How a 10 Year Old became a Convicted Killer... | The Case of Joseph Hall

with his blonde hair soft face and a height barely above 4 feet Joseph Hall looked like an average 10-year-old boy without a care in the world but what if I told you that merely weeks after this photo was taken he would go on to commit The Unthinkable by murdering his father now Joseph already carried a burden of Social and behavioral issues many of which were deeply rooted in a traumatic childhood inflicted by his abusive and extremist father sadly the man's troubling Tendencies continue to escalate over the years and eventually something within the young boy inevitably snapped but things wouldn't end well for Joseph either and some would even argue that the judicial system failed this child not just as a victim but as a perpetrator too so was Joseph's reaction unwarranted or was there an element of justification listen to this story and I'll let you decide welcome or welcome back to Coffee House crime folks my name is Adrien and today I've got another dark story for you and this one comes with a very debatable social dilemma today we're looking at the complex case of Jeff Hall and his son Joseph Hall this story really did push the boundaries of the judicial system and left many deeply frustrated before you begin this is your gentle reminder that I serve nothing but coffee and dark stories so if that sounds like a kind of thing please consider subscribing and now with that said please grab yourself a coffee pull up a seat and get ready for the de dive this is the case of Joseph Hall welcome back to the state of California folks a state well loved for its beaches cities and vibrant lifestyle with the likes of Los Angeles San Diego and San Francisco here it is no wonder that the state has become North America's most populated in today's video we are stepping outside of the sprawling Metropolis of LA and venturing East to the small city of Riverdale which of course hangs on the edge of the Inland Empire with a population of 300,000 residents there is plenty to see and do here I mean for one you can find the world's largest paper cup here which is actually made of concrete I have no idea why anyone would want to go and see that but it is there if you'd like to more notably Riverside offers picturesque Landscapes a vibrant culture and a rich history to all who enter and being LED between the Santa Ana River and box springs National Park and just a Stones throw away from La it is certainly worth a visit now unfortunately Riverside does have a significantly high crime rate placing it higher than 87% of all US cities but this crime does tend to be localized into neighborhoods making some parts a little more comfortable for families one thing this city does have however is a cyber security Center the center is designed to provide support for online security awareness to the local community as you know staying safe online is becoming more and more difficult in the Modern Age so it's great to see the city have such a thing here even if you are internet Savvy it is easy to be fooled by online threats such as malware and malvertising sometimes clicking a rogue advertisement may actually allow malware to be installed on your computer allowing it to destroy or even steal your data this can leads to information such as your banking details and social media passwords being stolen which is absolutely not ideal and that is why you should always consider using nordvpn our sponsor for today's video with nordvpn's threat Protection Service you can block dangerous sites and limit advertising giving you a cleaner safer browsing experience malvertising can be extremely convincing so avoid the temptation to click by blocking them all together with nordvpn and this is just one of nord's many incredible features with all of the browsing and research that I do online it has protected me countless times from Risky websites keeping me and my my information safe and with thousands of servers all across the globe it has helped me access GE restricted content at the click of a button allowing me to enjoy the internet Without Borders take control of your internet experience today with nordvpn right now those who use my link nordvpn.com Coffey house crime will get the best deal currently available that's a 2-year plan at a huge discount plus four additional months for free what's more it's risk-free with nord's 30-day money back guarantee that's nordvpn.com coffeehouse crime or click the link in the description below one of those families living in this sundrenched city was the hall family consisting of 32-year-old Jeff Hall his current partner letia Hall and their two children Joseph and his younger sister Shirley now I wish I could openly tell you how good this family was but unfortunately it's all rather dark most of them were wrought with turbulence and extreme Behavior so I guess will Dive Right In to begin with the children's Mother named latia was riddled with destructive and dangerous habits those including alcohol and drug abuse to list a few this included heroin methamphetamine and LSD and sadly all of these habits spanned well into her pregnancies leading to developmental issues in both children letia was not the only one with issues of substance abuse either Jeff was an extremely heavy drinker which often resulted in erratic and abusive Behavior and sadly he would take out his frustration on his partner and his two children you could hardly say that the two were a matchmade in heaven and eventually probably through their destructive habits the two split up forever likely with a whole lot of arguing the children would carry on to live with their mother while their father remained in the Family household but sadly this would not be the end of their neglect and abuse letia was not in any state of mind to look after her children and after the neighbors made Social Services aware they were astonished to to see the conditions they were living in the house had no gas or electricity smelled absolutely awful and was filthy throughout it was so bad that bugs crawled everywhere and in the kitchen dishes piled up with maggots on the worktops the children themselves were dirty and malnourished and sadly Joseph and Shirley were covered in bruises this story was nothing short of tragic simply put there is no excuse for a child to be living in such conditions especially at such an impressionable age the consequences on the mental health right through to adulthood could be absolutely enormous no surprise following a visit from Social Services letissia lost custody of her children and although her children would usually be placed in the care of their father he was currently on probation for driving under the influence of alcohol meaning he too was also prohibited from looking after them with this being the case their next point of call would be their grandparents and although they would take their grandchildren Joseph and Shirley still would not find a peaceful or stable household in the meantime while his children were clearly going through a turbulent and influential point in their lives Jeff was off finding a new Lover he would eventually Remar to a woman named Christa MCC and fast forward five years he was now a father to three more children all three were daughters by the way now after finishing with this probation Jeff filed for custody of his children and having somewhat stable living conditions and having found a new partner he was successful in getting them back this meaning he was now back with his wife his initial two children and three more kids making a family of seven although Joseph's new sisters had a slightly better start to life both he and his sister had endured a traumatizing and damaging start to their own of course being filled with abuse neglect and drinking and sadly this abuse did not stop with their new larger family either in fact on further inspection it would be found out that 23 different child protective reports had been filed at the new residence due to neglect reported by neighbors many of these reports highlighted Jeff's abusive Behavior towards his son whom he would often kick and scream at if he didn't shut up go away or calm down you may already see where this is going but as often experienced in traumatic households this history of abuse and neglect would eventually be reflected in Joseph's Behavior as well he developed habits of hitting his older sister and mother and liked to start fir in the backyard and his very own grandmother would later go on to describe him as a violent and volatile child I mean what do you expect he had a turbulent life at home and his school life was no better either you see Joseph had been expelled from various schools which was extremely worrying for a child of only 10 years old he was caught hitting other students and staff members on numerous occasions and whenever he was told off for his behavior he appeared confused and did not seem to understand Joseph was later diagnosed with ADHD a condition that makes it more difficult for people to concentrate with an increased likelihood of impulsivity it was also noted that he had deficient intelligence for his age likely because his mother was drinking alcohol and taking drugs while she was pregnant with him the situation escalated when he was expelled from school for strangling his teacher with a phone cord he furthermore didn't seem to understand cause and effect and didn't seem to understand what consequences were this final incident LED Joseph to being homeschooled instead because none of the local schools wanted him anymore and the family couldn't afford to send him further away as we know he hit both his mother and stepmother quite frequently but this did not stop him from calling crer his mother now by no means does this mean that she was the perfect parent either by the way allegedly Christa also drank quite frequently and neglected her children for her own needs neither She nor Jeff regularly cleaned the house and left their kids to roam free among the mass so we already know what Joseph's father was like he was an abusive and a violent person but do you think that any of that changed once he had all of his kids back with him even after welcoming three more children to his family his terrible ways continued Jeff was not kind outside of the household either in fact he was quite the extremist to be blunt as the leader of the local Socialist Party branch which is the official name of the Nazi party Jeff was a true white supremacist his goal was to create an all-white community and segregate the races once again and he was so passionate about his beliefs that he often said he would die for this cause spoiler alert it may be a little closer than you think Jeff although he was formerly an established plumber in the local area he had recently lost his employment because of his beliefs and his lack of Rel liability but of course he blamed the economic downturn of the construction industry on all the Jews and non-whites Jeff's views made him a very hateful man and despite everything he has put his son through he was still Joseph's role model and sadly of course this would further influence the boy's violent Behavior I mean when you view it that straightforward it suddenly makes sense why he would hit his sister's and mother in his Tantrums now Jeff was not quiet about his beliefs even in front of his young family and would even host rallies at his home in Riverside as is expected of someone who is interested in Nazism he was deeply interested in World War II and passionately collected military weapons in addition to this he also taught Joseph how to use firearms and throwing knives you know the very typical sort of thing that you would teach your pre-adolescent son with deep anger issues with all of this extremism in the household Joseph stood no chance of becoming a happy and peaceful young man he was surrounded by extensive hate speech and Nazi paraphernalia and was even taken to rallies and protests fully dressed in Nazi uniform they would talk of causing harm and even death to those unlike them and would often take matters into their own hands Joseph was highly xenophobic even from a very young age and was firmly against subjects like immigration in an interview in November 200 2009 Jeff spoke about his party by saying they are proud of who they are tired of white guilt being shoved on their kids and multiculturalism they can't see any reason for it now although these gatherings at Jeff's home were not full-blown rallies they were still heavily influential to the party's beliefs imagine a group of family friends coming together playing party games having a barbecue and talking about the death of other people it was all quite jarring really so to sum things up here we have a young boy who has been rehomed twice has an Abus of father was expelled from multiple schools has been spoonfed extreme beliefs and now knows how to use a firearm if you ask me I think we now have a perfect cocktail for a disaster I mean the poor boy hadn't even become a teenager yet his brain was cooked with so much hate before it even had the chance to develop approaching the main event in today's story it was on April the 30th 2011 that Jeff held another Suare at his house nothing out of the ordinary happened here as with most of these things everything went by without fault now Jeff didn't know this at the time but this would be the last time he would ever host in fact this would be the last event he would ever attend because soon Jeff would be dead on the evening of April the 30th 2011 and after seeing all of their guests away the whole family sat down to watch Yogi Bear in the living room although the party had finished and all guests had gone home Jeff carried on through his Whiskey Bottle while watching the movie The drunk father was in another one of his bad moods as was usually the case while drinking and although the room was quiet with the rest of the family focusing on the movie one comment made by Jeff stuck with his son Joseph in his drunken rage Jeff taunted that if they didn't listen to him he would deactivate all of the home smoke detectors and burn the house down while they slept following this horrific threat Jeff eventually passed out on the sofa and being the more responsible of the two Christa put all the children to bed as she had done many other nights before after that all went quiet in the Family household at least for now but at 4:02 a.m. Riverside Police Department received a very distressing phone call 911 emergency my son shot my husband I need an ambulance he's bleeding how old is your son how old is your son 10 oh my God after hearing a gunshot ring out from the living room Christa rushed out to the scene along the way she passed her stepson Joseph who appeared to be running to his bedroom that is when she found Jeff's lifeless body police swiftly responded to the scene discovering Jeff Hall sprawled on the sofa drenched in Blood and unresponsive a gunshot wound behind his ear hinted at a calculated act by the As salant and sadly he was declared dead on sight the state of the residence was absolutely deplorable with scattered clothes and a pervasive stench of urine permeating the air amid this Grim setting Christa and her four daughters were evacuated from the premises ensuring their safety however Jeff's son the alleged perpetrator was conspicuously absent from the group a brief search of the property led to his Discovery he was found hiding beneath the covers of his bed and after uncovering a revolver which was found under his toys under the bed investigators established a direct correlation between him and the firearm the 10 year-old boy was promptly arrested before being escorted into the back of a police car by his side was officer Michael Foster who was designated to help juveniles while on his way down to the police station Joseph clearly seemed agitated and not long after arriving he would eventually confess to the crime but this confession took a rather un usual turn when his statements added a layer of complexity to the story it became quite clear that Joseph did not fully understand his actions this is supported by Officer Michael's statement which said he was quite sad about it he wish he hadn't done it he asked me things like do people get more than one life things like that following this Joseph was transported to juvenile hall where he would remain in custody until his trial meanwhile his four siblings would be placed under a protective custody fortunately Joseph's grandmother would intervene once again to ensure that they were spared from entering foster care with Jeff dead Christ MCC was charged with the criminal storage of firearms as we know both of them loved to collect Weaponry most of which were within easy reach of Joseph and the sisters it was soon discovered that Jeff liked to keep a loaded revolver in a cupboard next to his bed three of the five children knew about this firearm and furthermore it was the one used to murder him when Joseph entered juvenile hall he was both the youngest and the smallest one there in fact he was so small and young compared to the rest they didn't have any shoes in his size after going out to buy him shoes that fit Joseph thanked the staff and then even asked them if he could take the shoes back home with him when he left this further highlighting that he had no understanding of the situation the boy remained largely emotionless in his initial interviews only responding when being spoken to he also responded to way leing his Miranda rights which of course is the following you have the right to remain silent anything you say may be used against you in court you have the right to talk to a lawyer and have your attorney present with you while you are being questioned and if you cannot afford to hire a lawyer one will be appointed to represent you the great thing about Miranda rights is that they allow you to remain silent until you have a qualified lawyer and attorney the problem is that officers asked these questions to a young boy who clearly did not not understand what they were talking about in short these officers were inviting him to speak without a lawyer present this is wild because how is a 10-year-old boy with learning difficulties supposed to even know what his Miranda rights are in addition to this they even allowed him to talk about the incident for two whole minutes before he was even offered them even stranger is that due to his age his stepmother was in the room while the interrogation took place and despite being a supposedly fully grown adult she was just as bloody clueless all of this came as a significant detriment to Joseph children at this age rarely understand the implications or Consequences of their actions and as we already know he was unfortunately on the slower side of his age group too throughout the interrogation process he told the officers exactly what they wanted to hear Joseph confessed that he was angry and frightened after his father threatened to hurt his family and that furthermore he thought that something had to be done he also said that he didn't know any other way out of the situation which scared him according to the boy he had recently watched a TV show called Criminal Minds where he watched an abused boy of his age shoot his father in the face and get away without any consequences and after watching this episode he thought that maybe nothing would happen to him if he did the same and so on the night his father was passed out on the sofa he crept to his parents bedroom silently grabbed the revolver from his cupboard and shot his father in the side of the head Joseph would later say I just thought that maybe he might learn a lesson I was trying to make him feel how I feel when I get hurt then maybe we could go back to being friends and all start over addressing Christa he Then followed up by saying I think I'm going to miss dad Kinder if he's dead so the question is did Joseph really understand right from wrong in this situation did he know that his actions would kill his father and that he could face legal consequences or was more at play here well yes Joseph did know what he was doing as wrong we know this because he was influenced by the True Crime show he also made a rather naive attempt to hide himself and the gun after the crime further indicating that he knew what he was doing was wrong and this attack was apparently premeditate itated too because 4 days before the murder he told his sister that he wanted to kill his father so all the pain would stop but of course Joseph's very own confession was more compelling for investigators and so at the very young age of 10 years old he was officially charged for his father's murder and if convicted he would face a sentence at the Juvenile Correctional Facility potentially being held there until the age of 25 once again moving to the legal proceedings of this case Joseph's trial commenced in 2013 when he was just 12 years old his defense team opted for an inany plea during the trial citing factors such as his tumultuous upbringing ADHD diagnosis low intelligence and behavioral issues as contributing elements Joseph's grandmother candidly expressed that the boy had always been problematic and prone to violence she emphasized the dangerous combination of these traits with his exposure to Violent ideologies and Firearms again portraying a volatile situation that was merely waiting to unfold contrary to this narrative in his own opening statement prosecutor Michael sakio asserted that the motive for the murder was not rooted in Jeff's ideologies he further clarified that Joseph did not kill his father because of the latter's affiliation with Nazi beles instead he contended that Joseph's actions were driven by a desire to protect his mother and and sisters from potential abuse he further said that Joseph would have shot his father even if he was a member of the Peace and Freedom Party now at times our ideologies can Cloud our perception of undeniable facts and in Joseph's case he is unequivocally a murderer and while some may hail him as a hero for eliminating a white supremacist the true motive behind the Act was not rooted in an anti-s supremacist stance described as a sympathetic killer Joseph's case elicited under understanding and even pity from many this included the judge Michael sakio who had never prided over a child especially for a murder charge during his trial Joseph remained remarkably still and Silent likely following instructions the first emotional hint of him grasping the gravity of his actions would surface when the 911 call from his stepmother was played in the courtroom prompting a visible change in his demeanor as he dropped his shoulders and looked down solemnly Joseph confession attitude and admission of guilt along with his acknowledgment of right from wrong during interrogations played a pivotal role in determining his final sentence in the year 2013 and at the age of 13 Joseph received a sentence to a juvenile detention center until he turns 23 that being just 2 years shy of the maximum possible sentence now Jeff Hall's terrible character evident not only in his beliefs but also in his treatment of his family might lend some sort of understanding to Joseph's actions the 10-year-old boy who was arguably feeble-minded and mentally ill was provided with both motive and means to inflict harm ironically turning them against the very person who taught him these things while Joseph was only 10 years old at the time the deliberate Act of taking another person's life qualifies him as a murderer regardless of his age and for that there must be some sort of punishment behind his Behavior the question is if he had not been 10 at the time would he have still committed the ACT later well according to his grandmother and expressed in a 60 Minutes interview such a possibility is not farfetched and this raises further unsettling questions about the factors that shaped Joseph's disturbing path in this interview she said I wasn't surprised by it I just somehow felt that it could always happen but I would have thought that it would have been when he was older now technically Joseph should be a free man today but with no news of his release there are only two possible options either one he is still behind bars or two he has already been released but with a new identity we can only hope that Juvenile Detention has served this man well and if there are any updates in the future I will be sure to let you know now this story has quite a hard question behind it do you think that Joseph Hall received the correct sentence many believe that Joseph was mely acting out as a victim against the abuse that his father set upon him and that he was too young naive and unintelligent to understand what he was doing but on the other hand he did murder another person and many believe that he should face legal consequence it's a hard one to wrap your head around really many believe that if you kill somebody while defending yourself you should not face legal consequence and although Joseph was not an immediate danger at the time of killing his father it was very clear that he did pose a risk to his safety anyway folks I'll leave you to come to your own conclusion so as always please let me know what you think in the comments down below and yeah I think that pretty much ends our case today folks thank you so much for watching today I really do appreciate you being here if you'd like to support me in my channel then please check out my patreon it really does help me out alternatively you can buy my coffee classified at classified cofco co.com and another option if you'd like to get involved with the coffee house crime Community then please check out my social media most notably my Instagram we have so many cool things coming up anyway folks that is it today thank you again for watching and as always I'll see you again very soon for another video Until That moment arrives though remember to look after yourself look after each other and of course stay safe thank you and goodbye

Channel: Coffeehouse Crime

Views: 500,482

Keywords: coffeehouse crime, true crime, coffee house crime, crime, joshua hall, joseph

Id: hfgojgbPGw0

Length: 26min 51sec (1611 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 18 2024