John Hall III was a 68-year-old Baltimore, Maryland, man who kept to a small circle of friends. A recovering alcoholic who attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings to maintain his sobriety, he enjoyed occasional outings to local casinos. His life was marked by significant health challenges, including hepatitis and a debilitating case of gout that caused severe pain and made walking an ordeal. His daughter served as his primary caregiver. Because of his limited mobility, Mr.
Hall had a habit of leaving his apartment door unlocked during the day to avoid the painful process of getting up to answer it.
On the morning of May 28, 2021, residents in the apartment complex on the 3800 block of Clarks Lane where Mr. Hall lived alone began to notice water dripping from their ceilings. A maintenance worker was dispatched to investigate the source of the leak, which led him to Mr. Hall's third-floor unit. Getting no response, he entered the apartment around 10:15 a.m. and made a grim discovery. Mr. Hall was on the floor, covered with a blanket and unresponsive. Emergency responders were called and pronounced him deceased at the scene.
The initial investigation by Baltimore Police revealed a scene of extreme violence. An autopsy would later confirm that Mr. Hall had been the victim of a brutal attack, sustaining 17 blunt-force trauma injuries and a staggering 88 sharp-force stab wounds. Forensic analysis suggested the attack began while he was lying on his couch, likely watching television, and continued after he fell to the floor. The initial blunt force blows may have rendered him unable to cry out for help, as no one in the building reported hearing a struggle. There were no signs of forced entry. Detectives learned that Mr. Hall had won about $1,000 at a casino the night before he was killed, but no significant amount of money was found in his apartment.
Suspicion soon fell on a neighbor who lived in the same building, Reginald Lively. Investigators discovered that Mr. Hall had previously accused Lively of trying to steal from him. The case against Lively was built on a combination of video surveillance and forensic evidence. Security cameras captured Lively's movements on the morning of the murder, placing him in the hallway and using the elevator around the time detectives believed the killing occurred, between 6:32 a.m. and 6:41 a.m. One video clip showed Lively leaving the building carrying a plastic bag with a weighted object inside that appeared to be covered in a reddish substance.
Although the investigation initially languished, the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office Cold Case Unit took a fresh look at the evidence. They pursued additional DNA testing, which ultimately produced a match between Lively's DNA and a sample taken from the doorknob of Mr. Hall's front door. On June 11, 2021, police executed a search warrant on Lively's apartment and found clothing that matched what he was seen wearing in the surveillance footage. Lively was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.
The investigation revealed a chilling history. Reginald Lively was a serial killer who had been convicted of two previous murders. In 1986, he pleaded guilty to the 1983 second-degree murder of Eleanor Williams, who was bludgeoned and stabbed. He was sentenced to 20 years but was released after serving only eight. In 2000, he pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of Willy Mae Arrington in North Carolina and was sentenced to 30 years, but he was paroled after serving just 12.
In November 2025, a jury found Reginald Lively guilty of the first-degree murder of John Hall III and concealing a dangerous weapon. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. At the sentencing, the judge called the attack "excessive, more than reckless and rather gross and perverse." Baltimore City State's Attorney Ivan Bates described Lively as a "serial killer" and a "violent offender [who] should never have been allowed to walk free." After the verdict, a family member expressed relief, stating, "We got justice today that's what the main thing that we're happy as a family."
