Kandi Hall Case: Shooting, Conviction, and Appeal

The Kandi Hall case refers to the March 2011 killing of Idaho attorney Emmett Corrigan by Kandi Hall’s husband, Rob Hall, after Kandi’s months-long affair with Corrigan came to a head in a Meridian Walgreens parking lot. Rob Hall was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to up to 30 years in prison. Kandi, who was the only eyewitness, faced her own separate prosecution for embezzling from a previous attorney-employer and served 18 months.

Who the Three People Were

Kandi Hall had been married to Rob Hall for 19 years at the time of the shooting. Rob worked as a technical support specialist at the Ada County Sheriff’s Office, and the couple had two daughters.¹

Kandi met Emmett Corrigan through a mutual friend in September 2010, while he was waiting on his bar exam results. They began a sexual relationship within two weeks.² After Corrigan passed the bar and opened his own criminal defense practice in November 2010,³ he hired Kandi as a paralegal, and the affair continued at the office and elsewhere until the day he died.

Corrigan was married to Ashlee Corrigan and had five children. His wife had recently given birth to their fifth child.⁴

The Night of the Shooting

On March 11, 2011, tensions between the three peaked. Kandi and Corrigan had two sexual encounters that day and had also met with a lawyer to discuss Kandi divorcing Rob.⁵ That evening, Rob confronted Kandi about her detachment from the marriage. During a phone call between Kandi and Corrigan, Corrigan got on the line with Rob and used what the court record later described as “derogatory, derisive, and challenging” language, including a threat to “crack your f***ing head.”²

The three converged at a Walgreens parking lot after 10 p.m. Rob had taken a compact .380 caliber pistol with a laser sight from his pickup and put it in his hoodie pocket. According to Kandi’s testimony, Corrigan was leaning against his truck with his arms crossed. After the men exchanged words about the affair, Corrigan shoved Rob in the chest. Kandi stepped between them, told them to stop, and began walking toward her car. She then heard scuffling on the ground, followed by three gunshots in a pattern she described as “pop, and then a pause, and pop pop.”²

Corrigan died at the scene from two gunshot wounds, one through the chest and one to the head. Rob sustained a grazing bullet wound to the left side of his head that caused a moderate concussion and retrograde amnesia.²

When police arrived, Rob told them the gun was his but claimed it had “fallen out of his pocket” during the fight. He first said, “We fought for the gun, and then he got shot. He shot me,” and later said he did not know who had shot Corrigan.²

Rob Hall’s Trial and Conviction

Rob Hall’s trial ran from October 10 through October 23, 2012, in Ada County’s Fourth District Court before Judge Michael McLaughlin. On October 25, 2012, a jury of seven women and five men convicted him of second-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.⁶

Prosecutors argued Rob arrived at the parking lot armed and intending to kill Corrigan to “get his Kandi back.” Forensic testimony established that Rob was the only person with gunshot residue on his hand and the only source of DNA on the gun’s trigger. Prosecutors also contended the graze to Rob’s own head came from a failed self-inflicted third shot rather than a struggle. Investigators found amphetamines and steroids in Corrigan’s truck.⁷

The defense argued self-defense or an accidental discharge during a struggle. Rob did not testify and maintained that his brain injury left him with no memory of the shooting.⁸

Kandi, the sole eyewitness, saw her credibility collapse on the stand. Judge McLaughlin said that in 31 years on the bench he had never “seen a witness more thoroughly discredited,” citing her conflicting pretrial statements and the “level of impeachment” she faced.²

Sentencing

Judge McLaughlin sentenced Rob to a fixed term of 17 years followed by an indeterminate term of up to 30 years, with parole eligibility after 17 and a half years. He received credit for about 18 months already served in the Ada County Jail.⁴

At the hearing, Rob apologized for the “shockwave” that had “shattered the lives of his daughters” but stopped short of admitting he had intentionally shot Corrigan.⁸ His two teenage daughters did not attend.⁴

Corrigan’s widow, Ashlee (later Ashlee Birk after remarrying), told the court the murder “didn’t just end an affair or a life — it ended my family.” She played videos from three of their children: twins Bostyn and Bailey, then seven, said they missed their father, and six-year-old Teage said he was “mad” and did not want to talk to Rob.⁴

The Appeal

Rob appealed to the Idaho Supreme Court, arguing the trial judge had mishandled jury instructions on justifiable and excusable homicide, that Corrigan’s Facebook posts should have been admitted to show aggressive tendencies, and that testimony about a 2006 concealed-weapons class he had attended should not have been.⁹

On November 15, 2016, the court affirmed the conviction. On the self-defense instructions, defense counsel had not formally objected before the jury retired, so the claim was not preserved. Reviewing for fundamental error anyway, the court held there was no evidence of an “ongoing attack” once the confrontation had paused and Rob had gained possession of the weapon. At that point, the right to self-defense had expired.²

Kandi Hall’s Own Criminal Case

Kandi faced a prosecution unrelated to the murder. She pleaded guilty to grand theft for embezzling approximately $32,000 from Boise attorney Jared Martens, a previous employer.¹⁰ In December 2012, Judge Timothy Hansen rejected a probation recommendation and sentenced her to 14 years with two years fixed, retaining jurisdiction so she could enter a correctional program that might lead to earlier release on probation.¹¹ She was in an Idaho Department of Correction program during Rob’s sentencing and ultimately served 18 months.⁷

Where Things Stand Now

Ashlee Birk became a public advocate for forgiveness after the murder. She wrote a book titled Moments We Stand — Silence Breaks and built a following around a message of hope through faith.¹² In 2015 she appeared on The Dr. Phil Show alongside Kandi Hall to discuss the case and her path toward forgiveness.¹⁰ Birk later called the experience a “Hollywood version of forgiveness” and said she felt “violated” by the production.

The story drew wider audiences through NBC’s Dateline in an episode titled “Deadly Desire,” which re-aired on Oxygen’s Dateline: Unforgettable in December 2023,¹³ and through Investigation Discovery’s American Monster.⁷

Robert Dean Hall remains incarcerated at the Idaho State Correctional Institution in Boise. His sentence satisfaction date is August 23, 2041, his parole eligibility date is August 24, 2028, and his initial parole hearing is scheduled for March 1, 2028.¹⁴

1
KTVB. Suspect in Fatal Attorney Shooting Worked for Ada County Sheriff
2
Findlaw. State v. Hall, 161 Idaho 413
3
ABA Journal. Idaho Lawyer Gunned Down After Filing Client’s Divorce
4
Idaho Statesman. Robert Hall Sentenced to Up to 30 Years
5
KTVB. Kandi Hall Details Her Relationship With Attorney Who Was Killed
6
Idaho Press. Robert Hall Sentenced to Up to 30 Years
7
Oxygen. Robert Hall Convicted of Killing Wife’s Lover Emmett Corrigan
8
OregonLive. Idaho Man Receives 30 Years for Murder
9
Spokesman-Review. Idaho Supreme Court Upholds Murder Conviction
10
Idaho Statesman. Wife of Murdered Attorney to Appear on Dr. Phil
11
Idaho News. Kandi Hall Sentenced to Prison in Theft Case
12
11Alive. Dr. Phil Show Does Not Provide Healing for Ashlee Birk
13
Yahoo Entertainment. Dateline Unforgettable: Where Emmett Corrigan Case Stands
14
Idaho Department of Correction. Resident Search – Robert Dean Hall