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American Morning

Heated Debate in Washington Over Immigration Reform; Search for Milwaukee Boys Upgraded to Criminal Investigation; Apology But No Explanation from Murdered Preacher's Wife

Aired March 27, 2006 - 07:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Protesters not ready to stop the battle over immigration. Now they want to turn their attention to Washington, D.C. and the Senate debate. We'll talk about that.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The search for a pair of Milwaukee boys missing for over a week continues. Police now say it is a criminal investigation. We're live with the latest on that.

S. O'BRIEN: An apology but no explanation from the wife of a murdered preacher. We're live there as we await her first court appearance today.

M. O'BRIEN: She's a provocative singer; they call her the Muslim Madonna. But her success has come with a very frightening cost. Her story on this "AMERICAN MORNING."

We begin in Washington, where today there will be more heated debate about immigration law. This morning a Senate committee will take up immigration reform, an issue affecting just about everyone. Just look at the number of people rallying Saturday in L.A., crowd estimated at half a million in protest to the House bill, which would make it a felony to be in the United States illegally. Another demonstration is expected in Washington today.

CNN White House correspondent Ed Henry joining us live now with more on this. Ed, how will the president be addressing this issue today?

ED HENRY, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well good morning Miles.

With this issue splitting the Republican Party, the president is desperately trying to get fellow Republicans in the Senate to moderate that controversial House bill that you mentioned. He'll kick off this lobbying effort about three hours from now here in Washington at a naturalization ceremony welcoming in new citizens to the United States.

The message from the president, two fellow Republicans is clear that while we should also be celebrating those who play by the rules, there needs to be a way for the government to find a humane way to deal with the nearly 12 million illegal immigrants already here. But the divide within the Republican party was on full display yesterday on the Sunday talk shows. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. ARLEN SPECTER, (R) JUDICIARY COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: If we do not have some realistic proposal to give them an opportunity to work lawfully and ultimately to obtain citizenship, then they're going to be fugitives and we need to know who they are and where they are.

REP. TOM TANCREDO, (R) COLORADO: It's a slap in the face to every single person who has done it the right way and to everybody who's waiting out there to do it the right way. It's bad policy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Now, the president's goal is to bridge those two camps, find a way to tighten the borders as Tom Tancredo wants, but also come up with a guest worker program as Senator Specter wants, easier said than done, a very emotional issue Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: You know, listening to that debate Ed, it doesn't sound like there's a lot of middle ground there. The president is trying to find it. Does it exist?

HENRY: It may not, frankly and also add to that the fact that you have a lame duck president coming so soon after dealing with the Dubai ports deal that split the Republican party as well. The president did not come out on the winning side there. If he does not find a way to bridge these two camps, you're going to see more and more people wondering about his political capital shrinking more and more Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. They're starting to act like democrats a little bit, sniping at each other. All right, Ed Henry, at The White House. Thank you.

President Bush's remarks on immigration reform scheduled for 10:00 eastern this morning. CNN, of course, will bring it to you live right after this program. Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: A suicide bombing in northern Iraq to tell you about this morning. It happened less than four hours ago at a recruitment center for security forces. At least 20 people are dead.

CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson in Baghdad this morning.

Nic, good morning.

NIC ROBERTSON, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Soledad. The attack took place in the northwest of Iraq between the towns of Tal Afar and Mosul. At 11:15 this morning a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest approached a line of army recruits outside of a military base. We understand now this was an Iraqi base, although there were some U.S. military soldiers present on the base. The suicide bomber detonated his explosives killing at least 20 people in the line. It's not clear how many people were injured in this attack. Although we do know now from U.S. military officials here that there were no U.S. casualties involved. Soledad? S. O'BRIEN: Nic, let me ask you a question about something that the Baghdad governor has requested, suspending cooperation with U.S. forces, what's he talking about?

ROBERTSON: Not only the Baghdad governor but also we're hearing this is now the Baghdad City Council both say that they will suspend cooperation with U.S. forces here until there is an investigation into the incident that happened at a mosque yesterday where 16 people were killed. Now, this incident we're told by U.S. military officials here was an Iraqi Special Forces operation that was backed up, supported by U.S. special operations force advisers.

A gun battle had ensued, 16 people were killed and now the city council and the governor in Baghdad say that's it until there is an investigation, no more cooperation with the U.S. military here. Soledad?

S. O'BRIEN: Nic Robertson for us this morning out of Baghdad. Nic, thank you.

Miles?

M. O'BRIEN: More on that shocking murder of a preacher in Tennessee to tell you about this morning. Later today, Mary Winkler will be back in court. She is the woman accused of killing her preacher husband with a shotgun blast to the back.

Rusty Dornin live now from Selmer, Tennessee, about 90 miles east of Memphis.

Rusty, big question we all have this morning is why? Do we know anything about a motive yet?

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the police know what the motive is and presumably her defense knows what the motive is but they are keeping it very close to the vest. The police have said what it's not and that's infidelity, but they won't comment on whether domestic abuse was involved.

Now, her attorney did tell us he had met with her over the weekend. He says he's just formulating her defense but he says that all was not as it seemed with the Winkler family, that the public persona was very different from what went on behind closed doors but, of course, he would not elaborate on that.

We've heard they were a very loving couple. He was very charismatic, very charming. We did have a neighbor tell us that she had an incident where Matthew Winkler apparently frightened her children by telling her that he was going to shoot their dog if they kept letting the dog out to play in his yard. He was very angry. He seemed very aggressive. She said she was very surprised that a minister would have that kind of demeanor. But that's about the only thing we've heard about Matthew Winkler that differs from him being a very charming, very wonderful minister.

Remember in this town, he's only been here for about a month. Also a colleague of Mary Winkler, Pam Killingsworth, did go to visit her in jail over the weekend. And she is a colleague, she is a teacher. Remember, Mary Winkler was a substitute teacher at the local school, she had only volunteered just once before this whole incident did happen.

But she said that Mary Winkler told her how sorry she was and wanted her to write a note to their congregation telling them how sorry she was about this whole thing. Now she will be appearing in court here about 1:30 local time. Her attorney says she will plead not guilty to the charges. Her husband's funeral will be on Tuesday and there is going to be a wake this afternoon at the local funeral home. Still, of course, this very tiny town reeling from shock about this whole incident.

Miles?

M. O'BRIEN: Rusty Dornin in Selmer, Tennessee, thank you very much. We will ask Mary Winkler's attorney if he can give us any more insights about all of this when we talk to him in just a little while. Soledad?

S. O'BRIEN: The search for two Milwaukee boys has become much more than just a search, it's now a criminal investigation. Police though won't say exactly why. 12-year-old Quadrevion Henning and 11- year-old Purvis Parker were last seen on March 19th. Vince Vitrano of our affiliate WTMJ live in Milwaukee this morning.

Vince, good morning.

VINCE VITRANO, WTMJ REPORTER: Good morning Soledad. You know you really get the sense that Milwaukee police are baffled themselves that a week into this investigation, they don't have more information. It's not for lack of trying. They have set up this command post where we're here live. They have been manning this post almost 24 hours a day. A couple of blocks away from where the boys live and from where they were last seen just last week, Sunday, playing basketball in the middle of the afternoon. As you mentioned, police over the weekend revealed to us that they now consider this a criminal investigation but they don't really have any hard evidence that leads them to that conclusion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNE SCHWARTZ, MILWAUKEE POLICE SPOKESWOMAN: We still have no evidence that a crime has been committed. I know the questions you want to ask. Most of them, I'm not at liberty to answer. We want the public, however, to be rest assured that the task force is working around the clock and is aggressively pursuing all leads and we now have hundreds of people who are working this case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VITRANO: Perhaps what troubles police and particularly the families of these two boys the most is that police on a daily basis continue to tell us they think someone out in the community here has more information, knows what happened to these boys, and, so far, has not come forward to do the right thing. They continue to hope. Soledad?

S. O'BRIEN: Well that is a horrifying thought. Reporter Vince Vitrano of our affiliate WTMJ, Vince thank you.

In a few minutes we're going to be talking with Quadrevion's father and his grandfather as well. Miles?

M. O'BRIEN: Six dead, two wounded and the suspected shooter described by his landlord as a teddy bear. It happened in Seattle. The victim had been at a rave party when the man who had been at the party earlier returned and began his killing rampage Saturday. Police say the suspected gunman then killed himself. Police identified the suspected shooter as Aaron Kyle Huff. In our next hour, we will talk with the deputy chief of the Seattle Police Department to try to get a few more answers for you on that one.

Another shooting spree, this one in Elk Grove, California. Police say Aaron Norman Dunn used a shotgun to kill one man and wound four others. That, too, on Saturday night. He was shot by a Sacramento County deputy. He's in critical condition this morning. Soledad?

S. O'BRIEN: Ten minutes past the hour. Let's get a check on the forecast again from Chad Myers, he's at the CNN Center, Chad you took a couple of days off and I can't get your name out anymore. What is that about? Good morning.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Went down to Orlando, it was beautiful down there.

S. O'BRIEN: You did, was it? Well good for you, how is the baby?

MYERS: The baby is great. He loved Animal Kingdom, we saw the thing. But on the best part when you go on the little safari tour, he fell asleep, didn't see anything. Anyway that's typical.

S. O'BRIEN: That's how they are, them kids.

MYERS: Then we went to a little 2 dollar petting zoo and he had just as good of a time, so, you know, it is what it is.

40 degrees in New York City, 38 in D.C. and 37 in Atlanta. Temperatures today are going to be warm across the east coast. Maybe not where the average should be, about five degrees cooler than average, but the sun will make it feel good everywhere and there is not a lot of wind out there. Here you go with the rain showers all the way from St. Louis down to Dallas seeing rain there today. The storm does move to the east a little bit, charging to the east a little bit tomorrow. There could be some severe weather though for the day on Thursday. After the storm comes into San Francisco tomorrow, moves through with some rain possible for Phoenix again. But then a severe weather day right through the plains, Thursday, maybe even into Friday. We'll get to that and I'll tell you why this is now turning into a spring type pattern even though your temperatures are still in the 50s. That's not bad. Soledad? S. O'BRIEN: All right, we'll take it. Chad, thank you. Did you watch the game yesterday?

MYERS: Oh of course.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh my gosh, that was so much fun.

M. O'BRIEN: Amazing.

S. O'BRIEN: And you know I don't watch a lot of college ball, but boy.

M. O'BRIEN: You were into it?

S. O'BRIEN: Yeah. We were standing up in front of the TV. George Mason, the little school that could. Come on, now. Continued its historic run right through the NCAA men's basketball tournament beating top-seeded Connecticut on Sunday in overtime, 86-64.

M. O'BRIEN: What is it about those -- that Cinderella fact? It sort of makes the sum total becomes much greater than the parts in these things.

S. O'BRIEN: I said 86-64, I meant 86-84, obviously, hence the reason they had to go into overtime because it was close. 86-64, not so close!

M. O'BRIEN: A little math, you know whatever, they won, they won!

S. O'BRIEN: They won. It's the first time in 20 years. I think they were 11th seed right, but they have advanced. They're killing everybody. I thought my husband was going to fall over while he watching the game.

M. O'BRIEN: He's a big George Mason fan, ah?

S. O'BRIEN: He was carrying the boys like they were watching the game!

M. O'BRIEN: They were loving that, of course.

S. O'BRIEN: We're rooting for these guys, kids! Florida also knocked off a number one seed as well, Villanova, 75-62. (inaudible) take it to Indianapolis, so all four number one seeds have been eliminated. Florida, George Mason.

M. O'BRIEN: That's the best part about the tournament.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, anything can happen.

M. O'BRIEN: Anything can happen. It's nice to see UCLA back in but it's great to see a team like George Mason. This is not a basketball powerhouse there.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes I know, it's neat. Florida and George Mason are going to meet in one of the national semifinal games on Saturday. LSU plays UCLA in the other game and the winners of course going to play for the national championship, that's one week from tonight in Indianapolis. Kind of exciting.

M. O'BRIEN: Coming up on the program, a Canadian hostage freed last week finally heads home. We'll hear, in his own words, what that 118-day ordeal was like.

S. O'BRIEN: And much more to tell you about. Those boys missing in Milwaukee, the case is now a criminal investigation. We'll talk to family members and see how they are holding up.

M. O'BRIEN: Plus this, police say Mary Winkler confessed to killing her preacher husband. What will her defense be? We'll talk to her lawyer next on "AMERICAN MORNING."

The woman accused of killing her preacher husband in Tennessee said she is sorry and later today we are told she will plead not guilty to a murder charge. Mary Winkler was returned to Selmer, Tennessee from Alabama and the question we all have this morning, is what went on behind closed doors in the couple's household. As a couple that, to all appearances, seemed content. Her lawyer is Steve Farese, he joins us now. Mr. Farese, good to have you with us.

STEVE FARESE, ATTORNEY FOR MARY WINKLER: Thank you, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: First of all, as far as the confession goes, what do we know about that? What specifically has she confessed to?

FARESE: We don't know anything about it. All we know are the authorities have publicized that she has given a confession. I assume that occurred in Alabama upon her arrest. But we haven't seen the content of that confession and we, as a defense team, will not be allowed to see it until after the discovery process.

M. O'BRIEN: Okay. What sorts of conversations have you had with her?

FARESE: Well, I've had the introduction conversation, trying to gain her trust, trying to gain her faith and let her know that there is someone on the outside that's representing her interests.

M. O'BRIEN: Did you get any sort of inkling as to what a motive might have been?

FARESE: Well, when you say "motive," you're inferring that perhaps she did something illegal. Right now I'm --

M. O'BRIEN: But there is reports of a confession. Are you saying that you dispute that?

FARESE: Well, I'm not disputing there was a confession. I'm just saying until I see the confession, I'm not willing to admit anything.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Well give us a sense. I mean, did she say were there problems at home that most people were unaware of?

FARESE: Well, Miles, as you know, anything she says to me is confidential. I'm ethically and professionally bound not to elicit and then give out that type of information.

M. O'BRIEN: Okay. What can you tell us then, if anything, about what sort of defense you'll put forth?

FARESE: Well, until we know more, we really can't say and will not declare. However, what I can tell you is that she is a very quiet, demure young lady who seems very confused. When I first saw her Saturday night, she was in a state of semi-shock. Obviously, did not know the gravity of what was going on. And, yesterday, when I visited to her, she's getting a little better and is acclimating herself to being in prison. Concerned about her children and concerned about her husband's family.

M. O'BRIEN: And all that would be expected. Let me ask you this. She has a young child, three young children, one of them is 1- year-old. Do you know just out of curiosity if she had any sort of postpartum depression in the wake of giving birth to the youngest child?

FARESE: Well, certainly, you know, postpartum depression is a catch phrase that defense attorneys and certainly I've questioned her about that, but, again, I can't give out the answers to those questions.

M. O'BRIEN: Okay. Well, we had a report just a few moments ago from Rusty Dornin, who has been -- I believe you've talked to her, she's on the scene and she talked to some people, a neighbor who reported a kind of an odd incident involving her husband. Wherein, he was upset about a dog and threatened to shoot a dog. Have you heard any reports that would sort of belie the typical sense of a preacher in a small town and what we would think about that preacher?

FARESE: Well, we're all human beings and whether you're a preacher or a ditch digger, everyone has problems and every marriage and every relationship has problems, so I have not heard that story, but it would not surprise me and I don't think that that would make me lean one way or the other as far as how I felt about Mr. Winkler.

M. O'BRIEN: Is there a lot more to this story than we're telling right now, there's got to be, right?

FARESE: There's always a lot more to the book than just the cover.

M. O'BRIEN: Steve Farese, attorney for Mary Winkler, thank you for your time.

FARESE: Thank you, sir.

M. O'BRIEN: About an hour from now we'll talk to the woman who visited Mary Winkler in jail, we'll ask her what she had to say. Soledad? S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, in "Minding Your Business" we're going to tell you why it's starting to get a lot more painful at the gas pump. Then later, a singer British tabloids call the Muslim Madonna whose life could be in danger all because of her music. We'll explain just ahead on this "AMERICAN MORNING."

Oh, some bad news. You want to plan on spending more, lots more actually for gas. Carrie Lee is "Minding Your Business" this morning, good morning.

CARRIE LEE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning Soledad. Quite a jump in gas prices over the past two weeks. Up about 15 cents on average. Taking a look at all of the blends. The national average, $2.52 a gallon. And this is about 40 cents higher than gas prices were a year ago. Now, of course, gas prices are a result of higher oil prices. We saw that a few months, and even a few weeks ago. We were above 64 bucks a barrel for oil. But here is a look at where we stand on gas right now.

S. O'BRIEN: That's a massive jump from two weeks ago.

LEE: It really is, it really is. Now, the good news, oil today at least coming down a little bit. We've had a little bit of a better feeling about the Nigerian situation, what's happening there. They've released some hostages, but still, nagging issues over Iran, fear about the nuclear weapons program, and then of course, in a few weeks, in a few months, we're going to have the warmer weather driving season pick up. So a lot of it is simply a result of supply and demand as well.

S. O'BRIEN: So you're predicting that that high number is going to stay high or go higher?

LEE: Yes it could potentially. Taking a look at the cheapest and most expensive areas of the country, Salt Lake City, Utah the lowest at $2.25 a gallon. The highest, we see this always in Hawaii, Honolulu, $2.80 a gallon. We'll see if Andy Serwer can comment on that since he's coming back from the Hawaiian islands.

S. O'BRIEN: For his rent-a-car, he's been, it's been raining and he is paying through the nose for gasoline. Poor Andy. He's having a really miserable vacation.

LEE: Right. And trying not to get stuck in any flooding or things like that.

S. O'BRIEN: Anything on the horizon that would lower that number? You mentioned the Nigeria issue, but that's so far from being resolved.

LEE: Exactly. It really depends on oil. I mean if oil prices start to come down significantly now then we could very well see gas subsiding as well. Talking about stocks, we are expecting a little bit of a higher open for the markets today, especially technology issues. The NASDAQ pretty flat last week -- I mean the Dow pretty flat last week so we'll see if we get some momentum in the opening hours.

S. O'BRIEN: Carrie thank you. Miles?

M. O'BRIEN: Thanks Soledad. Still to come, we'll talk to the family of one of those missing Milwaukee boys. And we'll ask them how they're holding up now that this has become a criminal investigation.

And later, the woman dubbed the Muslim Madonna. She is provocative and that may be why her life is in danger. We'll explain.

S. O'BRIEN: Get the latest e-mail every morning. Sign up for "AMERICAN MORNING" quick news at cnn.com/am. Still to come this morning, the families of two boys who are missing in Milwaukee starting another a week without a clue as to where those boys are. This morning we talk to the father and grandfather of one of the boys about what's now a criminal investigation. That's ahead, stay with us, you're watching "AMERICAN MORNING."

Welcome back everybody.

M. O'BRIEN: So you're having a baby maybe? Let's say hypothetically. And it comes time to buy the clothing, you know? And along with the onesies, there is the $500 dress.

S. O'BRIEN: Ah ah, the jacket.

M. O'BRIEN: Apparently there are people buying big bling for baby o.

S. O'BRIEN: The clothes are so cute, though, now!

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. Now you don't think Kelly Wallace is sort of --

S. O'BRIEN: It's so --

M. O'BRIEN: -- thinking about baby a little bit, maybe?

S. O'BRIEN: Kelly of course is on her way to any minute now of really having that baby.

M. O'BRIEN: Could be happening now for all we know.

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