ORLANDO, Fla. – Orlando police say they have received a confession from a man who they believe is responsible for a pair of deadly robberies from 1987.
Charlie James Hall, 55, was booked into the Orange County jail Monday.
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Investigators said in 1987, there was a string of 16 violent robberies targeting transient people around Orlando, two of which resulted in the victim’s death. Many of the attacks involved the victim being beaten with a blunt instrument, often rebar, records show.
Police questioned Hall about the attacks at the time. Records show Hall admitted to many of the attacks but denied involvement in the deadly beatings of Lawrence Stewart and Louie Holloway.
At the time of the initial investigation, detectives submitted blood evidence in an attempt to link Hall to the deaths, but methods in the 1980s were not sufficient, according to the affidavit for an arrest warrant.
Investigators said they are attempting to connect Hall to the attacks using modern DNA technology; however, while that evidence is still being processed, police said Hall confessed to the deadly attacks. They say Hall cried and was remorseful in his interviews with police.
“Let me just be clear what Det. Field said is he may be a changed man but Charlie Hall didn’t come down to the Orlando Police Dept. and turn himself in for these crimes,” said Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolón. “Charlie Hall got to live a relatively normal life, knowing that he murdered two people, and it was the efforts of our detectives and the work that they put into nailing him down as the suspect is what led to him being arrested.”
Hall faces two counts of first-degree murder.
This is the first cold case to be solved under OPD’s new cold case unit. Detectives say they had above 250 such cases to go through, and had reviewed 38 cold cases so far.