The three gunshots in a parking lot on March 11, 2011, left Emmett Corrigan dead and Robert Hall facing decades behind bars. In an instant, two families were shattered forever. It was a tragic end to the torrid affair between a female assistant and her boss.
The Secret Affair
The lives of married couple Kandi Hall and Robert Hall were full of promise when they moved from Southern California to the city of Meridian, Idaho in 2006. The couple had been together for many years and had two teenage daughters. Robert was a computer expert at the Ada County Sheriff’s Office, while his wife worked as a legal assistant.
However, their marriage began to encounter difficulties after Kandi discovered Robert was having an affair. They tried to mend the relationship, but Kandi’s self-esteem took a major hit. The nearly 40-year-old woman even thought Robert wanted to leave the marriage because he felt her “so boring.”
That may be why Kandi was immediately smitten with Emmett Corrigan when she started working at his new law firm. Emmett was the father of 5 children. He and his wife had been in love since college.
Although both were married with families, and Emmett was quite a bit older than Kandi, it seemed Emmett was instantly attracted to his new assistant as well. Within a few weeks, they began a secret affair. It was the fall of 2010.
Kandi made Emmett feel comfortable with the feeling of being cherished and valued. Kandi insisted she wasn’t having the affair to get back at her husband, nor did she think about anyone else who might be hurt – she was just thinking of herself.
The Wife’s Perspective
While the passionate affair between Emmett and Kandi escalated, Emmett’s young wife Ashlee wondered why her seemingly happy marriage was suddenly crumbling.
Ashlee was 10 years younger than her husband’s mistress. She never suspected Emmett was having an emotional affair with his assistant. Emmett often described Kandi to his wife as an older woman he respected like a mother figure – a woman Ashlee fully trusted would become a great attorney.
But by February 2011, Ashlee knew something was off. Emmett seemed stressed and spent less time at home than before. Their son even once asked his mother if Dad was going to keep living with them.
When Ashlee tried to have an honest conversation with her husband, she felt “pushed away” and ended up going to a counselor herself to try to save their once-happy marriage. But her husband seemed increasingly indifferent about maintaining their family.
As bewildered as she was, the wife had no idea what her husband was up to behind her back, nor could she fathom the heartbreaking tragedy she was about to face.
The Final Outing
In 2003, 21-year-old Ashlee was studying human development at Utah State University when she met Emmett. They married quickly in March 2004. Over the next few years, the couple had three daughters and two sons. While Emmett achieved some success in law, Ashlee became a doting stay-at-home wife and mother.
Ashlee had no idea her husband was secretly having an affair with his assistant Kandi Hall, who was over 10 years his senior. So she didn’t understand why her husband seemed to want to abandon their marriage.
Determined to reconnect with her husband, on March 11, 2011, Ashlee planned a special evening. She dressed the kids up nicely, prepared a meal, and made everything perfect. But that night, Emmett came home very late. The food had gone cold, the kids were all tired. Emmett didn’t eat even a bite of what his wife made.
The two then argued when Ashlee said her family was worried about them. Emmett angrily said he hated her family, even threatening to beat and kill them all. Ashlee tried to calm her husband and gently persuaded him to tell her what was going on. But Emmett said nothing.
Like many other nights, Emmett caused a scene and then left. He said he would go to the local drugstore to buy cough medicine. Ashlee knew he would be gone for a long time again. But neither realized this outing would change their lives forever.
The Bloody Shooting
Meanwhile, just a few miles from the Emmett home, Kandi Hall and her husband Robert Hall were having their own conversation. A few months earlier, Robert had discovered Kandi’s affair. Now they were discussing the possibility of reconciling and trying to mend their severely damaged marriage. During the talk, Kandi said she needed to go pick up some medication.
Around 10 pm that night, the 911 dispatcher received a call reporting shots fired in the drug store parking lot. At the scene, police found Emmett dead from two gunshot wounds – one to the forehead and another to the chest.
Amidst the bloody, chaotic scene, they also found another wounded man and his hysterical wife. It was Robert Hall and Kandi Hall. Kandi was considered the sole witness present when the shooting occurred.
As investigators dug into Emmett’s personal life, it didn’t take long to realize things were not as rosy as they seemed on the surface. Co-workers said they knew about the affair between Emmett and Kandi despite their attempts to hide it.
From there, the events of the night of March 11th quickly became clear.
The Fateful Rendezvous
Around 9 pm on March 11, 2011, Kandi drove to the parking lot of a local drug store and Emmett’s pickup truck soon arrived as well. Kandi left her car and hopped into her lover’s truck, and they went to a gas station to fill up. After getting gas, they drove to a secluded area and had sex in the vehicle.
Kandi and Emmett thought no one knew they were meeting, but a coincidence occurred that changed everything. Kandi’s teenage daughter happened to go to the parking lot and saw her mom’s car there with no one around. Finding it strange, the girl called her dad. Soon after, Kandi received a call from her daughter asking where she was and saying she had told her father.
Surveillance footage from the drug store showed Robert Hall driving up in his truck, going inside briefly as if looking for his wife, then returning to his vehicle.
Sitting inside, he called Kandi asking if she was with Emmett. After Kandi confirmed she was with her boss, Emmett grabbed the phone and said “Just wait there, we’ll be right over.”
The Battle Between Two Men
According to Kandi, Emmett’s tone was extremely aggressive. The woman claims she tried to defuse the situation but Emmett still drove them back to the drug store parking lot. 17 minutes later, they encountered Robert in the security camera blindspot.
It was after 10 pm when the two men had a heated argument. Per Kandi, Emmett shoved Robert. She asked the men to return to their vehicles and leave. Shortly after, Kandi heard gunshots ring out.
Turning around, she saw her bloodied husband with blood pouring from his head. Meanwhile, Emmett lay face down with a bullet to the forehead and another to the heart. Kandi rushed over to kiss her dying lover before frantically calling 911.
Emmett was pronounced dead at the scene. Police rushed Robert to the hospital and immediately took him into custody.
Robert claimed that during the scuffle, his loaded revolver fell out of his pocket and Emmett grabbed it, firing one shot that grazed his head. Robert then regained control of the weapon and fired the two fatal shots into Emmett. He insisted he did not intend to take the gun there to kill Emmett.
Robert’s lawyers also argued that Emmett, who had stimulants in his system according to tests, flew into a rage that night and initiated the violent confrontation.
However, prosecutors did not buy that the shooting was self-defense.
The Confrontation with His Wife’s Lover
Robert insisted he did not intend to take the gun there to shoot Emmett and that Emmett attacked him first. However, prosecutors did not believe the shooting was self-defense. They believed Robert fired the two fatal shots at Emmett, then turned the gun on himself with the third bullet grazing his skull.
According to the prosecution, Robert brought the loaded gun to the drug store with the intention of confronting and killing his wife’s lover. Robert was the only one with gunshot residue on his hands. Moreover, his DNA was the only DNA found on the gun’s trigger.
Apart from Kandi Hall, there were no other eyewitnesses present at the time of the shooting. In her testimony, Kandi defended Robert and professed her love for her husband. However, prosecutors found many inconsistencies in her continuously changing accounts of what happened that night.
Ultimately, Robert was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison, with a minimum of 17.5 years to be served. He would be eligible for parole consideration in 2028.
Haunted by Guilt
Meanwhile, for Emmett’s wife Ashlee Birk, learning her husband was having an affair and was killed on the same night was a traumatic shock that forced her to grapple with many emotions.
She now knew the reason why, despite her best efforts to save the marriage, she still seemed to fail. Now there was no marriage left to save. “It was incredibly humiliating,” Ashlee said. “I had begged him to stay home and work on us, and instead he died fighting over someone else’s wife.”
Overcoming the tragedy, Ashlee later remarried, wrote a book, and became a successful speaker encouraging others to put family first.
As for Kandi, she was not charged in relation to her lover’s death but was arrested for embezzling $30,000 from her former employer before moving to work for Emmett. Kandi pleaded guilty in 2012 and served 18 months in prison.
Though the murder case was closed, Kandi remained haunted by the deadly outcome of her extramarital affair. She felt guilt towards her own children and Emmett’s. The woman constantly wondered how she could have done this.
Kandi was released from prison in June 2014 and remains on probation until 2026. Since being released, Kandi has lived a relatively private life.
