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tv   Dateline  MSNBC  January 5, 2020 8:00pm-9:00pm PST

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of "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. g melvin thank you for watching i have a lot of guilt still in me. it makes me sick how i could do something like that. i am the responsible one. >> a working mom, new at the office. she loved her job and really loved her handsome young boss. >> the thing that i never wanted to face was the hurt that i was going to cause. >> a passionate non-confined affair. the problem, she was married and so was he. >> i grabbed his face.
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i was like, you know what, i love you, i am not going anywhere. just tell me what happened? >> scheming husbands, unfaithful wives, suburbs are full of secrets but being unfaithful to your spouse isn't criminal. is it? that would come next. >> oh my god! >> it was like everything rush possible in one second. >> i went, oh my god. >> murder in the dark. who was behind it and who would pay? >> when you see him on the video, he's armed and ready. >> two families and this single moment that shattered it all. >> i knew one day that this was all going to come out. >> "deadly desire." hello, welcome to "dateline extra" i'm craig melvin. candy hall was reeling from her husband rob's infidelity. then she started an affair of her own. he was a younger man, successful
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and her boss. the office romance gave candy a new lease on life. but she soon found her r her self-tangled in a twisted love triangle, untangling what happened in that parking lot late one evening would fall to the police. here's keith morrison. >> reporter: look at this place now, so ordinary, but its pharmacy, grocery store, carefully attended parking lot so alike from bismark to bakersfield. but that night that cold night, a heat gathered here, sweet, terrifying. oh. >> for the longest time i couldn't go anywhere because i'm thinking everybody is looking at me. >> reporter: this is the story of two married couples, the advice they can offer others,
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now that it's too late for them. >> i think if i can tell them anything, it would be put your family first. >> reporter: but, of course, that's not what happened. and this parking lot, there will be a body here before we're done. careful when you stir the hot pot of desire. the place is meridian, idaho, little brother to bigger boise in the majestic rockies. this is where they got to their perfect place. the end of their rainbow. it was 2006 and luck was on their side. they had just moved from southern california and they were happy. they were fulfilled at work. they had two beautiful children. they had everything they ever wanted. they were rob and candy hall, one of those charmed couples who had fallen in love at first sight, admiring each other in
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the dim. >> we went out i think that weekend and then we never stopped. >> what was it about that relationship? what was it about him that you liked so much, that was so good? >> we just connected instantly. >> reporter: by the time rob and candy moved to idaho they had been together for years ago had two teenage daughters. rob landed an excellent job as a computer specialist at ada sheriffs office, locating vehicle locators inside squad cars. >> he loved every minute of his job. >> reporter: as if this was a sign this is where they belonged, candy's career as a paralegal took off, too. she was a natural. could and did sell her kchdz and skills to anybody who walked in the door. >> it didn't hurt that she was pretty. >> reporter: no, it didn't. and her co-workers idolized candy. you became close? >> oh, we became very close. she was like a mother to me. >> reporter: yes, it was all just about perfect and then, who
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knows why these things happen exactly. they just do. and no one imagined why would they, how this thing was going to end? about eight months into his new job, rob started traveling for work. nothing unusual about that, of course. but soon, he seemed to be staying away from home a little longer than he really had to, started snapping at her, too, candy said, about little things. not like the old rob at all. so at this point you begin to suspect something? >> yeah, i start thinking, what is going on? why are you acting like this? >> and then one night after a late flight from california, rob laid down beside his wife in bed and it all came tumbling out. >> he just started to cry. and he said, i'm having an affair. and i laid my head on his chest and i said, rob, please, just
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fix it. >> you didn't get upset? you didn't yell, you didn't scream? you didn't cry, you didn't do anything? >> that's what shocked him. you know, the typical response get the -- out. >> throw the clothes out the window. >> oh, no, the last person on this planet that you would think to have an affair would be robert. >> reporter: but, of course, it was devastating, crippling. every day she went to work and every day she saw sophia turn herself inside out and seemed to wither. >> i watched her go through misery, sobbing in her hands daily and just trying to figure out what this woman had that she didn't. >> did she still love him? >> yes. dearly. >> reporter: and wanted the marriage to continue in spite of the affair? >> yes, she did. she didn't want to believe in her head that he found something in this woman that wasn't in candy. >> reporter: well, he felt bad about it, agreed to go through counseling with candy, but,
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after he confessed to you and you said, fix it, he didn't? >> he didn't know what he wanted. >> c'mon, no, he wanted to keep going on with the affair that's what he wanted? >> i for sure told him to stop. >> reporter: stop right now or i'll stamp my foot and hold my breath. >> it was my fault. he had a void because of me. that's what i was thinking. >> reporter: what do you think the void might have been? >> i just was boring. >> reporter: boring old candy hall, rejected, apparently unlovable and nearly 40. and then one day at work candy was introduced to a recent law school graduate, who was looking to staff his new office. a boyishly handsome smart as a whip cocky young lawyer. his name was emmett corrigan. >> my friend said emmett you got to meet candy. she's just as passionate and aggressive as you are, she would be great for you.
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>> and something suddenly lifted in candy hall. by the time those words had left her friend's mouth, candy knew, she just knew. >> candy hall was about to make a choice that would have consequences she never imagined, deadly ones. coming up. >> the text popped up and rob read it. he goes why are you texting my wife? >> three unfaithful spouse and their lies are piling up. >> i could hear everything he was saying. the hard part then is not a word he said was true. >> when deadly desire continues. call geico and see how easy saving on homeowners
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. >> reporter: in boise, idaho, inside this law office in the fall of 2010 was a paralegal whose charmed life was falling apart. candy hall was an unhappy woman. her marriage was dying or dead.
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her 40th birthday was bearing down like a chinese bullet train. then one day it got worse. candy's job told her, she was also unemployed. my husband's had an affair. now my attorney who i work for has fired me? >> yeah, pretty low. >> reporter: such problems. and then there was him. emmett corrigan fixed everything. he was handsome. he thought she was gorgeous. of course, he hired her right away for his new law office. you know what came next. soon there were racy e-mails, spicy text messages. >> i would like to be put on that pedestal. emmett made me feel that way. it was pretty much an ego boost for me. >> reporter: she really wasn't trying to get back to her husband, said candy, at least not consciously. >> i was thinking about me, only
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me, you know what it made me feel good, it made me feel like i was on top of the world. >> reporter: sitting here now is candy still only thinking of candy? perhaps as you hear the rest of this story, you can be the judge of that anyway, back then, there were a few hitches in candy's new found fantasy life emmett corrigan was also married and lived in this quiet cul-de-sac with this woman, his wife, ashley. >> he was just a guy that everybody wanted to be around. >> reporter: enthusiastic, full of energy? >> sometimes too much energy. but that's kind of one of the things i loved about him. >> reporter: just like candy and rob, ashley and emmett met in a gym. there's was in college in utah 2003. also inseparable from that moment on. and they certainly made a striking young couple. they were married after just six months together, made their vows
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before god and the church and the temple and -- >> you know what, i think i'm ready to be a parent. >> reporter: first came twin girls, followed soon by a son and then another daughter. >> he loved being a dad just as much as i love being a mom. >> reporter: in the winter they went skiing, sledding. in the summer they canned, swam at the lake they so loved. they made memories. ashley never doubted this was how their life was supposed to be. she was pregnant with her fifth child when her ambitious husband built them the law office in 2010 and made the faith r faithful decision to hire a paralegal candy hall. not that he had any idea he was sealing his fate, of course, any more than wife ashley understood his motivations. >> did you suspect she was involved with him? >> with emmett? >> reporter: why. >> the way he described her was an older woman he looked up to
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in a motherly way. he said, she believes in me, she thinks i'm going to be a great law enforcement you saw her as an older woman. >> she was almost 40, i was 28. i never felt it was a competition i guess. >> reporter: that's for the many reasons that plainly escape those that get smacked on the hot stove of desire, themselves. emmett and candy thought otherwise. oh, they tried to keep their hand off each other for a little while said their co-workers, but if they believed they were hiding their obvious infatuation, rearranged clothes, they were only fooling themselves. >> i noticed a significant change in her attitude went from being depressed about what rob had done to happy, you know. >> reporter: a spring in her step again? >> oh, yeah. >> reporter: such timing. now that rob seemed to fix their marriage. honesty took a holiday.
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>> i was living a lie, being in an affair is living one big lie. you lie about everything. >> reporter: yes. and she lied to herself, too. you were thinking of you and he together striding across the bow of the titanic. it's going to be a theme forever? >> yes. >> reporter: then one night ago a couple months ago the affair ticks toward their deadly conclusion. around bed time, candy received a text from emmett and couldn't hide it. >> the text popped up and rob read it and it said, i wish i was there with you tonight. >> what did he say? >> he was angry, candy, what is this? and i said, i don't know. so he calls emmett. rob goes why are you texting my wife at this time of night? >> reporter: emmett's answer? two minutes later he showed up at rob's house, they talked like
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duly lovers out on the sidewalk and rob came back inside. >> rob tossed my phone up on our bed and he said, you win. i can't compete. he's young, he's good looking guy. he's an attorney, you make him a lot of money. what good am i? and he was just devastated. >> now you got yourself a pretty complicated life at this stage? >> yeah. >> reporter: of course, by february of 2011, emmett's life was complicated, too, ashley could see how stressed he was, didn't understand it. >> that or why he seemed to avoid coming home. >> there was one time when my son asked him if he lived with us anymore and we were in the bedroom, he's like, what's that all about? i was like, well, we miss you. and he just, he just kind of yelled and screamed and then left. >> reporter: ashley thought maybe it was her fault.
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she went to marriage counseling. emmett refused to go. >> i felt really pushed away, was trying to find an answer and tried to surprise him by cleaning out his car and found a weird envelope. >> a weird envelope? >> an envelope with some sort of pill. i researched online in one of the side effects was problems with intimacy and sexuality. i thought maybe if he was doing that, that that could explain why he didn't necessarily want me. >> reporter: did you take it personally, too, though? >> you want to be everything that they want. it was hard not to take it personal. >> reporter: especially when emmett, who had been working out more and more announced he was going to a fitness competition in ohio on their wedding anniversary. what did that feel like? >> lonely. he called and said, happy anniversary, i'll call you later but didn't call back. and the night before he came
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home, my oldest son, who was, he just turned 4, was screaming one night for probably two hours, my dad's going to die, my dad's going to die and i just held him, i tried calling him. but he never answered his phone and it was a very strange weekend. >> reporter: strange? strange is not a big enough word to describe what was about to happen. coming up -- >> i literally was like, pleased, do not leave and he said, no, i'm leaving. >> reporter: a secret meeting at walgreens and something will go horribly wrong. >> i go, no, you are not doing this. he's like, oh, we are doing this. >> reporter: when "deadly desire" continues. n "deadly desire" continues. should close for the day. wannabe suvs should close for the day. regular four door sedans
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should close for the foreseeable future. all jeep 4x4 vehicles will remain open- despite the harsh weather conditions. ♪
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remember, you have out the hilton app. can the hilton app help us win? hey, hey-we're all winners with the hilton price match guarantee, alright? man, you guys are adorable! alright, let's go find your coach, come on! book with the hilton app. expect better. expect hilton. welcome back. rob hall seemed defeated after learning his wife candy was having an affair with a much younger man, who happened to be her boss. emmett corrigan and emmett's
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wife, ashley, she was confused about his odd behavior, but did not know his secrets. not yet. each marriage was hidden by a thread and one of those threads was about to snap. turning to our story, here again is keith morrison. >> reporter: it was the 11th of march, 2011. this was it. the big event. d-day. you could say. it was early evening, cold as the sun went down in meridian, cold and bleak and the two homes, in particular, it was very bleak, indeed. candy hall arrived home from work to find her husband rob packing boxes to leave. what other reason could there be? >> i know we were probably coming down to the wire. >> reporter: you're having the unfair fights married couples have all the time. they betray each other with abandon and wonder why it doesn't work out?
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>> yeah. the thing i never wanted to face was the hurt that i was going to cause on so many people. i knew one day that this was all going to come out, but the way that it usually ends up -- >> reporter: well now you can only look back and wish it had turned out that way. >> right. >> reporter: around the same time about two miles away, ashley corrigan told her husband emmett that in her desperate state of worry, she had asked her family member to the pray for them. >> he said your family? i hate your family. i can beat your brother up and kill all of you. i grabbed his face and said you know what, i love you, i'm not going anywhere. i don't care what it is, just tell me what's happening. i don't know, i felt like that was the last chance and he didn't take it. he didn't open up about anything. >> reporter: at night, though, a
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trusted family member who had agreed to counsel the couple called and emmett answered the phone. >> he went back into our bedroom and i could hear everything he was saying the baby monitor was on. the hard part then was not a word he said was true. >> reporter: what was he saying? >> i think she might be sleeping with this person. she says i'm the worst father ever. just things i know i had never done. so when he walked out, i flipped the baby monitor off and i said, oh, how did it go? he thinks you're as crazy as i do. i said, oh, okay. do i get a turn? he says i don't care what you do, but you're not using my phone and emmett said, hey, i'm going to run to walgreens and i'll be right back. >> i put the phone down i literally was like, emmett, please do not leave. he said, no, i'm leaving. >> you must have felt like your life was falling apart and you didn't know what to do? >> i thought maybe this is the
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grand finale. >> reporter: but he needed a wake-up call? >> he needed a wake-up call. >> reporter: careful what you wish for. maybe he shouldn't move out, maybe they should try to fix their marriage, make it work somehow. and then, right in the middle of that, she suddenly told him she had an errand to run, couldn't wait, guess where? >> i said i'm going to go to walgreens through the drive through. i'll be right back. >> reporter: here's her explanation. >> as i was pulling out the back of my driveway, emmett texted me, hey, what are you doing? >> i said i'm going to wal greens he goes, i was just there, hey, meet me there. >> reporter: then what happened next? you can watch it yourself right here on surveillance tape. >> i go to walgreens, through the drive through.
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i pull around, he pulls up. i get in his truck. we go to fred meyer. >> there they are when emmett opened the rear door. >> he pulls out all these prescription bottles. i said what are you taking? he said if you don't want to grow a penis don't take it. he got back in the truck. we drouf off. >> reporter: from there they pulled into a seclude spot and had sex under a street light. that's where they were, tangled up in each other when candy another phone rang. her daughter coming home from a date had seen her car in that parking lot. she said, mom, why is your car at walgreens? i called dad. i go, oh, all right. okay. i'll be home in a minute. >> reporter: too late because now the wind was up, rob the unfaithful husband had to know, now he was the aggrieved spouse and sure enough as candy talked to her daughter.
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here he was in his pickup truck to come to walgreens to look for his wife. >> phone call from rob. he goes, are you with emmett? i go, i took a deep breath and said, yep, i am. emmett looks of at me, he takes the phone away from me and he goes, yeah, what's up, chief? and he says, yeah, wait right there, we'll be right there. you wait right there. that's when i said, no, knock it off. we're not doing this. he's like, oh, we are doing this. >> reporter: there are moments in life when big choices are made. this was not a good one. >> three unfaithful spouses tangled in a love triangle. now a late-night meetup was about to turn deadly. coming up -- >> and i went, ha, oh my god, i'll never forget, ever, but he took that last you know deep ha.
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top stories, five people were killed, more than 60 hospitalized after a chain reaction crash on the pennsylvania turnpike involving a tour bus, three tractor-trailers and a passenger car. and the trump administration continues to ratchet up the administration, the president tweeting sunday that an iran retaliation could be met with a disproportionate response while his secretary of state says the u.s. could target more iranian leaders. now back to "dateline." "datelin. [ music playing ] welcome back to "dateline extra" i'm craig melvin. candy hall told her husband rob she was going to run an errand, then rob discovered she was with her lover emmett corrigan.
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now the two men were headed for a showdown in a suburban parking lot. soon one of them would be dead. the woman at the center of this love triangle would be a crucial witness. once again, here's keith morrison. >> reporter: here in a wal greens drug store in meridian, ohio, just before 10:00 p.m., march, 2011, time was up, devil wanted his due. robert hall was a man on a mission as you can see, rob parked his pickup truck, went through the front door, roamed the beauty and cosmetic aisles. he was looking for his wife candy, who of course was also in a pickup truck with her lover emmett. here you can see rob leaving the store, looking at candy's parked bmw then strangely getting back into his own pickup truck pulling out and reparking it on the other side of candy's car. curiously his door now just out
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of range of the store surveillance camera. this is when he made that phone call, the one in which candy confessed she was with her boss, he said to rob, what's up, chief? here was emmett's truck speeding through the parking lot. still trying to stop this if wiser heads were in charge. it wasn't. nothing wise about what's coming. >> i see rob in his truck. he has just this look on his face like, oh man, and i get out of the truck. then emmett gets out. and rob gets out. walks over to us. >> this is just the sort of moment in which a person might have wanted to cool a heated atmosphere. control the spinning anger. but chosen words carefully. >> that is not what happened. >> rob standing next to me and he's like, what are you doing out with my wife at 10:00 at night? and emmett said, rob, she
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doesn't want to be with you anymore. okay. she's done. i mean, really, rob, what did you make last year? $40,000, candy what did we make last week, $27,000, last week, in one week, rob, that's how much i make. you don't make anything. >> nasty, arrogant, like a thoughtless young buck who needed to be reminded of something. >> rob said, well what about your kids? and your wife? she just had a baby. they're at home waiting for you and you're out with my wife. >> and at that moment emmett's eyes got huge and he pushed himself off of his truck and went over to rob and pushed rob, very hard on his chest. >> reporter: and then the climax. the confrontation that had been building for weeks. >> that's when i said, enough! that's enough! you get in your truck. and rob we got to go. as i was walking to my car, another car came by and i had to
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stop and at that point i hear pop, pop pop. i didn't know what it was. i didn't know if that car just backfired. i had no idea. and i stopped and ha like oh what was that? and alls i see in my peripheral vision right here is rob covered in blood like someone poured a can of red blood all over him and i went ha. >> frantically, candy's fingers somehow found the numbers 911. >> oh my good, oh my good, robert, robert, robert. >> reporter: the pistol went flying somehow, no one disputes that, there it was, lying on the pavement between two men. both shot. one alive, one dying. and candy hall entered that twilight zone where memories are made and can't ever be erased. though as you and the police department and lawyers and a judge will soon see.
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they can certainly be amended. what we know for sure is she rushed to the prostate body of one of those two men. >> i gave am kiss on his cheek and i'll never forget ever but he took that last you know deep and it was very surreal, it was just turning grey here, here, to here, to here. i didn't have much time to think of much other than thinking to myself, oh my god. he's dead. >> reporter: but which one? and what just happened? the tragic lapse in judgment, the thoughtless but unintended crime of passion or was it murder in the first degree? >> "deadly desire" returns after the break. "deadly desire" retur the break.
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actions speak louder than words. she was a school teacher. my dad joined the navy and helped prosecute the nazis in nuremberg. their values are why i walked away from my business, took the giving pledge to give my money to good causes, and why i spent the last ten years fighting corporate insiders who put profits over people. i'm tom steyer, and i approve this message. because, right now, america needs more than words. we need action.
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welcome back. rob hall confronted his wife's lover amy corrigan in a parking lot after they discovered they met for a roadside rendezvous, shots were fired and investigators needed to find ashley, who knew something was wrong but could not be prepared for this stunning news. once again, here's keith morrison. >> reporter: ashley corrigan did not go asleep after her angry husband announced he was going to the drug store. so she was up at 1:00 in the morning when police came. emmett was dead they told her. killed by his lover's husband and ashley entered a twilight
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zone of her own. >> it was like the ultimate humiliation. it was not only is your husband gone, but you know that marriage you were trying so hard to save. here's all the answers of why it was going wrong. but now you don't have a marriage to save anymore. it's just like every emotion possible. i went through a divorce and a death all in one second. >> reporter: bizarre. >> and then i had to get prepared to tell me kids and what story do you tell little kids? well, there has been an accident and your daddy's spirit's left his body. so he's not going to be on the earth with you anymore. they all kind of stared at me like what are we supposed to do now? >> reporter: what now, indeed. at that very moment, a few miles away, rob hall was in a hospital bed recovering from a grazing gunshot wound to his head, the result he said of a botched suicide attempt after rob put two bullets from his semi automatic pistol into emmett
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corrigan. one in his heart, one in his head. and over at the meridian police station, candy hall, her clothes still covered in blood was telling the first of several different versions of what happened in the parking lot. quite unprepared, of course, for the public torrent about to come down on her head. suddenly you are thrust into the public eye big time from yes. >> reporter: as a jez bell, as a woman who is at the center of a tawdry love triangle. what is that like for you? >> it's scary. for the longest time, i couldn't go to the grocery store. i couldn't go anywhere because i'm thinking everybody is looking at me, everybody knows who i am. >> reporter: everybody knows what i did? >> yes, but it did happen and i own it. >> reporter: there's something else that happened. although on the night of the shooting candy rushed to kiss
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her dyeing lover she rather soon was back in her husband's corner as his chief supporter, especially when robert hall was charged with premeditated first degree murder. >> we felt that the evidence supported that he planned to go to that walgreens and do exactly what he did when he got there. >> reporter: this was no sudden crime of passion, said jessica lorella and jason spillman who prosecuted the case. >> this is a case of a manhunting down his wife's paramore and waiting for 17 minutes to have the opportunity to kill him. >> reporter: in fact, as they made their case for the jury, prosecutors portrayed rob as an angry man furious about his wife's affair, imagine calming emmett's law office repeatedly to berate candy so loudly that others heard it all. >> statements such as, you're a
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whore and why are you with him? >> reporter: and the night of the shooting, prosecutors played those surveillance tapes from walgreens, showing rob arriving 17 minutes, walking through the aisles, looking for candy, all the while with a pistol, not the one he usually carried, but the one candy gave him tucked in his pocket and the injury saw emmett and candy arrive in the parking lot and 8 minutes later heard candy's 911 call after shots were fired. >> oh my good! oh my god! robert, robert, robert, robert. >> reporter: what happened? the prosecutor said the sequence of the shots told the story. two big shots. a pause and then one more. >> our theory all along was that rob hall had executed emmett corrigan with two successive shots, turned to face his wife,
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attempted to commit suicide with the third shot. >> reporter: the shots were fired by close range, two or three feet. a heavy concentration of gunshot residue on only robert hall's hand and one dna on the trigger guard. >> reporter: the dna matched that of mr. hall. >> i this i that robert hall went to the walgreens in order to confront emmett corrigan, that he took a loaded gun and rob decided that was his opportunity to get his candy back by killing emmett. >> reporter: why did he talk to emmett for eight minutes before he fired? the store was closing said the prosecutor. people were going home. >> i think he waited until there were no eyewitnesses and he executed emmett corrigan. >> reporter: a tidy theory, agreed the defense. but completely wrong.
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>> despite this fight -- >> reporter: rob was a nice guy said the defense and it was emmett who was out of control, emmett who kept amphetamines and steroids in his pickup truck. drugs with serious side effects said experts. >> he had hyperability as well as impulsiveness and explosive temper. >> what really happened? rob didn't testify. a doctor backed his claim because hoff his head wound he simply couldn't remember. so the defense offered a theory that emmett started the fire. the gun fell on the ground. emmett grabbed it, shot rob in the pause rob grabbed ahold and fired back in self defence. the courtroom came to a halt. every head turned when a star witness took the stand to support that theory. >> would you please state and spell your name for the record? >> candy hall. >> candy, who repeated the story on the stand and she told us of
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emmett mushing rob, emmett becoming enraged of hearing the two men scuffle as she walked away before she heard but did not see the shooting. the only problem, she told the police a very different story the night it happened. >> you told detective miller that night you did not see or hear a physical altercation, isn't that right? >> i don't know. i don't remember. >> in fact, candy changed her story about so many things, all helpful to rob's case. >> i'm trying to clarify that your story has changed after speaking with your husband? >> things were remembered after talking to my husband. >> reporter: in fact, later, the judge made a comment outside the jury's presence. >> he said in all of his 30-some years on the bench he'd never seen a witness so thoroughly discredited. >> reporter: but before she left the witness stand, candy expressed her love and sorrow
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for the man she cheated on yet still loved. >> he knew and he still knows in his heart that i've never stopped loving him. you just don't stop loving someone. >> and watching it all, emmett's wife, ashley. >> you watched as candy testified and what was that like? >> it was hard to hear her stand up there and them her husband how sorry she was and how much she loved him. because ultimately, it was because of them that i didn't get that chance. >> reporter: and rob hall's version of events. he's about to tell you the very first time he had spoken of this, but first, it's up to the jury, to determine the wages of sen. coming up, a husband with a stung story to tell. >> i said i remember it was the gunpointed at my head. >> but whose story will the jury
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welcome back. rob hall was on try ill for murder. prosecutors had painted him as a cold blooded killer who pumped two bullets into his wife's lover. the defendant is claiming emmett attacked him. which side would the jury believe? rob sat down with us to share his version. what he says happened in that idaho parking lot. here's keith morrisson with the conclusion of our story. >> reporter: once he had everything he wanted, before he and his wife scratched theich of wanting more and now a jury was about to tell robert hall whether for the rest of his life he'd have anything at all. he'd have a small advantage over the jury. hall did not testify. but he talked to us.
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his first ever interview to tell us he was sorry about what happened, yes, that but also to tell us that it wasn't his fault. >> the notion that i brought a gun there to gun down emmett corrigan. i didn't bring a gun there to gun down emmett corrigan. >> reporter: hall's version, despite what you heard, he did not even know for sure emmett was having an affair with candy, that in the parking lot emmett was the aggressor. pulled him down from behind by the hood hoff his sweatshirt. >> i don't think i made four step itself before i was ripped off my feet. when i hit the ground, first thing i thought was my cell phone hit the ground and i looked over and it was my gun. he reached down, grabbed my gun and we just struggled over it. the last thing i remember it was the gun pointed at my head and the feeling of being hit upside
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the head with a baseball bat. i remember seeing everything black and grey. and that's all i remember until sunday in the hospital. >> and in that moment of extreme anger and passion, crazy things happen and you're asking us to believe the crazy thing that happened started when you got shot. >> yeah. >> and he pulled the trigger? >> yeah. >> and then you must have taken the gun and fired two shots at him? >> yeah. >> of course, he had holes through his heart, one in his head, which sound for all the world when you hear that like those were targeted shots. is it possible you shot him and then decided you were going to shoot yourself? >> no, absolutely not. i have never been suicidal. >> reporter: the jury did hear the defense case, okay. just not robert's version of it. but it was enough for a verdict. >> is robert dean hall guilty or
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not guilty of first degree murder, not guilty. >> not guilty. hearts rose and fell. but then, not so fast. >> is robert dean hall guilty or not guilty of second degree murder, guilty. >> reporter: guilty of murder. not premeditation per se but of an attempt to kill and a disregard for human life. rob hall looked look he had been punched in the stomach. tears sprang to his eyes. hall was sentenced to 30 years in prison, he will be eligible for parole in the year 2028, just before his 60th birthday. >> reporter: so as we sit here now, having been convicted of interpretational murder, you're still not taking responsibility for it as that. >> as murder, no. >> you're saying the architect of this tragedy is more emmett corrigan than you?
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>> absolutely. yes. >> and so you sitting in prison for the next god knows how many years are as much a victim as anybody else? >> it's devastating. i wish i had never gop there that night to get my wife. >> or if you went that somehow you like not taken your gun along. >> i think that. i do the what if game on that. and i think you know what if he would have pounded my face into the cement and not stopped and then people would say why didn't he have his gun with him? >> and, thus, you would encounter one of the elements of tragic almost. the thing you buy to protect yourself you use to destroy yourself. >> yeah. >> another thing to contemplate in your jail cell late at night? >> yeah. >> reporter: he also thinks about his two daughters, whose
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lives, their graduation, triumph, marriages, children, he will never witness. two girls who at the ages of 18 and 14 back then suddenly found themselves left without either parent at home. because of a final twist of this story of the trail of retribution. rob's wife candy was september to prison herself because of the killing? no, she pleaded guilty to charges of grand theft for embezzling some $30,000 from the attorney for whom she worked before emmett corrigan. she served 18 months before that she's on parole. before she went to prison she talked to us about regret. >> i have a lot of guilt still in me. a lot. and it has to do with my kids and his kids. and it makes me sick how i could do something like that. i am the responsible one and it's something that i don't know
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if i can ever be able to get through that? i mean, hopefully, one day i can prove to them that it was just a mistake. >> in the years since ashley has remarried and has become an author/blogger and speaker with a message to stand strong and faithful. >> i think there's thousands of people in this country that come to those crossroads and don't know what to do. but, i think if i can tell them anything, it would be, put your family first. i guess i would say to rob, rob, he had five kids, couldn't this have been something you pictured as you held up the gun and targeted it at his head and his heart? >> once in meridian, idaho, were two happy successful families. it wasn't quite enough for some of them and the wreckage is
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forever are. >> and that's all for this edition of "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. watching >> he told me he loved me. i told him i loved him. he said he would be right back. i could hear a commotion of some sort and then i remember hearing gunshots. to see him lying there, it was bad. >> it's the website where lovers go to meet. and cheat. >> this was someone looking to have an affair. >> but this affair was about so much more than deceit. >> you couldn't write this as a movie. you couldn't write this as a

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