to show up and when not to to keep the family as together as possible. >> reporter: when was over, paul convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life, some of christi's family met with the prosecutor and thanked him. >> thank you for putting it our way, because he's a murderer. >> reporter: and the hall daughters? having loss their beloved mother, fought to save a father they adoerd, and having lost that fight aren't quite sure what they'll do now. >> it's a devastating reality, it really is. especially for a family that -- to say that we were close is a understatement. to go from that to being not able to be there with each other, it's -- it's the greatest heart break that anyone can ever experience, i think.

>> that's for this edition of date line extra. thank you for watching. >> i'm tired of getting high. >> and you weren't tired when i gave you a five-year prison sentence before? >> a drug addicted mother asks a judge to keep her out of prison. >> could you call my dad and tell him to look for someone who has collateral? >> just brought in on drug charges, a young mantt