Former Police Detective Sentenced to 25 Years to Life in Wife's Calimesa Death

A former San Bernardino police detective was sentenced Friday to 25 years to life in prison in the drowning death of his 47-year-old wife in Calimesa, a district attorney's spokesman said.

Blair Christopher Hall, 52, was convicted of first-degree murder in May. He was sentenced Friday afternoon in Riverside.

Hall must serve the full 25 years before his first parole hearing, minus credits for 111 days served in jail, John Hall of the Riverside County District Attorney's Office said.

Cristi Lynne Hall died of drowning in a backyard hot tub in June 2007 at 1209 Belle Road in Calimesa, according to court records. She also had head lacerations and bruises on her body, a pathologist determined.

Blair Hall's first trial on suspicion of murder ended with a hung jury a year ago, when a third of the 12-member jury voted for acquittal.

The jury in the retrial deliberated two days and returned a unanimous verdict.

Prosecutors contended Blair Hall killed his wife "to reap the money paid by her life insurance policies," according to court records.

The following is from a prosecutors' court brief:

At 6:38 a.m. June 7, 2007, paramedics were dispatched to 1209 Belle Road in Calimesa in Riverside County. A neighbor, Lindsay Patterson, called 9-1-1 and reported seeing Blair Hall holding a woman under the water of a small hot tub in the backyard of the home, according to prosecutors.

Blair Hall's daughter also called 9-1-1 from 1209 Belle Road.

When paramedics and deputies arrived, they found Blair Hall performing CPR on his 47-year-old wife, Cristi Hall. She was in full arrest and never showed any signs of life, according to prosecutors. She was pronounced dead a short time later at San Gorgonio Memorial Hospital in Banning.

A pathologist determined the cause of Cristi Hall's death was drowning. She also had a laceration on the top of her head and a laceration on the back of her head. She had five rib fractures, and bruises and other injuries on her back, hands, arms, elbow, torso and face, according to prosecutors.

Blair Hall had several scratches on his body, and DNA under his wife's fingernails "definitively matched" Blair Hall's DNA, according to prosecutors.

Blair Hall's attorneys contended during trial last year that Cristi Hall slipped, hit her head and drowned.

Blair Hall maintained he was innocent, and his perspective was backed by his and Cristi Hall's three daughters, and members of Cristi Hall's family. Blair and Cristi Hall were married nearly 30 years.

Blair Hall worked for the San Bernardino Police Department from 1982 to 1994, and he took medical retirement after being shot in one leg. He then worked briefly as police chief in two Idaho towns.

Blair Hall was working as a private investigator in Yucaipa at the time of his wife's death.