Robert Hall gets 30 years for shooting Emmett Corrigan in a Walgreens parking lot

THIS STORY WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN 2013.

Robert Hall said he was sorry for the “shockwave” that shattered the lives of his daughters and Emmett Corrigan’s family, but the 44-year-old insisted he still does not recall what happened on the night of March 11, 2011.

“I’m so sorry for everything,” said Hall, clad in an orange Ada County Jail jumpsuit with his hands shackled to his sides. “I truly mean it when I can’t describe (what happened).”

Fourth District Judge Michael McLaughlin told Hall that any dispute he had with Corrigan never should have ended in death.

“At best, a fistfight. At worst, a shouting match,” McLaughlin said. “(Corrigan) didn’t deserve to die. He didn’t deserve to die in cold blood.”

Hall cannot ask for parole until serving 17½ years. Hall will get credit for time served in the Ada County Jail - about 1½ years.

He claims he doesn’t remember

A jury of seven women and five men last fall found Hall guilty of second-degree murder for killing Corrigan, who was having an affair with his wife, Kandi Hall.

Prosecutors said Robert Hall armed himself with a handgun and waited for his wife and Corrigan in a Walgreens parking lot. They said Hall shot Corrigan twice before trying to shoot himself in the head but missed.

Hall has insisted since 2011 that he doesn’t remember what happened. He does say Corrigan shoved him that night and a handgun fell out of his sweatshirt pocket during the struggle. Hall says if he did shoot Corrigan, it was in self-defense.

A father of two teenagers, Hall told Corrigan’s parents Thursday that he was especially sorry for what they were going through.

“No parent should ever have to bury their child,” Hall said.

Corrigan was the father of five. Ashlee Birk, Corrigan’s wife who has since remarried, showed videos at the sentencing hearing of three of their children.

Hall saw videos of 7-year-old twins Bostyn and Bailey telling him they missed their dad. Six-year-old son Teage can be heard saying, “I don’t want to talk to Rob.”

When asked how it made him feel when he heard what happened to his dad, Teage — sitting in a chair and covered with a blanket — said, “it made me mad.”

Hall remained stoic through much of his sentencing hearing, but Birk said he was fighting back tears as she made her victim-impact statement.

Hall apologizes to Corrigan family

Earlier, Birk told Hall she yearned to hear an apology from him or any signs of remorse over what happened. She also said she has struggled to figure out a way to find forgiveness.

Birk told the judge about how much Emmett loved his kids and how much they love their dad, and how badly they all struggle with the fact he is not alive anymore.

The shooting “just didn’t end an affair or a life ... it ended my family,” Birk said. “(Emmett) was greeted every night by 10 tiny hands. He was our little girls’ protector and my son’s superhero.

“I never thought I would be teaching my babies what murder is before they knew how to spell it.”

After the hearing, Birk said she did appreciate hearing directly from Hall that he was sorry.

“I appreciated that he looked in my eyes,” Birk said. “That is something I’ve needed him to do.”

Birk said she was disappointed Hall did not take direct responsibility for his role in the shooting.

“I would have liked to hear he was sorry for the actions, not just sorry to the people,” Birk said.

The courtroom was full, Corrigan’s family and friends on one side and Hall’s family on the other. Hall’s parents and sister attended the hearing, but his teenage daughters did not.

Neither did Kandi Hall, who is in an Idaho Department of Correction retained jurisdiction program for embezzling more than $30,000 from a former employer.

When the hearing was over, Corrigan’s family and friends exchanged tears and hugs in the hallway.

Birk said she thought McLaughnlin “did an amazing job balancing the facts” and gave out a just sentence. ”Even 30 years doesn’t bring back what we lost,” Birk said.

Kandi Hall’s role

Kandi Hall has not said much publicly about the trial, her husband, or her role in Emmett Corrigan’s killing.

But her lawyer said plenty in December during her sentencing hearing on an unrelated grand-theft charge.

While calling media coverage of the Halls “hysterical” and saying the family has been “excoriated in the press,” public defender Tony Geddes used the public hearing to create a new narrative for Robert Hall - saying he was a selfish, controlling spouse who had an affair himself before Kandi Hall got together with Emmett Corrigan in late 2010.

This story was originally published August 27, 2021 at 10:04 AM.