The Candid Review: A Blog About Appeals

A Love Affair Gone Wrong:

Emmett Corrigan had been blessed with a successful law career, a beautiful wife, and four children all at the young age of 30. Fresh out of law school, he joined a bankruptcy and criminal defense firm in Boise, Idaho where he met his paralegal, Kandi Hall.

Kandi’s husband, Rob Hall, had just dropped a bombshell on their marriage: he had been having an affair.  Acting on her feelings of neglect and sadness, she began having an affair with Emmett, whose wife was then pregnant with their fifth child. Though Kandi’s husband had evidently ended his affair, Kandi continued to stay in the marriage and to stay in the relationship with Emmett. When Rob found out that Kandi was still involved with Emmett, things took a turn for the worst.

It was March 11, 2011 and Emmetts wife decided to surprise him by cleaning out his car for him. Inside the car, she found all kinds of empty prescription bottles. What the medications were is still unknown, but it was said Emmett was acting out of character that night, almost as if he were on steroids. Later that evening, Emmett and his wife got into an argument, when suddenly, he stormed out of the house and said he was going to Walgreens.

In a house with an also unraveling marriage, Rob was home with Kandi packing boxes and preparing to move out. He had found out about Emmett and thought that their marriage was now to the point of no return. An argument arose and Kandi decided to leave the house and to go to Walgreens to pick up a prescription. As she was leaving her house, Emmett texted her asking her where she was.

Ironically, he says, he was at the same Walgreens. They met in the parking lot, Kandi jumped into Emmetts truck and drove away to have sex in his truck in a secluded area near Walgreens. While still in the truck, Rob called Kandis phone suspecting that she was with Emmett. Kandi admitted that she was with him, and Rob asked to speak to him.

Yeah, whats up chief, Emmett said. No, stay right there, well be right there.

They left the secluded spot and drove back to Walgreens where Kandi’s car was still parked. Before they arrived, Rob could be seen on surveillance tapes pacing up and down the aisles.

An argument broke out and one of the men allegedly shoved the other one, causing him to fall to the ground. Kandi claims she walked away at this point, in an attempt to get Rob to also walk away before things could escalate further. Her back was turned toward the two men when she heard two shots.

POWPOW.

Then, a pause. One more shot: POW. She turned around to find both her husband and her lover covered in blood. She ran to Emmetts side and called 911, though it was too late to save him. Emmett had been shot in the head and took his final breath with Kandi by his side.

Rob had also been shot in the head, but the person who fired that shot had missed his head because the bullet had only grazed the side of his head. Rob survived and was charged with second degree murder, but had a different version of the events.

Rob told Dateline in his only public interview (he did not take the stand in his trial) that he had taken Kandi’s gun from their house and put it in his sweatshirt pocket when he went looking for Kandi at Walgreens.  When Rob was pushed to the ground by Emmett, the gun fell out of his sweatshirt pocket, Emmett picked up the gun and shot at Rob, the bullet grazing his head. Rob somehow then took the gun from Emmett and fired back at him in self-defense twice: first in the chest and then in the head. So, Rob does admit to shooting Emmett, but only because he was in fear for his own life.

Since Kandi was technically a witness to the crime, though not an “eye” witness since she only heard the shots, what she says she heard (two shots together, pause, another shot) does not match with Robs story of Emmett shooting Rob first with the gun Rob had in his pocket. What would be consistent with Kandi’s story would be what prosecutors alleged happened between Rob and Emmett. Rob left his house, grabbed Kandi’s gun and went to Walgreens not only looking for Kandi, but also to confront the two of them and have a word with Emmett. When things got out of hand, Rob took the gun out of his sweatshirt pocket and fired the two shots at Emmett, first in the chest and then in the head, within seconds, he turned the gun on himself, but when he pulled the trigger, the bullet ended up projecting past his head. A botched suicide attempt is what it was called.

Though Rob admits it was in fact he who fired the shots at Emmett, his defense at trial was that he was defending himself after Emmett shot at him first. In 2013 the jury found him guilty of second-degree (heat of the moment) murder and he was sentenced to 30 years in prison. A local news source reports that at his sentencing, he was seemingly remorseful and apologetic for what he had done.

In an ironic twist of fate, Kandi is also now serving time in prison for embezzlement of a former employer.

Contact our criminal appeal attorneys for assistance with your legal matter.

Whose story do you believe? Did Emmett really take the gun from Rob first, or did Rob fire at Emmett and then turned the gun on himself?