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Thread: Gabriel Paul Hall - Texas Death Row

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    Gabriel Paul Hall - Texas Death Row


    Edwin Willis Shaar, Jr. and his wife Linda Shaar


    Gabriel Hall after his arrest


    Death row mugshot


    Gabriel Hall’s mugshot during a January 2023 Bench Warrant in Brazos County


    Delay request denied in Gabriel Hall's murder trial

    The capital murder trial of 20-year-old Gabriel Hall is set to begin in October despite a request from a defense attorney Monday to postpone the death penalty case until January - nearly a year after it was originally scheduled to begin.

    Hall is accused of a vicious attack Oct. 20, 2011, that left 68-year-old Edwin Shaar dead from a shotgun wound and his 69-year-old disabled wife severely injured after being stabbed repeatedly in the throat at the Shaars' home in the 1800 block of Deacon Drive in southwest College Station. Police said Hall, who was 18 years old and a senior at A&M Consolidated High School at the time, spent months plotting the killing.

    Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty for Hall if he's convicted of capital murder, which, in Texas, is only punishable by life in prison without parole or execution.

    Hall spent the first 11 years of his life in the Philippines before being adopted by local couple Wes and Karen Hall, who have not attended any of his court hearings.

    Attorneys recently returned from Hall's home country, where they spent a week interviewing potential witnesses for the defense, including Hall's father, a convicted murderer who spent two years in prison in the 1990s.

    The trip was planned to save money on having to fly witnesses over and pay for lodging, as well as to cut back on the time it would take to arrange for witnesses -- some of whom would likely have trouble getting travel visas -- to make their way to Brazos County.

    Depositions with Filipino witnesses were filmed with two cameras as well as recorded on a separate audio track.

    One of Hall's defense attorneys, John Wright, who did not accompany his co-counsel, Tony Odiorne, to the Philippines, focused much of his argument for a continuance on needing more time to review and edit the 80 hours of video testimony so that it would be presentable for District Judge Travis Bryan III and the selected jury.

    He also said extra time was needed to further vet a list the defense team received July 8 of about 60 former orphans from the same orphanage Hall lived in and decide who would be called on during the trial.

    Having heard arguments from both sides, Bryan denied the continuance without discussion.

    The judge has yet to rule on whether depositions taken by the defense after the prosecutors left the Philippines will be admitted into evidence, or on objections regarding the depositions.

    Prosecutors expressed frustrations about the defense attorneys' continuing depositions after the state attorneys left the Philippines after a week there, pointing to the fact that their travel plans had been worked out with plenty of advance so that Hall's attorneys could make proper arrangements when it came to both sides meeting with witnesses in the Philippines.

    What will and won't be allowed into evidence is a matter Bryan will take up Aug. 27, when video depositions are reviewed in court.

    http://www.theeagle.com/news/local/a...018ad8fbe.html
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    New details released about murder suspect Gabriel Hall

    Prosecutors seeking the death penalty for capital murder defendant Gabriel Hall recently filed a document that provides more details of the brutal attack the 20-year-old is accused of and past wrongdoings the state intends to use in trial.

    Hall was 18 and a senior at A&M High School when he was accused of killing Edwin Shaar, 68, and stabbing Linda Shaar, 69, in the throat while she was on the phone with 911, according to police. She survived the Oct. 20, 2011, attack.

    Local couple Wes and Karen Hall adopted the defendant from the Philippines at age 11 from an orphanage in Cebu, where he spent 5 years of his life.

    Brazos County District Attorney Jarvis Parsons and first assistant Brian Baker and one of Hall's attorneys from the Texas Defender Service, Tony Odiorne, and a defense investigator recently returned from the defendant's home country, where depositions from potential defense witnesses were taken.

    It was the 2nd trip over for members of the defense team.

    Hall's trial -- which Brazos County Auditor Katie Conner said has cost the county about $353,000 to date -- is slated to start in October, but the date is subject to change, as with any case.

    Prosecutors and the defense team, which is being led by attorney John Wright, also of the Texas Defender Service, will be back in the 272nd District Court this week for another pre-trial hearing.

    The document prosecutors filed on Aug. 15 was a notice of intent to defense attorneys listing 16 offenses from Hall's past he is accused of but hasn't been convicted of.

    The document gives a more detailed description of the events leading up to the murder.

    According to the document, Hall started planning the murder of Edwin and Linda Shaar in January 2010 and began watching their home and the couple's movements on Sept. 1, 2011.

    In January 2011, Hall stole a firearm from his adoptive parents and shot it from their home "to practice and prepare for the murder of Edwin Shaar," according to the document.

    Linda Shaar was stabbed several times, not only in the throat, but also in the upper back and around both ears, according to the document.

    Since his arrest Oct. 21, 2011, Hall was caught with razors, a shank and pills inside the Brazos County Jail in February 2013. A few months later, jailers found more razors taped to the bottom of bunks that were determined to belong to Hall, according to the document.

    The list also contains accusations that vary in the degree of seriousness or harm and include allegations as far back as 1999 and all the way up to jail infractions from recent months.

    Between January 1999 and December 2004, the document states, Hall made threats of bombing the Children's Shelter of Cebu and killing some of the kids there.

    Less severe offenses Hall is accused of include an occasion in January 2011 when Hall failed "to give water to the family llama, causing the llama to die" and that in August 2012 he ignored jailers' warnings to "quiet down" and "continued to talk at an unreasonable volume ... until about 12:30 a.m. when he finally went to sleep."

    Hall's defense attorneys have revealed little about evidence they intend to use in an attempt to prevent a conviction or, if unsuccessful at that, avoid the death penalty for their client.

    Last February, Wright represented capital murder defendant Stanley Robertson and put on nearly a week of expert testimony and scientific evidence regarding the defendant's intellectual disabilities and was able to secure a life in prison sentence for Robertson. Parsons and Baker had sought death penalty for Robertson.

    (Source: The Eagle)
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    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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    Hall murder trial could be delayed up to a year

    A new state law requiring all biological evidence collected in a death penalty case be DNA analyzed is expected to cause up to a year delay in the capital murder trial of 20-year-old Gabriel Paul Hall.

    Hall was set to be tried in October for the killing of 68-year-old Edwin Shaar and knife attack on the man's wife of nearly five decades, 69-year-old Linda Shaar, who was in her wheelchair at the time.

    But once the new law takes effect Sept. 1, Brazos County prosecutors will have to send in all of the evidence collected from the crime scene, which is expected to be between 50 and 70 items once state and defense attorneys sit down with an expert and determine what should be submitted.

    Dayle Koehler, a DNA specialist at the Travis County Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Lab, was brought in by Brazos County District Attorney Jarvis Parsons and first assistant Brian Baker to explain to Judge Travis Bryan III that processing that many items would take six months at minimum and, more realistically, a year.

    Parsons said the new bill gives defendants the authority to halt pre-trial proceedings, or even a trial, and request evidence be tested for DNA if it isn't done beforehand.

    Within the next few weeks, Parsons and Baker will sit down with defense attorneys John Wright and Tony Odiorne, both of the Texas Defender Service, and make a list of what should be sent in for analysis.

    The matter was discussed during a pre-trial hearing for Hall, who wore a long-sleeve shirt underneath his orange jail uniform and remained silent in the courtroom, as he has during all of his hearings.

    But unlike his previous pre-trial hearings, Hall had a family member in the room Tuesday -- his adoptive father, Wes Hall, a former Brazos County justice of the peace and a local attorney.

    Wes and Karen Hall adopted Gabriel Hall from the Philippines when the defendant was 11 years old. He was one of several children adopted by the Halls.

    Phone calls and a message left with Wes Hall were not returned.

    According to police, Gabriel Hall spent several months surveilling the Shaars, a couple he'd never met, outside their College Station home before he attacked them.

    Edwin Shaar, who had Parkinson's disease, was coming in from the garage and Linda Shaar was in the kitchen when, police said, Hall, then an 18-year-old senior at A&M Consolidated High School, entered through the garage and used a knife and a gun on the husband and cut the throat of his wife as she was on the phone with 911, according to authorities.

    Edwin Shaar was a New York native who served 26 years in the U.S. Navy before retiring as a commander. He and Linda Shaar -- parents to two sons and a daughter -- moved to College Station in 1988 when Edwin Shaar became executive officer of the Naval ROTC Corps of Cadets and associate professor of Naval Science at Texas A&M, while also earning his Ph.D. in oceanography.

    So far, about $353,000 in county funds has been paid out to the defense in Hall's case, said Brazos County Auditor Katie Conner.

    Conner said she was under a court order not to release details of where the money had been spent, so it was unclear if that money covered recent travel costs to the Philippines for members of the defense team, which they took in June with prosecutors to take depositions from potential defense witnesses from Gabriel Hall's past.

    Parsons was unable to immediately provide cost figures for his and Baker's trip to Gabriel Hall's home country, but said he would be able to Wednesday.

    As they have several times before, the conversation became somewhat heated when the Philippines was brought up.

    Defense attorneys are expected to ask Bryan to admit depositions taken from up to 13 witnesses the defense met with after Parsons and Baker had left the country, having only planned a weeklong trip in advance.

    Bryan has yet to rule on what interviews conducted overseas he'll allow into evidence, but prosecutors have made it clear they intend to argue against the testimony being admitted, because, they argue, the defense knew ahead of time when the state attorneys would be there but scheduled crucial interviews after they left.

    http://www.theeagle.com/news/local/a...76fd841e9.html
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    Evidence list finalized after law pushes back Gabriel Hall capital murder trial

    Attorneys in the capital murder case of Gabriel Paul Hall met Friday to finalize a list of biological evidence that will be analyzed for DNA before the 20-year-old's trial can take place.

    Hall was set to be tried in October for the killing of 68-year-old Edwin Shaar and knife attack on the man's wife of nearly five decades, 69-year-old Linda Shaar, who was in her wheelchair at the time.

    But because of a new state law that took effect Sept. 1 requiring all biological evidence in a case to be tested, the trial has been pushed back for up to a year so that the Texas Department of Public Safety lab can receive and analyze the items sent in.

    Prosecutors and defense attorneys were able to agree on which items will be submitted and will turn that list in to Judge Travis Bryan III for approval.

    http://www.theeagle.com/news/local/a...1a12faa10.html
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    Judge rules to send evidence in capital murder trial to Texas facilities for DNA testing

    District Judge Travis Bryan III put an end to arguments Monday concerning DNA testing in the Gabriel Paul Hall capital murder case and ordered biological items be sent to a Texas Department of Public Safety lab for testing. "I'm going to bring this ping-pong match to an end," Bryan said. "The ruling is for the state."

    Hall, 20, was set to be tried this month for the killing of 68-year-old Edwin Shaar and knife attack on the man's wife of nearly five decades, 69-year-old Linda Shaar, who was in her wheelchair at the time.

    But a new state law requiring all biological evidence in a death penalty case be DNA analyzed -- with the exception of items prosecutors and defense attorneys agree on -- put the trial on hold for at least nine months.

    Lawyers on both sides agreed on which items from the crime scene would be sent in for testing earlier this month, but defense attorney John Wright argued this week that an out-of-state lab should handle testing instead of a DPS lab.

    Wright said, for purposes of defense strategies, they were wanting some of the items put through a microscopic examination for sperm and that letting the DPS lab handle the specialized testing would be a "risk to the court" because the lab is an "arm of law enforcement."

    Brazos County District Attorney Jarvis Parsons and first assistant Brian Baker opposed the idea, saying they didn't understand the need since they'd come to an agreement that the forensic scientist from DPS would stay in contact with the defense as the testing was done so Hall could send items to another lab to be independently tested if needed.

    "It's the state's position we've gone above and beyond to make sure if they want anything under the sun tested, we're going to agree to that," Baker said. "We're asking the court to sign our order. Let's get these items to the lab and get things going."

    The signed order includes 58 items from the murder scene, 16 of which are considered high priority and will go through microscopic testing.

    One of the items, a gunshot residue kit, will be sent to an independent laboratory for DNA testing, a capability the DPS lab does not have for gunshot residue kits.

    http://www.theeagle.com/news/local/a...10de6322f.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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    Hearing in the trial of Gabriel Hall postponed until July 25

    Attorneys in the capital murder case of Gabriel Paul Hall will next meet July 25 after a hearing planned for Tuesday was canceled.

    The 21-year-old is awaiting trial for the October 2011 killing of 68-year-old Edwin Shaar, who was first stabbed and then shot inside his College Station home. Hall also is accused of repeatedly stabbing Shaar's wife, Linda, 69, who was in a wheelchair when the couple was attacked.

    Brazos County District Attorney Jarvis Parsons is seeking the death penalty for Hall, who was adopted from the Philippines at age 11 by local couple Karen and Wes Hall.

    Currently, Hall's trial is set to begin in February.

    Hall, who was a senior at A&M Consolidated High School at the time of the murder, is being represented by attorneys with the Texas Regional Public Defender Office.

    Since pre-trial proceedings began, defense attorneys have traveled twice to the Philippines to interview potential witnesses, and were accompanied by prosecutors on one of the trips.

    Parsons said it's likely he'll know within the next few days if Hall's attorneys will be permitted to fly in witnesses from the Philippines for the trial, a defense request the state has repeatedly objected to.

    http://www.theeagle.com/news/local/h...9140df11b.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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    Judge denies continuance in murder trial of Gabriel Hall

    Capital murder defendant Gabriel Paul Hall was joined in court Friday with seven members of his defense team for one of his last pre-trial hearings before jury selection in his death penalty trial begins in January.

    The 21-year-old was charged with killing 69-year-old Edwin Shaar by stabbing and shooting him inside his garage, and attacking Shaar's 70-year-old wife Linda, who was wheelchair bound, with a knife.

    At the time, Hall, who is the adopted son of local couple Karen and Wes Hall, was a senior at A&M Consolidated High School living in south College Station.

    Hall is being represented by John Wright and Anthony Odiorne, attorneys with the Texas Regional Public Defenders for Capital Cases who were appointed to Hall's case under a contract with Brazos County.

    Although the public defenders will remain on Hall's case through the trial, county commissioners terminated the contract with the regional office in September 2013.

    At the latest hearing, 272nd District Judge Travis Bryan III once again denied a motion for continuance from the defense, which Odiorne argued was necessary to give the defense time to have items from the crime scene retested for DNA, among other reasons.

    Bryan's denial came after Brazos County First Assistant District Attorney Brian Baker objected to the request for more time, saying the defense has had more than a year to test pieces of evidence, which have already been analyzed at the Texas Department of Public Safety crime lab for Hall's trial.

    "The defense has spent half a million dollars in four years and we are not ready?" Baker said.

    Bryan responded, "Actually, it's $600,000 and [the defense] request is denied."

    The judge granted several other motions filed by the defense, including a request to allow Hall to wear non-jail clothing at his final pre-trial hearing and a motion for the court to order Shaar's military records be turned over to the defense.

    According to the defense motion for the military records, the purpose of the request is to determine if "anything in Mr. Shaar's records would indicated a basis for any communication between Mr. Shaar and Gabriel Paul Hall."

    Hall, who sported a shaggy haircut and was dressed in his orange Brazos County jail uniform, remained quiet and shackled throughout the hearing, turning his head occasionally to look out into the gallery.

    His next pre-trial hearing is scheduled for Dec. 18.

    http://www.theeagle.com/news/local/j...487d2e4b4.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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    Defense granted second delay in Hall murder trial

    A Brazos County district judge on Friday agreed to delay Gabriel Paul Hall's capital murder trial following a request for more time from defense attorneys.

    Hall was charged with killing 69-year-old retired Texas A&M professor Edwin Shaar by stabbing and shooting him inside his garage in 2011, and stabbing his 70-year-old wife Linda Shaar, who was in a wheelchair.

    The 21-year-old adopted son of Wes and Karen Hall was a senior at A&M Consolidated High School at the time.

    Jury selection was previously set to begin in January, but Hall's defense team argued the trial should be pushed back to May 2015 to give lead defense attorney John Wright more time to prepare because he had been busy representing former Kaufman County justice of the peace Eric Williams in a capital murder trial that ended Wednesday. Williams was sentenced to death for killing Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland, his wife Cynthia McLelland and Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse.

    In a 36-page motion, Hall's defense team, led by Wright and Anthony Odiorne, attorneys with the Texas Regional Public Defenders for Capital Cases who were appointed to the case, also argued they needed time to investigate 16 allegations made by jail informants. According to the document, the Brazos County District Attorney's Office notified the defense of those allegations on Dec. 14, imposing an "investigative burden" three weeks before trial.

    Additionally, the defense restated its desire to independently test biological evidence already tested at the Texas Department of Public Safety crime lab and requested a delay in the trial because Hall's older half-sister, his primary caretaker as a child in the Philippines, would be unable to testify at a January trial. She gave birth earlier this month.

    Prosecutors with the Brazos County District Attorney's Office opposed the motion as they did at a hearing on Dec. 5.

    At that time, 272nd District Judge Travis Bryan III denied a motion for continuance, noting that the defense had already spent $600,000.

    The trial has been delayed at least once before when a state law went into effect in 2013 requiring all biological evidence collected in death penalty cases to be DNA analyzed.

    A new start date for the trial is expected to be determined at a Monday hearing.

    http://www.theeagle.com/news/local/d...387974f59.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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    Gabriel Hall's murder trial pushed to August

    The capital murder trial of a 21-year-old accused of killing a retired Texas A&M professor and stabbing his wife will start in August, according to a judge who granted a request by the defense to push the case until later in the year.

    Jury selection was scheduled to start in January for Gabriel Paul Hall, who was a senior at A&M Consolidated High School at the time of the 2011 slaying. He is charged with shooting and stabbing Edwin Schaar, 69, in his garage, and injuring Linda Shaar, who was in a wheelchair at the time.

    District Judge Travis Bryan III agreed to the defense team's request Friday, allowing the lead defense attorney more time to prepare since he just wrapped up a capital murder case elsewhere in Texas. The defense team also argued it needed additional time to investigate 16 allegations that recently came from jail informants while Hall has been behind bars.

    The prosecution opposed the motion for a continuance. On Monday, Bryan gathered both sides to put the trial on a calendar, then decided early- to mid-August will work, though an exact date wasn't set.

    http://www.theeagle.com/news/local/g...950c84c11.html
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    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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    Judge in Hall murder case denies request for defense to be present for state psych exam

    Capital murder defendant Gabriel Hall was in court Thursday as his attorneys asked a judge to limit the scope and manner of a state-sponsored mental health exam prior to the trial scheduled to start in late August.

    Hall, 22, was a student at A&M Consolidated High School in 2011 when he was charged with fatally shooting and stabbing 69-year-old Edwin Shaar and using a knife to attack his then-70-year-old wife Linda Shaar, who was in a wheelchair.

    He faces the death penalty if convicted of capital murder.

    Judge Travis Bryan III on Thursday denied defense requests to allow counsel be in the room during state-sponsored mental health exams and for the proceeding to be video taped. Hall will be allowed, however, to request breaks during the examination to consult with his attorneys.

    Defense attorneys John Wright and Anthony Odiorne, with the Texas Regional Public Defenders for Capital Cases, objected to the state's exam, arguing that their client had not waived his "right to maintain silence and not give any further statement to agents of the state, including state mental health experts," according to a 29-page motion.

    The judge had previously ordered Hall to cooperate with the state's examination, whose results would only be provided to prosecutors if the defense, during trial, called a mental health expert to testify regarding a psychiatric or psychological examination of the defendant.

    Failure to comply with the state's exam would mean the defense could not present expert mental health testimony at trial.

    In the original request for a state-sponsored mental health exam, District Attorney Jarvis Parsons and First Assistant District Attorney Brian Baker cited case law, Lagrone v. State, which held that the court could order the state's exam if defense attorneys introduced or planned to introduce testimony from an expert based on an interview with the defendant.

    The Hall trial was delayed in December to allow defense attorneys more time to prepare, following their involvement in a high-profile case in Kaufman County, and to investigate allegations made by jail informants weeks before jury selection was set, at the time, to start in January.

    The defense had spent $600,000 on the case as of a December hearing, but that number is now estimated to be closer to $800,000.

    Hall remained quiet during the nearly four-hour hearing, wearing a white sweater vest over a gray shirt.

    His next pre-trial hearing is April 27.

    http://www.theeagle.com/news/local/j...f4958e8b9.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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