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In the Jury's Hands; Gunman Dead, One Wounded in High School Shooting in Michigan; Two Winning Tickets Sold for $370 Million Jackpot

Aired March 07, 2007 - 14:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
Suspected kidnapper caught. A 13-year-old boy manages to escape. Now authorities have finally nabbed the man accused of dragging him away from a school bus stop. We expect a live news conference this hour.

Millions of dollars apparently unclaimed. A record-breaking lottery prize raises the $370 million question, who are the winners?

And pork projects. Did the government really need to spend $1 million for a telescope to find space aliens?

As we mentioned, that suspected kidnapper has been caught. We are waiting for that live news conference right here via our affiliate Bay News 9 out of Bradenton, Florida. He's accused of taking the 13- year-old Clay Moore from a school bus stop last month. Ransom was believed to be the motive. Now we are told that police have arrested Vicente Ignacio Beltram-Moreno.

We'll take that live as soon as they step to the mic.

Witnesses have had their say, so have the lawyers. Now it's up to the jury in the Florida trial of convicted child molester and alleged child killer John Couey.

CNN's Susan Candiotti is watching and waiting. She joins us now live from Miami.

Hi, Susan.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.

The jury has been out for about two and a half hours now, but before they started deliberating, they heard a methodic summary of the state's case. Prosecutor Pete Magrino reminding the jury that Jessica Lunsford went missing in February of 2005 and was missing for almost a month before police say Couey told them where to find the little girl. Of course, the jury didn't hear that part, because that was part of Couey's alleged confession, and it was not allowed during this trial.

And in a dramatic move, the prosecutor somewhat reenacted what Couey did. He took a garbage bag, he put Jessica Lunsford's toy dolphin in it, and then the prosecutor used a photograph of Jessica Lunsford and put it inside a plastic bag. He said that her fingers were poking through the holes and that the medical examiner says she did that while she was still alive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER MAGRINO, ASST. STATE ATTORNEY: This defendant is not just a killer. When you dig a hole, you bind a little girl's wrists with wire, you place her in two separate garbage bags and knot them, and then you put her in a hole and cover it up, here in Florida that's first-degree murder.

He's not just a killer given the testimony and evidence in this case. He's a first-degree murderer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: Now, while all this was going on, John Couey sat at the defense table. He was coloring. That's what he's been doing throughout jury selection and through the trial itself.

The defense's main argument has been that John Couey, they say, is mentally retarded, that he didn't really know what he was doing, didn't comprehend, and that after all, he wasn't necessarily the only one living in the trailer at the time, and that some other people might have also played a role.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No wounds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: So far, this is what has happened -- sorry about that.

Just to recap what's happening now, the jury has been deliberating. They did send out a note asking for individual copies of the judge's instructions to them, and for notepads and other things to work with.

So we wait for a verdict. We of course do not have any idea how long that might take. If he is found guilty, John Couey faces a possible death sentence. There would be a penalty phase, and the judge would make the ultimate decision on whether he would face life or death, if convicted.

Back to you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. We'll stay tuned.

Thanks so much, Susan.

Let's get straight back to Fredricka Whitfield. She's in the newsroom working more details on that school shooting in Michigan.

What do we know, Fred? FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Getting a little bit more information about what took place outside of Dow High School in Midland, Michigan.

Apparently, this is a gunshot -- a gun -- an exchange of gunfire between two students outside the high school, when apparently a 17- year-old who attends a different high school called his girlfriend at home to meet him after he was refused entry at her high school there, Dow High School. Her mother actually drove her to the school where then this young man, 17 years old, met up with the other 17-year-old girl, pulled out a gun, allegedly, from his backpack and then opened fire, shooting her four times. The 17-year-old girl has been taken to the hospital, and then apparently this young boy, the alleged gunman, then turned the gun on himself, where he died of gunshot wounds.

It's unclear what may have transpired right before that, if there were any words exchanged. But apparently the mother of this young girl was witness to it all, and of course we're trying to continue to work details on this shooting, this tragic shooting to take place outside of that high school, where it was on lockdown for quite a bit of time. Apparently, the kids are still in school and able to continue on with the school day, but this tragedy taking place just outside. It's an active crime scene there outside of Dow High School right now in Midland, Michigan -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Thanks, Fred.

We're also all over a developing story from central Florida. We'll take you live back to where we're waiting for another news conference. Police say they have arrested Vicente Ignacio Beltran- Moreno. He's accused of taking 13-year-old Clay Moore from a school bus stop last month, tying him to a tree in the woods.

Police think the motive was ransom. We're going to hear from them in just a little bit.

President Bush says that he's sad about Lewis Libby. As you know, Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff was convicted yesterday of lying, perjury and obstruction of justice in the CIA leak case. Mr. Bush reacted in an interview today with our sister network, CNN en Espanol.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This was a lengthy trial on a serious matter, and a jury of his peers convicted him. And we have got to respect that conviction.

Secondly, this is an ongoing legal matter. In other words, there's more legal procedures to take place. And at this time it's inappropriate for me or the administration to be issuing comments about this serious matter.

On a personal note, I was sad. I was sad for a man who had worked in my administration and particularly sad for his family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: The president also talked about the Walter Reed hospital scandal. He's appointing a commission to investigate reports that wounded warriors from Iraq and Afghanistan are getting substandard care.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: I say anything other than excellent care is unacceptable. And, you know, I've been to Walter Reed a lot. There's some fantastic doctors and nurses and healers, and yet we found that there was some substandard care in part of that organization, and we're goods to correct it. And I put the commission together, a series of commissions, to make sure that there -- that we fully understand the truth, fully elevate the problems so we can solve them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Those remarks came in an interview with Juan Carlos Lopez of CNN en Espanol. Juan Carlos will be traveling with the president tomorrow when Mr. Bush sets out on a six-day tour of Latin America. He brings us live reports throughout that trip.

Somewhere in Georgia or a neighboring state, and New Jersey, or a neighboring state, two people are walking around today with very big smiles. That is if they actually know that they'll soon have very big bank accounts. They're yet to come forward, but they're holding the winning tickets for a huge Mega Millions lottery jackpot. One winner was sold in Dalton, Georgia -- or one winning ticket, rather, was sold in Dalton, Georgia, another in Woodbine, New jersey.

Our Rusty Dornin joins me now just up Interstate 75 here in Georgia. She's in Dalton.

Rusty, any word?

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No word yet. I just talked to the Georgia Lottery officials, and they said no one has stepped forward yet who bought the ticket here at the Favorite Market (ph) number 41. It's become quite a media encampment. We often outnumber the customers that are coming in.

It sort of died down. There was a lot of excitement early this morning, people coming in, and there are still people coming in with tickets in hand, just in case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANDA ARDEN, STORE EMPLOYEE: I've checked several tickets this morning. A lot of people still want to know, is this the winning ticket, though?

DORNIN: A lot of disappointed people so far.

ARDEN: A lot of disappointed people, especially when they bought their ticket here and they know it was sold here. (END VIDEO CLIP)

DORNIN: Now, most of the clientele at this market is -- work at the local carpet mills. That's what Dalton, Georgia, is known for, is making carpets. Sort of the carpet capital of the United States.

And it turns out the story will get $25,000. And I know in New Jersey it was $10,000. But here they'll get $25,000. And I spoke to the vice president of the corporation here, because there are several of these Favorite Markets (ph), 107 of them to be exact, but they're going to give the money also to the employees. And that $25,000, half of it apparently go to the manager, and six other employees will share the rest.

But, of course everyone is just waiting for the big winner to hopefully show up here -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. As soon as that happens -- hopefully it will happen soon -- we'll come right back to you.

Rusty Dornin, thanks so much.

Now let's head to another lucky location. CNN Senior Correspondent Allan Chernoff is in Woodbine, New Jersey, at a pretty popular liquor store there with a lot of good wine.

Hey, Allan.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.

You know, the rumor mill is starting to turn in the Bull & Bear Tavern. Right next door, they are speculating who the big winner just might be. The latest talk in the tavern is that maybe it's somebody who works in one of the area schools.

We don't want to give a name just yet. It's probably not even right. But that's an example of the speculation that's going on around here.

A lot of excitement, of course. The person who did win here in New Jersey would be entitled to $185 million after tax. If taken on an annual basis, it comes out to $5.3 million.

So certainly somebody in this area very happy, and the speculation is -- and this is better than speculation -- the idea is that it's probably somebody from the region, because this time of year, you don't get all that many travelers coming through. In the summertime, there are a ton of people from all over. We're right near the Jersey shore, we're not far from Atlantic City, but this time of year it's predominantly locals who are around here and coming into the liquor store -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: OK. Allan Chernoff, keep us posted as those rumors fly.

He'll be checking out the tavern. And even if you didn't win the jackpot, lots of smaller prices are up for grabs. Here are the winning numbers once again: 16, 22, 29, 39 and 42. The Mega Ball is 20.

Well, we're just getting word into CNN here -- this is a statement coming in from NASA. You may remember this woman, Lisa Nowak. She is a U.S. Navy captain and NASA astronaut.

We are being told that she has been terminated. This is effective today by mutual agreement between NASA and the U.S. Navy.

You may remember Ms. Nowak was a allegedly on a trip to kill another woman involved in a love triangle with another astronaut. Nowak, we're being told, will receive her next assignment from the U.S. Navy. So it looks like she'll be terminated as an astronaut, but the U.S. Navy is going to reassign her in some way.

We will try and work details on that and bring you more information about the future of Lisa Nowak.

All right. And now we want to take you live via our affiliate Bay News 9 in Bradenton, Florida. This is where we're expecting to hear some good news from the sheriff. Vicente Ignacio Beltran-Moreno, the man they were looking for, the man they believed of kidnapping 13- year-old Clay Moore from a school bust last month, apparently police got him.

Let's listen.

SHERIFF CHARLES WELLS, MANATEE COUNTY, FLORIDA: Clay Moore was abducted at gunpoint and taken out in East County from a bus stop. Fortunately, Clay escaped and we were able to take his description of a suspect and draw a composite, which turned out to be just a great composite. Showed that to witnesses out in East County, and as a result, Saturday night, early Sunday morning, we were able to get a search warrant for a particular residence here in Manatee County and then get an arrest warrant for Vicente Ignacio Beltran-Moreno.

The -- we got word immediately that Moreno had fled. And we later learned he was in Mexico. And so our work really had just begun at that time. An awful lot of effort has gone into locating this individual and getting him back here.

Connie Shingledecker -- Major Connie Shingledecker, who has supervised this investigation from the very beginning, in a few minutes he will give you a timeline, bring you up to date on exactly what happened and how we were able to bring Moreno back. And he is in custody, in Texas, and has been arrested on the kidnapping charges.

We have a number of people here -- Karl Whitehead (ph) with the FBI, special agent in charge in Tampa; Jerry Garcia (ph), supervisor with the Ft. Myers office with the FBI; David Kubatier (ph), who is a special agent back in the back, also the press information officer; Dave Street (ph) with the FBI; Leo Martinez (ph) -- I wish he was here. He's with the FBI, and he's in Texas right now, but we'll be -- we'll be talking about him a lot here today. What a splendid job he and Dave Street (ph) did, and I just personally thank Karl Whitehead (ph) for allowing those two FBI agents to stay with us through the duration of this investigation. And because of them, we were able to accomplish what we have accomplished over the past several days.

Al Rivera (ph) is also here, a special agent with the FBI. We have Sue McCormack (ph) with ICE -- where are you, Sue? She's down at the end. And Vickie Ringstat (ph) with ICE.

They have cooperated as well.

And then Steve Kelle -- of course, Clay Moore's stepfather -- is here to give you some brief comments in a few minutes.

What happened, as Connie will describe to you is, I don't know, nothing less than a miracle, I suppose, because of just great communications with the suspect in this case, with our deputies, and with the FBI working closely with the suspect, actually making contact with him. They were able to negotiate his voluntary return to the United States. And as I stated, he's in custody right now.

I followed this investigation closely, was in on some of the conversations that we had with the suspect, and I could not have been impressed more with the work of these law enforcement officers.

I would like for Major Shingledecker to come forward and to kind of take you back in time, back to Friday, go through the days. And we'll tell you as much as we can about how we were able to convention Moreno to return -- Connie.

MAJOR CONNIE SHINGLEDECKER, MANATEE COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: Thank you, Sheriff.

And I would like to preface this by saying this is still considered an ongoing investigation. We still have things left to do in this case. So I hope that you will be kind and understand that if I cannot answer every single question that you have.

But I am going to start with Friday. I'm going to start with the fact that at 8:51 in the morning, we received event information and dispatched deputies to a kidnapping at Kingsville Lakes Estates, and an Amber Alert was initiated within roughly an hour of that, listing the suspect vehicle, the suspect description, and the victim's information.

At 1:25 or somewhere thereabouts, we learned and received word that Clay Moore had freed himself and made access -- gained access to his cell phone from a farm worker out there. And he had called his mother, and that he was in fact OK. And we are quickly en route to have -- take custody of him and get him checked out and so forth.

Saturday, on the 24th, although we worked late into the night and we certainly searched for the vehicle, we certainly searched for the suspect, we interviewed Clay at length on that particular day to get as many details. You can understand that the young man was quite traumatized, and so it took a day or two for more detailed information to start to come out that we could add to this description, including details of the inside of the vehicle and things along that line.

On the 24th, a group of us met out at Faulkner Farm (ph). And thanks to Sergeant Bill Riley (ph), and his range deputies, Mike Ferance (ph) and Rob Hendrickson (ph), we were able to interview some cooperating farm worker witnesses that are instrumental and key to the success of this case today.

Their information led to the suspect being identified as Vicente Ignacio Beltran-Moreno, with as address of 1026 30th Avenue East in Bradenton. That investigation continued into the night and into the early morning.

We also discovered that a red Ford pickup truck was registered to his Beltran-Moreno's girlfriend, Anna Perico Tonoso (ph). So with that information we were able to obtain a search warrant for the residence that they jointly lived in, in order to obtain the truck, because the truck was -- and we suspecting since there was a garage closed, that it might very well be in the garage, which we were capable at that time of obtaining the search warrant. And we did, in fact, get the vehicle.

The items that we were looking for in the vehicle were not there. So we were then able to get a search warrant, a second search warrant for that residence to search for the items belonging to the victim that were not in the vehicle. But, as I mentioned, once we found the vehicle inside the garage, we were able to, with the continuing interview of the young man and detailed information about the interior of that vehicle, identify that that vehicle was in fact the vehicle he had been in that day -- or the previous day.

So Sunday the 25th, now we're serving search warrants into the morning of Sunday the 25th, and we're also interviewing additional persons, and we were able to throughout ongoing investigative interviews that were going on early Sunday morning, we were able to determine that our suspect, Beltran-Moreno, had accessed a vehicle and fled to Mexico the afternoon of Friday the 23rd. So he had actually fled that afternoon of Friday the 23rd.

On Monday, the 26th, at around 10:00, a group of us met together, at which point I met with the FBI agent, Leo Martinez (ph), Dave Street (ph), who's here in the room today. Detective Rick McClean (ph) and Detective Dennis Valone (ph) were also together at the time, and we continued our investigation. And detective -- excuse me -- Special Agent Street (ph) began the youth app warrant process based upon the investigative information, some of which I've already told you about, and the fact that we were continuing to receive information that he had fled the state.

Ongoing investigative interviews later that day on Monday revealed that Beltran-Moreno was in fact in Mexico and would be at a telephone number later that evening. So we maintained our course into the evening, attempting to make contact with him.

We were not actually unsuccessful with a telephone contact with Beltran-Moreno until Tuesday morning, the 27th, at approximately 11:16 a.m. We then, through the assistance of Leo Martinez (ph) -- and I really can't say enough about just the ongoing assistance that he provided -- he spoke with Beltran-Moreno, who doesn't speak very good English, so they spoke in Spanish on the phone, and had a great deal of discussion.

We had already had been hearing from friends of -- and other members, people that were coming forward with information, calling in tips that Beltran-Moreno might be in fact willing to turn himself in. So at that time we had a discussion about that very topic, about him in fact turning himself in. We coordinated that every day we would speak with him and how we would go about coordinating that he would turn himself in at a border, port of entry, at some point, because what we determined was that he was staying in a -- if you can call it a state, it's like a state of Sinaloa, which is near the Pacific coast, not far from Los Mochis or Culucan (ph), Mexico.

And at that particular day on the 27th, the UFAP, the Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution, warrant was approved and in place. So we did have our UFAP in place, we were continuing conversations.

Actually, what we did was we arranged that every day we would communicate with Beltran-Moreno by telephone at a designated time, which we did. So, we would meet back together and we would do that.

On Wednesday the 28th at about 8:15, we notified the ICE border contacts to make sure that they had the proper paperwork should this gentleman turn himself in at that point in time. We weren't sure how he we were going to get him there, but if he should turn himself in, if they were going to be prepared to deal with the correct paperwork and being able to allow him entry and allowing us to take custody of him.

We also began to make plans to have Beltran-Moreno travel from that nearby town in Mexico to a border town in Mexico that would allow for himself -- for him to turn himself in.

On August the 1st -- excuse me, March the 1st, at roughly 3:11 in the afternoon, we spoke with Beltran-Moreno. Again, he was still on board with turning himself in, and we just continued our efforts of daily communication and making sure that we were working towards a location that was going to be accessible and so forth.

On Friday, March 2nd, at roughly 3:30 in the afternoon, we again spoke with Beltran-Moreno. We determined that he could fly, that he would be able to change planes if we needed him to, that he was familiar enough with that process, and that he had proper identification to fly within the country of Mexico.

We made his flight reservations later that evening for him to depart Los Mochis and to arrive in Ranoso (ph) roughly on March the 4th.

On Saturday, March the 3rd, we spoke with hem at 4:20 in the afternoon and gave him details about his flight, his departure date and time, and then we made reservations for the detectives, Rick McClean (ph), Dennis Valone (ph), and Special Agent Leo Martinez (ph), to -- we finalized their flight plans as well to coincide with meeting up with Beltran-Moreno.

On Sunday, March the 4th, at roughly 9:20 in the evening, Special Agent Leo Martinez (ph) made his phone contact for that day with Beltran-Moreno. Everything was still a go. Everything was still on. Everything was set.

And on Monday, March the 5th, Special Agent Martinez (ph), Detective McClean (ph), Detective Valone (ph) all flew from Tampa to Texas, to McAllen, Texas.

On March the 6th, phone contact was made with Beltran-Moreno. Everything was still a go.

And on Wednesday, today, at 11:00, I received a phone call from Detective Rick McClean (ph) that Beltran-Moreno was in custody at the FBI, at the Hidalgo County port of entry border, and that the extradition process is going to take place sometime later on today.

Sheriff Wells, if he hadn't told you already, he made phone contact with Traci Kelle (ph), and notified her that Beltran-Moreno was in custody. And he made contact at 11:11 with the father, Tim Moore, to make him aware of the fact that Beltran-Moreno was in fact in custody.

Now, because you might ask this question, I'll go ahead and try to head you off at the pass, so to speak.

We had a plan B. We had a plan B in place in case Beltran-Moreno did not turn himself in, in case something went awry, in case he had second thoughts. And that plan B was to get an extradition warrant from Mexico, the Mexican authorities to pick Beltran-Moreno up.

But I will tell you this...

PHILLIPS: It was a move that police described as MacGyver-like. A 13-year-old boy -- his name is Clay Moore -- was kidnapped by a man police now say they have in custody.

Clay Moore, this is the young man right here. He actually managed to escape using a safety pin after Vicente Ignacio Beltran- Moreno tied him up around a tree.

Police say they have this man in custody now. They believe the motive was ransom. We'll continue to follow the investigation.

Coming up, another critic of the Kremlin collides with foul play, begging the question, was it random or retaliation? What the victim's wife says next from the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Thirteen-year-old Clay Moore is being hailed as a hero. His stepfather is speaking now about that alleged -- or the abduction that happened. Now that suspect is in custody. Here's what his dad said a few minutes ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVE KELLE, CLAY MOORE'S STEPFATHER: My wife Tracy has talked to Clay. I can't speak for his emotions, but I can only imagine what he's feeling right now -- actually he's taking the FCAT, so he's probably not feeling too good.

But we'd like to really thank everybody that was involved, not only in the sheriff's department, the FBI, but also all those people that came forward and gave the information that has led us to this point. (INAUDIBLE) without their help, this wouldn't be here today. So we are really grateful for all those people that came forward and really helped out.

We're just overjoyed, and we're glad that we can get past this and kind of make this a closure to another chapter of Clay's life and our lives, and really that's about all I've got.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: That closed chapter is Vicente Ignacio Beltran-Moreno is in custody with authorities now after allegedly abducting Clay Moore at a school bus stop. The motive, police say they believe, is ransom. You may remember Clay was hailed a hero because of his manuever, MacGyver-like as police called it, where he actually broke himself free with a safety pin when he was tied around that tree.

Something else that's developing right now, we told you a few minutes ago, a little bit more information. She was once an astronaut, an astronaut no more. We're getting word from NASA that U.S. Navy captain Lisa Nowak and her detail as a NASA astronaut has been terminated, effective today. It was a mutual agreement between NASA and the U.S. Navy.

As you may remember, Nowak was caught up in an alleged love triangle where she apparently was planning on going after and killing the other woman involved. Nowak will receive her next assignment from the U.S. Navy. We'll update you on what that will be.

Another chopper down in Iraq. In a one-on-one with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, U.S. Army General William Caldwell said this crash involved civilian contractors, three are hurt.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEN. WILLIAM CALDWELL, U.S. ARMY: A couple hours ago, we did have an M.I.A. helicopter belonging to a private security firm that did go out, go down, and crashed out in the al Anbar Province and we have three people injured on that helicopter.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And what is the cause? We have preliminary word of the cause?

CALDWELL: Yes. We've talked to the pilot. And the pilot is saying that it was probably mechanical with a mixture of weather that caused him to crash.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Wolf will join us here in the NEWSROOM in just a bit. And of course, you can catch him every weekday on "THE SITUATION ROOM," four p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

More blood on the roads of Karbala. Shiite Muslims heading out of Baghdad were attacked by insurgents three different times today. At least 17 people, including police guarding that route were killed. This marks the third day of bombs and gunfire aimed at pilgrims. One hundred and sixty are dead, twice as many wounded.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Peter Pace are due to brief reporters today at the Pentagon. CNN will bring you live coverage at 4:00 p.m. Eastern, on "THE SIT ROOM" with Wolf Blitzer. Again, that's four Eastern, one Pacific, right here on CNN.

After more than a week of wild tradingon Wall Street, things may be calming down. Let's get the latest from Susan Lisovicz, the New York Stock Exchange.

Hey, Susan.

(BUSINESS HEADLINES)

PHILLIPS: Was America experiencing a brain drain with the stiff competition for our collge grads? Bill Gates offers his solution, but will Congress put out a bigger welcome for foreign workers? That's ahead, from the NEWSROOM.

Also, a jetliner overshoots a runway. All hell breaks loose. Disaster in Indonesia.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Gunned down in his driveway, an American with ties to the Kremlin is under sedation and incommunicado. Not so the man's wife. CNN's Jill Dougherty takes a look at why some believe the shooting was a Kremlin hit while others call it a random act of violence.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paul Joyal, an American expert on Russia, is a long-time critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin and a friend every Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian intelligence officer poisoned to death last November in London. When NBC interviewed Joyal in February about Litvinenko's death, he pointed the finger of blame straight at the Kremlin.

PAUL JOYAL, AMERICAN EXPERT ON RUSSIA: The benefit from their standpoint is we are letting everyone know that we will inflict a horrible death, a public, horrible death on those that speak out against us. DOUGHERTY: Last week, Joyal himself was shot outside his house in suburban Washington D.C. He survived, but is sedated and cannot talk with police. It happened just a few hours after he had drinks with Oleg Kalugin, former senior KGB officer and a former business partner and is now living in the U.S.

Ironically, they met near the International Spy Museum in downtown Washington D.C. Could Paul Joyal be the victim of a Kremlin- directed assasination attempt?

In a telephone interview on Sunday, Kalugin told CNN, he's not so sure.

OLEG KALUGIN, FORMER KGB OFFICER: I would not rule out any option, but professionally, it does look like special services were involved. So it may well be just a criminal ...

DOUGHERTY: Joyal's wife Elizabeth tells CNN her husband told her he was accosted by two black men. She says they didn't demand his wallet. One of them said, quote, "Just shoot him."

Mrs. Joyal says she doesn't want to speculate on whether it was a street crime like an attempted carjacking or something more sinister. Police aren't speculating on a motive, either, as the investigation continues.

The Kremlin consistently have denied any role in reprisals against critics. In this atmosphere of tense U.S.-Russian relations, some observers are tempted to interpret all of this as part of a Cold War plot, but so far there is no concrete proof and even the spies don't know for sure.

Jill Dougherty, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Strapped in a plane seat one moment, trapped in a firestorm the next. Look at this amazing video. Passengers walking away from this disaster in Indonesia.

At least 21 other people were killed when their Indonesian airliner overshot a runway and burst into a fireball. For the roughly 115 survivors, it's a flight they'll never forget.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VOICE OF RUTH BAMGGADAN, SURVIVOR: We were about to land, and the plane was going lower and lower. Unlike the usual process of landing, we got (INAUDIBLE) -- even when we were just a little above the roofs of houses, and then we got like a boom, and then we hit the ground for a while, and then the plane goes forward. And then suddenly it stopped. I think it's very near the river, a river there.

And when it stopped, I already see a fire outside of the plane. I sat on the right side of the plane, so the fire was outside the window. And then -- yes, suddenly somebody opened the emergency door. It was a very quick process, thank god for that.

One of my colleagues, he kind of told everybody to stay calm and to leave their belongings, and then I don't think we were really -- well, people were panicked, but not hysterical, so quite a lot of people were able to get out of the plane.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Investigators hope to learn whether the crash was caused by equipment failure or human error.

Bill Gates fears America's best and brightest are few and far between, too few anyway, to compete in the high-tech global arena. In a rare appearance today on Capitol Hill, Microsoft's chairman is asking Congress and the Bush administration to grant more Visas to high-tech workers over seas. He spoke before a Senate committee.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL GATES, CHAIRMAN, MICROSOFT CORP.: The terrible shortfall in the Visa supply for highly skilled scientists and engineers stems from Visa policies that have not been updated in more than 15 years.

We live in a different economy now, and it makes no sense to tell well-trained, highly-skilled individuals, many of whom are educated at our top universities that they're not welcome here.

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PHILLIPS: Many American workers would probably disagree. As you can imagine, our own Lou Dobbs has some thoughts on this. He's been doing research on the subject. He's going to join us at 3:00 p.m. Eastern.

You spent my tax dollars on what? That's what you're going to want to ask your Congressman or Senator after checking out the Pig book. The consumer group against -- or citizens against government waste put out its yearly report on pork barrel spending just hours ago.

Here's a taste. A million bucks from the Defense Department, not for Homeland Security, or for anything else on this earth, but to search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

And are our fighting men and women exceeding their fighting weight? The Pentagon apparently thinks so. We've got more than $1.35 million to research obesity in the military.

CNN's Brianna Keilar is going through the Pig Report right now. She joins us next hour with much more on this outrageous spending report.

The best way to lose weight or the most popular diets are put to the test. We're going to tell you which one came out on top, straight ahead from the NEWSROOM.

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PHILLIPS: Food for thought on fad diets. Stanford University researchers set out to learn how some popular weight loss plans measure up. And here's the skinny. The low carb Atkins diet helped overweight women lose the most weight while lowering their blood pressure and increasing so-called good cholesterol. The other diets tested were the Zone, Learn and Ornish.

Many nutritionists argue that Atkins isn't healthy because it shuns fruits and whole grains.

Straight ahead, "ENTERTAINMENT NEWS" with A.J. Hammer.

A.J., what's on tap?

A.J. HAMMER, ENTERTAINMENT NEWS ANCHOR: Sure, our very own Nancy Grace is taking on a fictional case, while a big TV reporter is fighting a real case in Washington. And the (INAUDIBLE) price draws a huge audience for the Discovery Channel. I've got all the details just ahead in the NEWSROOM.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tonight at 8:00, a well-respected city official about to lose his job, because he wants to become a she. A sex change controversy out in the open tonight, 8:00 eastern.

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PHILLIPS: Well, parodies of Nancy Grace just keep on coming, but those imposters better step aside, our VERY own legal eagle is getting ready to act up in a different way. A.J. Hamer, what is she up to?

HAMMER: Well, it's nice that she's finally going to get to do this herself because we've seen show after show doing as you said, parodies of her.

And of course we're talking about the hard-hitting opinionated attorney of her own self-titled show here on "HEADLINE NEWS," and now our good friend Nancy Grace is making her acting debut.

She's going to be on the season finale of NBC's drama Law and Order SVU. Now, it's not going to be much of a stretch for Nancy as she's going to be playing an attorney offering full legal commentary.

Nancy's going to be in good company too. In the very same episode, former "View" host Star Jones-Reynolds, who'll be joining me tonight, on "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" will be playing a lawyer with an awful lot to say.

You can look for this episode of Law and Order SVU May 22nd on NBC.

And now from Nancy Grace playing herself on TV to news about a guy who stays in character so much he kind of begins to think that he is that person. I'm talking about Borat, played of course by comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. You of course remember his film from last fall, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Well, he of course played the fictional Kazak TV reporter, Borat.

Yesterday, the funny man went to Washington as Borat, and made an unexpected appearance at a very real event as a victim of censorship. This was during the State Department's annual Human Rights Report.

In 2005, the Kazakhstan government deemed Borat's web site as offensive, so they revoked his .KZ domain. His original web site was borat.kz. When he lost that, he just changed it over to borat.tv.

The country was criticized in the report for their restrictions on freedom of speech. Now this fake journalist has not been a favorite of the Kazakhstan government. In fact, the foreign ministry had threatened him with legal action. Now while in character in D.C., Baron Cohen, who is Jewish, responded, "I fully support my government's position to sue this Jew." And just in case you haven't seen the movie, it came out on dvd yesterday.

Well, this next story is more than 2,000 years old, and it still attracts huge interest. The two-hour special, all about Christ's burial site, "the Lost Tomb of Jesus" drew 4 million viewers on Sunday night. That gave the Discovery Channel its best numbers in 18 months. The documentary from Oscar-winning director James Cameron makes the case that the 2,000 years old tomb of the 10 ossuary belonged to the family of Jesus of Nazareth.

Coming up tonight on "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT," the inevitable movie about the Anna Nicole Smith drama, but the question is, which Hollywood star should be playing the key roles in this story? It is a "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" casting call tonight on TV's most provocative entertainment news show on 11:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific on "HEADLINE PRIME," so Kyra, here's what I would like you and everybody watching to do.

Come up with your own choices for all the key players in the Anna Nicole saga from Larry Burkhead to Howard K. Stern to Anna herself. Think about who you think should be in the roles. And tune in tonight and see if we match up in our picks.

PHILLIPS: Oh, boy, all right. I'll do that. I'll start thinking about it. It may take me a while.

HAMMER: Get right on that, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: I'll get right on that, above everything else. A.J. Hammer, thanks so much.

Well, we're in big trouble now. Captain America, a super hero forged in the blazes of World War II, a super hero pitted against against such real life monsters as Hitler, Tojo and Stalin. Well, it saved his last day.

In the issue hitting newsstands today, Steve Rogers, the Captain's alter ego is gunned down by a sniper at the courthouse where he was on trial for violating a superhero registration law. Such is the twenty-first century. Marvel Comics hints the Captain may not be dead forever, and is working on a movie.

Straight ahead, six numbers adds up to big bucks for at least two lucky people. Did I say big? Mega millions. Straight ahead from the NEWSROOM.

And as we go to break, let's take a look at the numbers on Wall Street. Right now, Dow Industrial averages up 30 points. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

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