In the early morning hours of September 5, 2015, in a home on North Elmwood Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri, Jesse Hall, a 5-year-old boy's life was tragically cut short. The young boy, who was on the cusp of starting kindergarten, was with his mother, Lisa Marie Hall, and her boyfriend in a bedroom. The couple, who had been drinking, were engaged in a heated argument.
Initially, Hall and her boyfriend told police a fabricated story about an intruder.
They claimed a man she knew as "504" had entered the room and, in a struggle over his gun, the weapon discharged, striking the child in the head. Hall was reportedly highly emotional when police arrived and was taken to the hospital. However, inconsistencies in their stories and a witness account soon unraveled their initial claims. A witness who was also in the home told investigators that only Hall and her boyfriend were in the bedroom with the child and that they had been bickering before a "pop" was heard. The witness then saw Hall run down the hall with her son, screaming, "My baby, my baby!" The witness also reported hearing the boyfriend say, "It wasn't me. She pulled it on me."
Faced with the conflicting account, the boyfriend admitted to police that his initial statement was a lie. He detailed that during the argument, Hall pulled a handgun from her waistband and fired. The bullet struck her son, who had been standing next to the boyfriend, causing him to fall to the floor. The child was rushed to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. The boyfriend also informed the police that they had purchased the handgun just the day before the incident.
Following the investigation, Lisa Marie Hall, 23 years old at the time, was arrested. Prosecutors initially charged her with unlawful use of a firearm and endangering the welfare of a child. These charges were later upgraded to include a second-degree murder charge. Her bond, initially set at $150,000, was requested to be raised to $200,000 after the more severe charge was filed. The man identified as "504" was located by police and stated he had not been to the residence in about a week and was unaware of the shooting.
