Testimony began Monday in the punishment phase of the Gabriel Hall capital murder trial in Brazos County district court.
Hall’s defense team…wanting the jury to deliver a sentence of life in prison without parole…plans to spend at least three weeks calling witnesses who will show why Hall shot and stabbed Edwin Shaar Jr. and attempted to kill his wife. In opening statements, the defense brought up Hall being born premature, spending his first six years being raised in the slums of the Philippines by abusive parents, then for the last seven years being abused by adoptive parents in College Station.
In response, Brazos County District Attorney Jarvis Parsons…in arguing for the death penalty…said there is nothing in Hall’s background that explains or justifies or excuses what he did. Parsons said they will present evidence that Hall plans to kill again. And the D-A said Hall took 18 months to plan the attack on the Shaar’s in their College Station home in October 2011. The jury was told the prosecution planned to take three to four days to present its main case and call any rebuttal witnesses.