Over killing of retired professor Cebuano faces death in Texas

CEBU, Philippines - A 22-year-old Cebuano is facing death penalty in the United States for allegedly killing a retired professor in Texas two years ago.

Gabriel Paul Hall, who was born in Cebu, has been accused of stabbing and shooting to death Edwin Shaar, 68, a retired oceanography professor at Texas A&M University in October 2011.

Hall then allegedly turned to Shaar’s wheelchair-bound wife, Linda, and slit her throat inside their College Station home. Linda survived.

Hall’s legal counsels are currently in Cebu City to get statements from his relatives and former teachers in a bid to save his life.

The defense team first visited Cebu City last year to track down witnesses who can give testimony on Hall’s character and childhood here.

   A news report from theeagle.com earlier said one of “Hall’s attorneys, Tony Odiorne, and a defense investigator will travel with Baker (first assistant Brian Baker) and Parsons (Brazos County District Attorney Jarvis Parsons) to Hall’s birth country to interview witnesses connected to Hall’s background.”

Based on the report, Hall was adopted in Cebu City when he was 11 years old by Wes and Karen Hall. He was in an orphanage, the Children’s Shelter of Cebu, for six years.

While in Cebu, the news report said that the prosecutors and attorneys are looking at possibly talking to 23 people and another 40 witnesses.

While in Cebu City last year, the legal team was assisted by members of the Filipino American Legal Defense and Education Fund (FALDEF), which is headed by lawyer J.T. Mallonga.

All interviews will be recorded and filmed and would follow the setting of a real courtroom where cross-examinations from both sides are possible.

The legal team reportedly came to Cebu “to avoid the costs of having to fly Filipino witnesses to town and arrange lodging.”

Court documents said that the defense attorneys are also planning to talk to Hall’s father, a convicted murderer, his mother, his two brothers, his paternal grandmother, two uncles and an aunt.

They also want to interview Hall’s former teachers and employees with the Children’s Shelter of Cebu, who knew him while he was still living in Cebu.

Hall reportedly remained silent during the hearings of his case. On July 2, he attended his third pre-trial hearing. — /LPM (FREEMAN)