Bio 

Erick Virgil Hall was born on March 10, 1971. During later sentencing proceedings, Hall’s defense presented evidence that he had experienced childhood abuse, family instability, mental health problems, and drug addiction. The defense used this background as mitigation while asking jurors to spare his life. The jury still found that the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating evidence.

By the early 2000s, Hall was living as a transient in the Boise, Idaho area. He became linked to two separate sexual assaults and murders through DNA evidence.

Murder Story

On September 24, 2000, Lynn Henneman, a 38-year-old flight attendant from New York, was in Boise during a layover. She went for a walk along the Boise Greenbelt near the Boise River and failed to return. Her disappearance led to a search, and her body was later found. Prosecutors said Hall attacked her, raped her, and strangled her with her sweater.

DNA evidence connected Hall to Henneman’s rape and murder. He was tried and convicted of first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, and rape. In 2004, an Ada County jury sentenced him to death for Henneman’s murder. The Idaho Supreme Court later affirmed his conviction and death sentence.

Hall was also charged in the death of Cheryl Ann Hanlon, a 42-year-old Boise woman whose body was found in the Boise foothills on March 1, 2003. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled with her own belt. DNA evidence also linked Hall to her murder.

In October 2007, Hall was convicted of first-degree murder and rape in Hanlon’s death. The jury recommended a second death sentence. In January 2008, he also received a fixed life sentence without parole for the rape conviction.

Hall became the first Idaho inmate sentenced to death for two unrelated murders. He remained on Idaho’s death row for more than 20 years while his appeals continued. In 2018, the Idaho Supreme Court rejected one of his appeals and affirmed the judgment in the Henneman case.

On February 9, 2026, Erick Virgil Hall died of natural causes while in custody at a Boise hospital. He was 54 years old. Because he died before execution, his current legal status is deceased rather than executed.