tomorrow. i'm lester hoemt reporting from new york. for all of us here at nbc news. good night. that is tragedy on top of a tragedy now. >> it happened so quickly. their parents in the backyard spa. their mom in trouble. >> my dad just panicked. >> a sudden slip. a fatal fall. >> you're losing your mother. you're watching her go. >> someone else was watching too. someone witnessed something astonishing. >> the look on his face was almost undescribable. >> what had she seen? was this drowning really an accident? >> she's got a huge gash on her head. something like that is not consistent with just falling

down. >> a husband and father is suddenly under suspicion. >> we're trying. he said they think i hurt mom. >> three daughters stand by their dad and one prosecutor stands firm. >> he is holding his wife of almost three decades under the water. my job is to get justice for christy hall. >> was it murder? someone was watching. >> good evening. welcome to "dateline." i'm lester holt. tonight a story that calls to mind the master of suspense. a plot straight out of an alfred hitchcock film. a young woman peers into her neighbor's yard and sees something for a few mysterious seconds. a man, a woman, and a moment that's unsettling. was it some kind of accident? a crime? maybe even a murder? what she saw and what she did would set in motion a chain of events that would divide a family and a jury.

here's keith morrison. >> we know the truth, and we know everything that happened. >> how do we know what we know? >> emotionally unsatisfying not to have that answer. >> though it is even if we've seen something or if we think we have. that's the question at 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. of course, she does. why does this other woman think this? >> she didn't know for sure what she saw. >> the question, we say, on which all the rest will turn. >> why don't we begin here. calamesa, california. historic missions, sprawling suburbs, creeping out to the recommend of mountains around the eastern flank of los angeles. here is where chris and christy hall had come to live out their

golden years, though they were far from old when it happened. just experienced with life and each other. >> as far as i can remember it's only been chris and christy. they were never thought of as separate. they were a unit. >> these are the three daughters. courtney the he wouldest a teacher. briana, a personal trainer, and ashton, the youngest, here just returned from playing professional volleyball in europe, and all of them, of course, have heard scores of times the story of how their parents met. it was 1978. christy had gone to see a relative at an air force base in san bernardino, and quite by chance encountered a security guard who, to her at least, looked just like elvis. it was christopher hall. chris to his friends. >> apparently she was a little flirty at the gate. >> in short order chris and christy got married. she was 17.

he, 20. as the girls were up, they said they never doubted for a single moment the powerful bond of love their parents with them and with each other. >> i wondered if they would -- most children and the parents that i hoped to one day be. police officer in san bernardino until he was shot in the line of duty. then he went off to become police chief in two small towns in idaho. then in 2005 anticipating an empty nest and eventual retirement, the halls bought this place back in cala mesa which they loved for its backyard pool and spa and life in the spring of 2007 seemed to have hit a sweet spot as ashton and briana remembered their mother telling them. >> we were laying on the bed with her. she just started talking. she was, like, i'm just -- i'm so happy that i have you girls and dad. >> it was kind of one of those

conversations that you don't have every day. >> still, there was work to be done. it was not a new house. could use some remodeling. particularly the bathroom. courtney was still living with her parents as the work began. >> they were going to be doing the tile work and stuff so we wouldn't have a shower for that day. >> so shower out of commission, they decided wake up early, put on their bathing suits, and rinse off in the outdoor spa before the contractor arrived at 6:45 a.m. it was june 7th, 2007. chris got up first, turned on the spa to warm it up, and then called briana at her college dorm in san diego. >> here's your wakeup call, babe. get on, go on that run. >> back at the house court dozed through her first wakeup while chris and christy made their way out to the spa. chris looked in on courtney again, second call, and then headed back to the spa. life's last normal moments. 6:37 a.m.

>> i got up out of bed. putting on my robe. i just heard this panicked, panicked scream of dad yelling for me. i ran down the hallway to the back court, and i saw him trying to pull my mom out of the spa. >> 911 emergency. >> it was she who dialled 911 as she and her father struggled to lift her mother out of the spa. >> it was the 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. it's -- to see both your parents in the worst time that you have ever seen them. obviously, my mom unconscious and my dad just panicked and for the first time in my life to see him just that way not knowing what to do. >> he was a cop. he was used to dealing with those kinds of things.

>> a cop used to dealing with those kinds of things with people that were not his wife. >> so courtney took charge. after calling 911 she started cpr on her mother with her father. he and fire firefighter eric norwood was the first to respond. >> help my wife. oh, my god. help my wife. >> chris was kneeling at his wife's side. more in the way than anything, and so hysterical it was hard for the e.m.t.'s to help. >> took a little bit to get him out of the way. >> he didn't want to lose her. he was holding her hand yelling her name. >> the paramedics worked on christy for more than 20 minutes. no vital signs. none. >> no words to describe the fear and the anxiety. >> you are losing your mother. you're watching her go right in front of you. >> 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. >> coming up -- >> it was a horrible scream. >> a witness. but to what? what dg exactly did she see? >> i don't know. you know, i -- i -- i can't explain what she's saying she saw. >> when "dateline" continues. is more than a paycheck. we know all the hammering, shaping, driving, serving, planning, writing, nursing and teaching it took to earn it. so we give you the power to keep as much of your hard-earned money as possible. our customized interview covers everything from a service member's deployment to a student's loan interest, right down to a teacher's crayons. you've worked hard to earn your money. we're here to help you keep it. turbotax. the power to keep what's yours. try it free at turbotax.com.

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zarchlgts on the morning of june 7 thd, 2010, briana hall was on the road to san diego driving home from college to -- except her he wouldest had come and it sounded bad. >> she said there was an accident. you need to just come home right away. >> it was courtney who eventually broke the news to ashley and briana. their mother, their father's wife of close to 30 years, was dead. >> but neither courtney nor chris waited at the house to tell the sisters what happened or to comfort them. nor did they linger over the body of 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. >> 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 my dad said he would just be a few more minutes. chris had calmed down by then. he was a cop among cops, and he understood, he said, what was necessary to help them sort out what happened. >> i can't even start to imagine what you are going through, okay? just, you know, it's a death investigation, and we have to do this, okay? >> happy to help, he said. whatever would get him back home to comfort his daughters as quickly as possible. >> they were all so close. >> chris told investigators what happened. how as courtney slept he and christy were in the spa bathing. >> she got out, uh, went in, went to the bathroom, uh, got some more coffee, tried to wake up courtney. courtney didn't wake up apparently. she came back out. >> as christy returned to the spa, they passed each other on

the pat wroe. he went in the house then, he said, stopped by courtney's room to make sure she was awake, and then went right outside, and saw his wife floating face down in the spa. he calls courtney then, he said, and they began a frantic effort to revive her. >> i could tell we were losing her. >> from what? a fall? must have been. >> in your gut you didn't have enough time? >> she slipped in. she slipped or something. i don't know. that's the only thing i can think of. >> but chris apparently hasn't noticed the nasty three inch laceration on christie's head, and here suddenly the point of the police interview is revealed. >> the gash she has on her head -- she's got a huge gash on her head. okay. something like that is not consistent with just falling down. >> not consistent with just falling down? why would the police think that? >> you know, i mean, you have been around for a while.

>> i know where you are going. no, there's nothing. >> why would this ex-police chief be questioned at all about the apparently disastrous accident that killed the love of his life? the answer was right next door. when chris and christy hall took their outdoor bath in june someone was watching. her. >> i got up at 6:00, got my coffee. >> lindsey patterson was on leave from her i.t. job in the navy, visiting her mom's house just over the backyard wall from the hall house. lindsey was inside in the bathroom that faced away from the hall house and out in the street. when she heard a noise. >> it was a horrible scream. it was just something was wrong kind of scream. >> a woman, she thought. she went outside to tell her mom. >> i said did you hear that scream? and she said yeah, but i think it's just kids playing in the pool. >> kids at 6:00 in the morning?

lindsey walked over to the six foot brick wall between their house and the hall's. she stepped on the planter, she said, and looked over the wall. >> at that point i saw a man with his hand -- one hand on top of a woman's head and then one hand on her back, and she was face down in the water. >> like something was going on. >> that's what i assumed. >> that is 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. >> 90 seconds between her first and second looks, and this time she said she only saw the man in the spa. >> he was leaning back just relaxed in the hot tub, but i don't see her. he had his elbows back, and he was kind of looking around like nothing. >> where did the woman go? lindsey told her mom something seemed strange. >> she said lindsey, stop being nosey and 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. >> so she went to the wall again. her third and final look. >> at that point he was getting out of the jacuzzi, and neffs a very big rush. 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. >> it was instinct that told her something was wrong. >> so she called 911. >> 911, state your emergency. >> i heard a woman scream. >> so now hours and hours later the detectives are confronting chris with lindsey's story. why, they ask, didn't her story match his. >> so am i supposed to believe the witness is lying? >> i wouldn't say she's lying.

i mean, i don't know. you know, i -- i can't explain what she is saying she saw. >> so now that question we posed as we began, did lindsey patterson really know what she saw? >> coming up -- >> she didn't see what was really happening. >> what had really happened. there would soon be a turn in the case. >> this was not an accidental drowning. it was purely much more suspicious than that. >> when someone was watching continues. ♪ ♪

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chris and christy hall's three daughters clung together in grief and shock all through the dismal evening hours that worst of all days june 7th, 2007, waiting for their father to return from the police station as they wondered why was it taking so long? then the phone range. they had their answer. >> you know, broken up words, and he is crying, and we're crying, and that's when he said they think i hurt mom. he was very upset. >> but he didn't sound surprised when he said -- >> he was crying. he was crying. >> he was upset. >> very upset. >> but by the time police investigators were questioning chris, remember, they had heard

from lindsey patterson, and at the station chris's version of events in the spa differed in one crucial detail from what lindsey described seeing that first time she appeared over the wall and into the hall's backyard. >> that specifically me holding her down in there, there's nothing that took place that would explain that. there was no sex. i don't even think we had any contact when we were in the jacuzzi other than when i was getting her out of the jacuzzi. >> but investigators were getting a good look at christie's body, and saw wounds that to them suggested a struggle and more than just one nasty blow to the head. so the police had to choose which version chris hall's or lindsey patterson's was more likely the true story of what happened. tom done led the investigation for the riverside d.a. >> i think they felt there was enough to say this was not an accidental drowning.

it was purely much more suspicious than that. so before the night was over chris hall was arrested and charged with the murder of his wife. the girls could stop waiting. he wasn't coming home. >> it was obviously a tragedy losing our mother that day, but this is a tragedy on top of a tragedy now. >> because knowing our parents -- >> it's the farthest thing from the truth. >> and one that felt infected by some sort of madness, said the girls. christy was the love of their father's life where are after all, the center of everything for him. how they wondered could anyone so happy in his marriage and his life be accused of harming her? she was happy too. they said as happy as she had ever been. they knew it, they said, based on that mother-daughter talk they had. not long before she died. >> she just kept reiterating how happy she was. >> of course --

>> didn't think much of it at the time, but the last time we actually saw her -- >> kind of burned into your memory. >> yeah. >> right or wrong, the legal trigger had been pulled. chris hall spent almost two months in jail until his daughters received the payout from christie's life insurance policy and used the money to meet his million dollar bail. then he went back to what was to be his retirement retreat, to prepare with the help of his daughters for a murder trial. >> 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 grech. >> you have said two things there. special man, special situation. >> i think both of us can say that this is a man that we like and that we know and we don't feel he could have done anything like this. >> so chris hall and his daughters prepared for a trial which they hope would make clear

to everybody, the police, the maybe, the world, that chris would not, could not, did not harm the love of his life. >> there was never in 30 years of marriage never one moment of violence. there was no motive for this man to kill his wife. >> harmon and grech had a look at neighbor lindsey patterson's account. it was really not conclusive at all. it was tragically incomplete. >> is he shaw three snap shots. what is missed by everyone is the wife getting into the jacuzzi, slipping, falling into the jacuzzi, hitting her head, going unconscious, and drowning. >> see this sharp corner sticking out into the spa? hitting her head on this would certainly have opened a gash and knocked christy 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. lindsey was in a bathroom that

faced the street. she wasn't in the backyard when she says she heard it. could have been anybody. and courtney who was inside her own house near the spa didn't hear a thing. >> we don't think that she is lying. we just think she misinterpreted what she saw. >> lindsey to a certain degree concedes she didn't know what she was seeing in her glimpses that morning. zoog something was wrong. >> yet, you hadn't really seen anything. >> no. but i knew something was wrong. i don't know if in my brain i was putting things together from wean the scream, the position that he was holding her, and them not -- just not having enough time for her to have gone inside. >> so it's like you kind of got three different snap shots. >> right. >> something going on in there. had to kind of work out what this was. >> yeah. you know, i wasn't thinking at that point. >> but now based largely on that account chris hall would go on

trial for murder, and it was a trial for his daughters too. >> he loved her. they were each other's best friends, and this is just -- this is not fair to him because he truly loved her more than anyone. >> coming up, the case begins. evidence is revealed in court. >> you lose that amount of hair, it's not reasonably explained by any kind of fault. >> and secrets are revealed from the past. >> this man had an uncanny ability to fabricate stories. >> when someone was watching continues. how advanced is the new ford fusion? well...it has outstanding pe rformance and handling... ...and it offers a plug-in hybrid that gets a projected 100 mpge. of course, there's still one thing it can't do. introducing the entirely new ford fusion. it's an entirely new idea of what a car can be.

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that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. >> this is a hard-charging man. ex-member in good stapding of the san francisco d.a.'s office. now senior deputy d.a. at riverside.

that takes skill. persuasive powers. he would need them in the murder case against the former police chief and family man chris hall. >> mr. hall on the surface looks like a loving family man. he looks like a good father. he was somebody that had the support of his family. >> so he did. but strunski wasn't buying the loving father and family man bit. when he heard about chris hall's very obvious -- the wailing that went on after the accident, the phrase that crossed his mind is it's an act. >> i think it was a wonderful performance by the defendant of acting like a bereeved husband. when you look at his actions, how little he did to help his wife. >> who tried hardtory save christy? not chris, said the prosecutor, but his daughter. >> she called 911. she helped him get the body out of the spa. she is the only one that did

chest compressions. had he no interest in truly helping his wife sfwloosh a matter of opinion, of course, but the prosecutor poked around in chris hall's past as a policeman. what did he find? >> this man had an uncanny ability to fabricate stories. >> seven years earlier while hall was chief of police in cascade, idaho, he was charged with and convicted of misuse of public money. embezzled $19,000. spent ten months in jail. a white collar crime, hardly murder. but what struck the prosecutor is that he says hall tried to cover it up. >> to plan a fraud, lie about it -- not just lie about it, but lie about it effectively. >> i think that was very telling about who we were dealing with. >> suddenly the prosecutor's prospects were looking better. at the trial he made lindsey patterson his star witness, of course. it was her story, after all, that got the whole thing started. but almost as important he called the riverside county medical examiner who testified

that those lacerations on christie's head could not in his opinion have been the result of ace single accidental fall and he argued the type of bruising on her arms and face were consistent with homicide. >> they were not consistent with somebody slipping and falling and then a rescue attempt. >> and there was a clump of hair in the bottom of the spa, still entwined with a broeken plastic hair clip. that could have only come from a violent struggle. >> when you lose that amount of hair, it's not lean rooenably explained by any kind of fall. >> there were minor hiccups many the case. lindsey patterson, for example, was a little inconsistent about how long she looked over the backyard wall that first time she saw something going on. was it just a few seconds, or as long as a minute? but either way, said the prosecutor, lindsey was sure she saw physical contact. that was important.

>> he has the opportunity to explain any physical contact that could in any way originally explained what lindsey patterson missaw. in other words, were they washing each other? were they involved in a sex act? was there anything that she could have misinterpreted? at the end of the day 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 she saw. >> and what made lindsey ae story all the more convincing, said the prosecutor, was she told it before finding out what happened to christy. 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. >> he held her under the water. just held her there. stla and she was still on the phone with 911 when chris hall came outside and found his wife's body floating in the spa, called out for courtney.

>> the prosecution's theory? somehow sitting in the spa that morning chris was overcome by some private fury. who knows what? the hidden violence is what strunski called it, and killed his spouse when he thought nobody was looking. >> chris hall ambushed his wife, grabbed her by the hair, slammed her head twice into the concrete edge. he is holding his wife of almost three decades under the water showing absolutely no mercy and no remorse and absolutely a desire to end her life at that point. >> and then -- >> he then gets out of the spa, walks into the house where his plan is to wake his 22-year-old daughter who he can use as an alibi witness. >> one little quibble. why? in fact, as convinced as he was of hall's guilt, strunski conceded the why was a problem.

didn't legally have to know, he said, but he just didn't. there it was. >> it's emotionally unsatisfying not to have that answer, not to know the entire narrative of what happened. >> you want to know why this guy, married to this woman for almost 30 kwleerz, apparently happily, would suddenly turn on her and drown her in the pool. >> right. i'm not sure yes we got the answers to that specific question. >> kind of an important question, isn't it? >> it's an important question. a question that we ask in all spousal homicides. >> so who can know? or reasonable doubt? almost three years after christy hall's death a riverside jury would have to decide. >> coming up. >> you expected a not guilty verdict? >> without a doubt. >> there was a surprise in store for both sides in and out of the courtroom. >> she was -- >> having an affair, right? >> when "dateline" continues. wow! these are good.

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chris hall's daughter sat through every miserable minute of their dad's trial for murder. here at the courthouse in riverside, california. her review of the prosecutor's portrait of their father, it was

a lie, they said. >> it hurt us to hear someone basically say that he knows our parents better than we do, and he knows our father is a sociopath, and we're blind to it, and he knows there's hidden violence in our parents' marriage and we basically didn't see it. he is saying that we didn't know our whole lives were a lie. >> there's no proof of that. >> chris hall had never been violent, argued the defense, had no motive no, reason to suddenly turn on his wife. it had to be a freak accident. so, said the defense, lindsey patterson 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 christie's body in the spa when she looked again? didn't make sense. but the highlight was the hall daughter's testimony. emotional. quite powerful. so it put prosecutor stromski at odds with the victim's own

family, in a strange position. >> they were so clear. if we had any inkling we had done this, believe me, we would have said so. we would have seen it. >> i think that's what they truly believe in their hearts, and, you know, weighs on me greatly, but my job is to get justice for christy hall. >> now it is up to a jury to decide. after six days much testimony, 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 fog at all like the victory for the hall daughters. >> what was it like to get that hung jury? what did you think then? >> that was tragic. >> that was devastating to us. >> you expected a not guilty verdict. >> without a doubt. >> the d.a. was disappointed too, and he was also determined retry the case. first, he sent his investigator

on a mission to explore the life and marriage of chris hall. and what do you know? in idaho where hall had been a disgraced police chief, the investigator uncovered a startling accusation. >> chris was a great, great conman. >> former los angeles police officer jerry winkle became a county commissioner up in idaho, but once upon a time he was chris hall's friend. that is, before a night in poker and booze when he said hall made a disturbing revelation that he had shot himself in the leg when he was a cop in order to get medical retirement benefits. >> chris had been drinking beer, and he came right out and told me that he had shot himself. >> but there was more. d.a. investigator tom doug had discovered a secret. not in chris's path, but in christie's. >> there had been infidelity in the marriage for six years prior

while chris hall was in custody in idaho. >> christy's affair had been fairly brief. she had been in contact with the man just days before she died. had chris found out? impossible to know. but what investigator doug talked to christy's's co-workers several of them said they noticed a sudden change in her usually vibrant personality. one co-worker offered more. >> she told us she was contemplating a divorce. >> if true, and it was only an if, it might well persuade a jury. also, prosecutor stromski needed explain what lindsey patterson saw or didn't see. why didn't she see christy's drowned body when she peeked over the wall a second time? >> we were not able to explain to the jury why she didn't see christy at that point, and i think that allowed the defense

to make the argument that christy hall was inside. >> the prosecution hired a water expert to do a recreation at the hall spa. they shot this video which said the prosecutor shows that if an injured christy had sunk under water, she would not have been visible from lindsey's viewpoint. and now the prosecutor was ready. in may 2011 one year after the first jury deadlock burt went back to court armed with his new evidence for a brand new panel. jurors heard medical experts testify about the injuries to christie's head and once again heard lindsey's 911 call. >> he is holding her under the water. >> christy's co-workers testified to the prosecution, and jerry wirnkle traveled from idaho to tell the jury what he thought of chris hall. >> he was ashamed to admit that he was once a police officer. >> but if the prosecution had upped its game in the year between the two trials, and so

had the defense. that's when well known attorney steve harmon and -- entered the scene. they came out swinging. that story about christy's affair, for example -- >> just a shadow hanging over all of this stuff. very human sort of shadow, which is that she was having a little affair. right? had a boyfriend. >> yes. if the husband knew about it but the wife never ever mentions it and tells the husband. no one tells the husband. >> quite right, says the judge, and there was no evidence that chris knew about his wife's affair, he ruled it out of the trial, and the story about hall 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.

>> anyway, the story was prejuducal says the judge. as for what lindsey patterson saw, the defense had prepared its own visual demonstration, had taken pictures from her angle at the wall to show that it could look like two people were touching in the spa even if they weren't. >> this is what she described 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. >> that's different than actually touching. >> and, again, the hall daughters were there every minute. their father's enduring champions. this time more family members came to court. two of christy's own siblings testified for chris. >> said the same thing. we have not a doubt in our minds that this was not a moment of violence. this was not a murder. the victim's own sister and own brother, that's an amazing thing to see.

>> perhaps it was, but listen to this. the defense said one more very significant witness. a witness who oozed credibility. the sitting medical examiner for neighboring san bernardino county who stuck his neck way out to disagree publicly in a court of law with the medical examiner from riverside. >> he found this to be an accidental death. not a homicide. >> this was not some ordinary hired gun. this was a public official who said straight out that christy's head injuries could and perhaps should be explained by an accidental fall. they didn't rule out homicide stwloosh they didn't rule out homicide, but he said the preponderance of the evidence was towards an accidental drowning. i've always been astounded by with this case that the hall family lived so close to the san bernardino border, if christy had slipped and fell four or

five blocks over, that they never would have filed criminal charges. an accident of geography. >> now a second jury would have to sort through these two sets of allegations, these two opposing realities and decide whether chris hall would turn and embrace home and his loving daughters or a pair of happened handcuffs and a life in prison. >> coming up -- >> things can only go so wrong for so long before something has to actually go right. >> guilty or not guilty? this time the answer from the jurors would be unanimous. and coming up friday on "dateline" -- >> did you kill travis alexander. >> yes, i did. >> inside the steamy trial that has riveted the country. >> jody arias charged with killing her lover, she says, in self-defense. these are the stories you haven't heard.

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may 2011. for the second time 12 men and 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? whose account of the defendant's >> do you ever have those sort of dark moments where you think i may have misinterpreted, misremembered? >> 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 see everything. >> yeah. >> but i saw what i saw, and i know the conclusion of my story. i know it. i know it right here. i know it. >> of course, chris hall's daughters say they know the truth too. real thing. in their hearts. >> i think that we were the three most critical jury we met for him. believe me, if we had heard

anything or had any inkling that our father could have done this, as much as it would hurt and as much as we love our father, we would want that justice for our mother. >> the jurors deliberated two days and then broke for the long weekend. it was memorial day. the daughters felt dpood. >> things can only go so wrong for so long before something has to actually go right for us. >> we just did a lot of talking about the future and, you know, this being over, this being finished, and honestly i was concerned about dad and how he was finally going to be able to grieve for the loss of his wife. >> then it was tuesday, 8:45 in the morning. the jury gathered, and minutes later a signal. they were ready. chris hall and his daughters rushed to court. in the end it was very quick.

guilty of first degree murder. their father would not be coming home. probably ever. >> he is being cuffed, and potentially put away for life, and, yeah, it hurts, and we are angry about that. >> you can still hear those daughters of thinking you unfairly convicted their father. >> it weighs on me, but at the same time i know who i'm dealing with when it comes to chris hall. in fact, he is the one that has stolen their mother from them. >> it had been a peculiar fact of this case that the victims and defendants' families had stood solidly to her together against the prosecution, but what no one knew was the truth was more complicated. after the verdict at chris hall's sentencing, a letter was introduced. it was from another of christy hall's brothers, billy carlton, who, until now, had said not one word about the case.

we would like to ask his honor for the maximum sentence, wrote billy. the pain that my family has suffered through this tragedy is unforgivable. >> i didn't want to hurt the girls. i had to say what was on my mind. >> there was a deep divide in christy's family, said billy. some of her relatives believed chris was innocent, but he and, he says, others, including christy's uncle silently urged on the prosecutor. >> half the family was convinced he was innocent. half the family was convinced he wasn't. that's hard to do when you have a big family. you all have to be together once in a while. >> when it involves a member as loved as christy was -- >> exactly. >> does that explain why this kind of group of people in the family decided just to let justice take its course? >> we talked about it quite a bit, and you've got to know bh to show up sometimes and when not to show up. just to keep what's left of the

family as together as you can have it. >> thank you so much for coming. >> when it was over, hall convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life, some of christy's relatives met with the prosecutor and thanked him. >> i want to thank you. thank you. for putting that guy away because he is a murderer. >> and the hall daughters having lost their beloved mother, have now also lost the fight to save the father they adored. >> it's a devastating reality. it really is. especially for our family that, you know, to say that we were close is an understatement. you know? to go from that to being not able to be there with each ot r other, it's the biggest heart break that anyone can ever experience, i think. >> chris hall is now appealing his conviction.