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Jane Velez-Mitchell

Woman Raped in Airport; HIV-Positive Man Charged for Not Telling Sexual Partners

Aired April 22, 2011 - 19:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HOST (voice-over): Tonight a woman says she`s brutally raped by a former Marine inside the Denver airport while on her way to a convent. in an ISSUES exclusive, I`ll talk with the two airport mechanics who heroically rescued her. And tonight, has it become so dangerous for women in this country that we can`t even travel alone?

And a horrifying game changer in the war on women. Cops are warning the community about this man. They say he had sex with a woman while deliberately hiding that he`s HIV positive. Now they`re asking could other women be at risk?

And Casey Anthony evidence shockers. New rulings that could mean big trouble for Casey. You won`t believe the new developments.

Plus, royal wedding fever mounts. We`re a week away from the wedding of the century, and excitement and controversy are ramping up. Is the pressure to be the next Diana driving the soon-to-be princess over the edge?

ISSUES starts now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He grabbed the back of my hair with his hand that he was holding my neck down with and pulled my head up and began to slam my head into the floor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, a brutal attack in the middle of a major U.S. airport. That woman you just heard from says she was traveling to a convent when she was brutally beaten and raped by a man while she was waiting to get on a flight at Denver International Airport of all places. Yes, it`s official. No place is safe for women in America.

In an ISSUES exclusive, I`m going to talk to the two heroes who raced to the 22-year-old woman`s rescue.

She says she was stranded at the airport overnight April 11 after missing her flight, so she was waiting around at the airport bar, as we all do, when she met the suspect, 26-year-old Noel Bertrand. It was around midnight, and the concourse was nearly empty. And what happened was when the bar closed, Noel offered to keep the woman company while she waited at the gate. She had a long wait. So she said, OK. Well, that`s when her nightmare began.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He picked me up by my sweatshirt in the front of my throat and lifted me off the ground and turned me to -- my back to the window. He repeatedly was assaulting me from behind as my pants were down and I was bent down into the ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And here is one of the biggest shockers in this horror story. Surveillance footage caught more than one person walking by as this guy was allegedly raping this woman violently, and apparently, they did not stop to intervene, to help right then and there.

Thankfully, two airline mechanics down on the tarmac realized the woman was being brutally attacked and raced up to the concourse.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRIS MUSIL, AIRLINE MECHANIC: Got up there, and it was a man beating up on a woman. And we put a stop to it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight Noel Bertrand is charged with felony aggravated sexual assault. This guy`s from Portland, Oregon. Wait, that`s it? This woman has a concussion, black eyes and undoubtedly, psychological scars.

As if the alleged crime weren`t bad enough, the suspect had these repulsive words for the two heroes. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK ADAMS, AIRLINE MECHANIC: He had said something that "I guess you don`t know the difference between rough sex and fighting." And Kris told him that, well, neither of them should be going on here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Unbelievable. I am so delighted to have tonight Mark Adams and Kris Musil, the two mechanics who are heroes.

First of all, bravo to both of you gentlemen. Thank God you intervened when you did. Otherwise there`s no telling what could have happened. Who knows what we would be talking about right now.

I want to go first to Kris. You`re the one who first spotted something. You looked at the concourse window. What exactly did you see? What did you do?

MUSIL: Well, what I saw was a commotion. Couldn`t really identify what was going on. It was more like shadows. The spot that they were in was pretty dark.

Mark was working next to me on an aircraft on the gate right next to me, so I walked over and pointed up to the window and asked him what he -- what he made of that. What was going on? And neither one of us could really identify what was going on. So I started walking back to my gate.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: So picking it up, Mark. Mark, what happened then?

ADAMS: We`d watched for a little bit and then finally, we kind of realized it seemed like he was picking her up off the floor and it kind of looked like he was stuffing a suitcase. And after a little bit then we -- Kris started heading over back towards his airplane, and we kept watching.

And finally, he must have picked her up high enough off the ground that her hair flipped out from behind her. And I think that`s when we both really realized that it was a girl and not a suitcase. So I started to head over, and Kris yelled out to me and said, "Mark, come on. Let`s go." So ran up the stairs, headed down the jetway, and went into the terminal building.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: What did you see?

ADAMS: Took a left. The last thing I saw was him hit her, and I yelled at him to knock it off. He stopped. Kris had went around the other side to call security. And they, in turn, called the police. And he came back over, got to the other side of the guy behind him, and he made a few comments. And...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I want to get to that. I want to get to this comment. I want to get to this very sickening comment the suspect allegedly made to the two of you after you intervened. And I understand he said, quote, "I guess you guys don`t know the difference between rough sex and fighting."

So, Kris, tell us, what was the woman doing while he`s talking -- this suspect has been beating up on this woman, you say, and he`s raping her. And then you show up, and he turns around and says, "I guess you don`t know the difference between rough sex and fighting"? Oh, my God. Well, what was the woman doing?

MUSIL: Yes. I was kind of trying to keep my eye on him. I think Mark was kind of trying to help her get up and kind of helping her out a little bit, because she was crying hysterically and extremely upset. I was motioning to the security guards to call the police and trying to keep an eye on him, making sure he didn`t try to run off.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Was his -- were his pants down?

MUSIL: No. I didn`t see -- they were both fully clothed when I arrived on the scene.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, look at her eye. She`s got a bashed-in eye there. You can see it`s bruised.

I want to walk through what allegedly happened and what we could see in the surveillance video. Here`s the suspect and the alleged victim together before this alleged attack. They walk to her gate, and that gate apparently is out of the camera`s view.

And then 22 minutes later, a woman pushing a cart walks by and doesn`t stop. She`s followed by a man, not seen here, who looks toward the gate. And finally you see this guy who`s looking at the gate and waving their arms at a police officer. Again, that`s them. He`s pretending to be this gentleman who`s going to walk her to the gate because she missed her flight. She`s on her way to a convent, of all things.

Now, you guys got there, and is she on the ground? Tell me. She`s lying on the ground at that point, and he`s standing in front of her, over her? Why don`t you take that, Mark?

MUSIL: Yes. When we arrived there, he was -- I think she was on her back and he was standing over her. And that`s when he took his last swing at her. She was kind of in between some seats and the glass there, kind of in a hard place to -- to be seen. The best place to see her was actually where Kris and I were out on the tarmac.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And did he try to run? What did -- I just don`t understand. Usually, somebody in this situation, if they`re sick enough to pull something like this off, they`re going to run for it if they`re confronted.

MUSIL: Well, like I said, when I told him to knock it off he stopped, kind of looked me up and down, and she finally stood up. And he grabbed her and tried to hug her. It seemed like he was trying to play it off that they knew each other. And he was backwards to me.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: What did she do?

MUSIL: She was facing me. She looked at me with tears in her eyes, and she mouthed, "Thank you."

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Oh, my God. Well, here`s my big issue. Lopsided security. We all know that they can take off your shoes, empty your pockets, go through a metal detector, get wanded, patted down, sometimes have your entire body scanned. Your personal belongings are scanned. They throw out liquids and sharp objects. But guess what? Once you make it through that TSA matrix, is there any airport security on the other side? The T.A. [SIC] is all about terrorists and liquids and threat levels. What about basic passenger safety? This was a woman headed to a convent. This was Denver International Airport.

Mike Brooks, if you can`t protect a woman from being raped at a major airport, how are we going to stop a bomb plot?

MIKE BROOKS, HLN LAW-ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Jane, I`ll tell you what. When I first heard this I said, "Wait a minute. This had to have been somewhere before you go through security," but this is out on the concourse.

And these two guys -- by the way, great job, guys. But where was the airport police? I mean, you talk about a place that has a lot of surveillance cameras. Is anybody not watching what`s going on? At this hour of the night? You know, is it like the control towers?

I`m wondering, you know, maybe there should be an internal investigation with the airport police as to why there wasn`t someone watching the cameras or why they didn`t respond quicker than they did.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, my understanding, Mike, is that there are security cameras all over the place but not directed at that precise area. So I`m wondering, well, this is horrifying enough, but what if it was a terrorist who was trying to blow up an entire plane and who`s working on whatever in their carry-on suitcase? Nobody would see that because there`s no camera.

Stacey Honowitz, I think this is a wakeup call. All this -- all this nonsense we go through at the gates and something like this could happen in the terminal? And nobody sees it at a gate?

STACEY HONOWITZ, FLORIDA PROSECUTOR: Well, like we talked about on all the shows that we do, Jane, everything always takes place after the fact.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Right.

HONOWITZ: Unfortunately, it took something like this to take place for there to be a wakeup call. And certainly if there is a lawsuit, a breach of security or negligent lawsuit, all of this is going to come into play. Where were the airport police? And like Mike said, who was monitoring the surveillance cameras at that time?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I think this woman...

HONOWITZ: A violent act like this is a wakeup call, as you said.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I think this woman has a lawsuit.

All right. We`re getting started. We`re going to talk more with these brave men in a moment.

And why are cops trying to find this man`s -- you`ll see him in a second -- sexual partners.

But first, two airport mechanics are heroes. They saved a woman who cops say was being raped by a former Marine. More on this terrifying story. It`s terrifying to any woman who travels. And let`s face it: we all travel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He grabbed the back of my hair with his hands that he was holding my neck down with and pulled my head up and began to slam my head into the floor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MUSIL: There was a man that was bent over, and he had picked -- picked somebody up and was slamming them into the floor.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was appalled that it was -- that I was going through something so brutal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Layer upon layer of airline security did not protect that woman. She says she was raped and beaten brutally, viciously by a man at Denver International Airport. The two men, mechanics, who raced to save her are my very special guests tonight.

I want to take a look at the woman who goes by in the cart, and apparently, she passes right by where that`s the suspect and the victim, and he has purported to escort her to a gate because she missed her flight and she was stranded at the airport. And instead of doing that, cops say he got her to the deserted gate area and -- and then proceeded to rape her.

Now, we`ve been trying to show you amongst this video coming up in a second that we`re going to see the woman with the cart who goes right by and apparently does nothing. There it is. There she is. She`s walking right by with a cart. And apparently does nothing, even though she`s walking right by a rape allegedly in progress.

I want to bring in this whole notion of what they call the Kitty Genovese syndrome, Mike Brooks. That was the case back in the `60s in Queens where Kitty Genovese screamed and hollered as she was being stabbed to death. And it was famous, because at least a dozen people heard her screams and did nothing.

And they talk about the syndrome when everybody assumes somebody else is taking care of it so that the greater number of people who were exposed to a horror, the less likely it is that somebody is actually going to take action because of this false assumption that, oh, somebody else will do it. Right?

BROOKS: Yes. Unfortunately that`s the case. And a lot of people go, "Oh, I don`t want to get involved. I don`t want to get involved in this."

But you have an airport worker there who`s there, you know, taking care of the bathrooms, taking care of mopping up the concourse. He or she should have said something. You know, going back to the incident in Times Square just like Ed Bender said, if you see something, say something.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Absolutely.

Now, the victim talked about how devastated she was when she realized witnesses were not trying to help her. Imagine feeling helpless like that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was appalled that I was going through something so brutal and they kept walking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now a Denver report says the workers who saw the alleged attack did help by notifying security, and nevertheless, the woman`s family is considering a lawsuit against the airport. I`ve got to believe they`ve got a relatively solid case, Stacey Honowitz.

HONOWITZ: That`s what we talked about before. I mean, certainly there needs to be security. A deserted area, deserted, I mean. And the violent nature to be able to do an act like that in an airport.

They`re going to have to prove up somehow that the airport should have had somebody there, somebody watching or somebody monitoring the surveillance cameras. And they`re going to be hard pressed to really answer where somebody was. I think we`ll have to wait and see what comes out but I think I can guarantee you almost that she`s going to seek legal advice and figure out why nobody was there to protect her.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And once again, we have to say there were gaps in the security cameras, because the actual attack is reportedly not caught on videotape.

Now I want to get back to our two heroes, the two mechanics there who did race to this woman`s aid. And again we applaud you, and we`re not going to ask you any about -- anything about that stuff, because you`re just here to be -- basically be heroes, and I know you don`t want to get involved in any of the politics surrounding any of this.

But let me ask you this question, Kris. When you arrived there, was this woman screaming? Because a lot of people say, well, if she were being raped, why not scream and holler? But sometimes you`re afraid to do that because this guy may be threatening to kill you if you speak out. What were the sounds she was making? Kris?

MUSIL: I didn`t hear anything. But later on, after the police had arrived, we found out she was having an asthma attack. And Mark actually had to get her inhaler out of her bag for her. So maybe that had something to do with it.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Mark?

BROOKS: Probably brought on the asthma attack. That`s what happens a lot of times.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Mark, what did you say happened there? She wasn`t screaming because she was having an asthma attack and that inhaler, when you`re having an attack and you don`t have your inhaler, that`s terrifying enough. So what happened? Tell us, Mark.

ADAMS: Yes, she had -- after he finally let her go, she had come over towards me and was crying. Her breathing was very erratic. She could hardly speak. I couldn`t really make out anything she was saying.

So we sat her down, and she was wanting her suitcase, so got that for her, opened it up, and she got her inhaler out and immediately had taken a couple breaths with her inhaler.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And you guys waited there until law enforcement arrived, right? You waited there until law enforcement arrived holding that guy there.

ADAMS: Yes.

MUSIL: Yes.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Hats off to you. You are heroes.

Up next, Casey Anthony.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He did it to a lot of girls and he did not care. He showed me girls on Facebook, how he -- that he did it to her, did it to her, did it to her, did it to her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight cops issue a dire warning to women who might have had sexual contact with a man they say is HIV positive and wasn`t disclosing it to his partners.

Police in Buffalo, New York, have charged this man 20-year-old Darryl Fortner, with first-degree reckless endangerment. Fortner allegedly had sex with a female victim and neglected to inform her that he`s HIV positive. The cops say they were really alarmed because the suspect`s own brother and an ex-girlfriend claim he`s having sex with other women, too, and not warning them either.

Fortner lives in Buffalo, New York. Cops say they want to get his picture out there, and they are urging women to get medical advice or call them ASAP if they`ve had sexual contact with this individual.

Meantime, the mother of one of this guy`s children says he tried to have sex with her less than a week ago and didn`t say a word about his status. P.S., she is four and a half months pregnant with their second child.

Fortner is now behind bars, but cops are very worried there are other victims out there who don`t even know they`re victims. This is such a disturbing setback in the war on women.

I want to go to Dr. Reef Karim. First off, what should a woman do if she thinks she has been with this guy?

DR. REEF KARIM, ADDICTION SPECIALIST: Well, the first thing you need to do is get tested. Get an HIV antibody test.

The tricky part is that the disorder, the HIV can take up to three months to actually kick in. You get infectious in one or two days, but for it to be expressed on the HIV antibody test, it could take three months so you might have to wait three months before you`re really officially out -- you`re in the clear.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I would say, then, if you`ve had sex with this gentleman, call police immediately and check in with them, because if you weren`t told about his status, there may be other charges. There may be other consequences. So definitely contact police.

I want to stress the vast majority of people living with HIV are extraordinarily careful and follow correct protocol when it comes to having sexual contact with others. But there are still thousands who have the disease and don`t know it. The U.S. government says about a quarter million people are living with HIV in the U.S. and simply do not know it.

Now, the biggest concern is, if this suspect did have sex with other women and they don`t know about his HIV status, then they could proceed, Dr. Reef, to have sex with somebody else and not even know that they`re putting that other person at risk. Isn`t this exponential?

KARIM: Yes. This is a public health problem. This is using HIV and sex as a weapon to -- for power or for some sociopathic reason or for some sex addiction problem or whatever it is. HIV is being spread because somebody is being careless, irresponsible, a predator, whatever you want to call it, and it`s spreading a deadly disease to people that have no idea that they have it.

And the fact that a quarter of the number of people in our country, roughly 1.1 million based on CDC data, don`t know they have HIV because nobody told them or they never got checked out is a serious, serious health problem.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. And that`s why I always say before you get into a relationship with somebody that involves sex, go get tested and ask them to get tested. And then you can tell them what your status is, and they can tell you. And then you know what you`re getting into.

Thank you, Dr. Reef Karim.

We`re only weeks away from the Casey Anthony case, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Casey Anthony evidence shockers; new rulings that could mean big trouble for Casey. You won`t believe the new developments.

Plus, royal wedding fever mounts. We`re a week away from the wedding of the century and excitement and controversy are ramping up. Is the pressure to be the next Diana driving the soon-to-be princess over the edge?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CASEY ANTHONY, ACCUSED OF KILLING DAUGHTER: Can someone let me -- come on.

CINDY ANTHONY, MOTHER OF CASEY ANTHONY: Casey, hold on, sweetheart. Settle down.

CASEY ANTHONY: Nobody is letting me speak. You want me to talk and then give me three seconds --

CINDY ANTHONY: All right. I`ll listen to you.

CASEY ANTHONY: -- to say something.

CINDY ANTHONY: Go, sweetheart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight is Casey Anthony fit to be tied over a slew of new court rulings against her? As her murder trial fast approaches, in just the last 24 hours the judge ruled the stain on the trunk liner of Casey`s car which prosecutors say is the outline of a baby is in.

Remember, all of her incriminating statements when she first told cops Zanny the nanny took Caylee? Those are in, too. And now one of her former defense attorneys has gone public saying Casey is a liar.

Check this out from cbsnews.com.

LINDA KENNEY BADEN, FORMER DEFENSE ATTORNEY FOR CASEY ANTHONY: She lied.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So she lied when she said that the nanny kidnapped the baby.

BADEN: Sure. I think everyone knows that that was a lie. Her actions have been her own worst enemy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, everybody knows now. So what does this mean right on the verge of jury selection, that the prosecution will likely be able to prove that a dead Caylee was in the back of her mom Casey`s trunk and that her mom never gave little Caylee to a nanny because that nanny never existed. What defense does that leave Casey?

Vinnie, how devastating a week has this been to Casey Anthony`s defense?

VINNIE POLITAN, HLN HOST, "PRIME NEWS": It`s not a great week. It`s not a great week when your former defense attorney is saying that you`re a liar. Ok. That`s bad. Will it come into court? Probably not.

More devastating is this stain. Ok? And this is something that, you know, will go to the jury and the jury will decide, hey, does it look like the outline of Caylee? Does it not look like it?

But the bottom line there, Jane, is that there was something in the trunk. What made that stain? And I guess the argument is going to be from the prosecution it was little Caylee. From the defense was it more of the pizza, Jane? Doesn`t look like a pizza to me.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: If it were just a stain it would be one thing but the cadaver dogs hit on that trunk and we know that Cindy said on her 911 call "it smells like a dead body in the damn car" and that George also said that he used to be a cop and that is an unmistakable smell that he smelled.

Now, last month, speaking of George, Cindy`s (SIC) dad George basically lost it on the stand during a crucial hearing. Check this out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You love your granddaughter more than anything in the world?

GEORGE ANTHONY, FATHER OF CASEY ANTHONY: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you would have done anything to help find her?

G. ANTHONY: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You love your daughter more than anything in the world.

G. ANTHONY: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you would do anything to protect her?

G. ANTHONY: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is your baby.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I feel sorry for that guy. But you must ask: anything? What does that mean? Mostly because the prosecution seems likely to be able to prove the dead child, little Caylee, was in the trunk of her mom Casey`s car. Some legal analysts have offered a highly controversial theory that the defense might imply that George, Casey`s dad, had something to do with the child`s demise.

Jean Casarez, what about those claims of abuse that Casey made, vis-a- vis her dad and what are the indications that the defense might try to create reasonable doubt by going that route?

JEAN CASAREZ, CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": Well, the defense has said, no way. We are not going that way. But Tony Lazaro in his deposition said that Casey had actually told him that George Anthony had abused her. He thought it was physical abuse but to put it in perspective that hearing right there was that George Anthony was an agent of law enforcement, actually to go in and get information for law enforcement.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. And Tony Lazaro, one of Casey Anthony`s many former paramours. Jose Baez, Casey`s lead defense attorney hints that he will explain everything -- everything in the first couple of minutes of his opening statement when it comes to Casey`s behavior during the months that baby Caylee went missing.

Here`s my big issue: just how is Jose going to explain why Casey lied and said there was a Zanny the nanny? And why Casey was partying and going dancing and getting tattoos when her precious daughter was missing?

Leonard Padilla, how do you think Jose Baez is going to explain that in the first couple minutes of opening statements?

LEONARD PADILLA, BOUNTY HUNTER: Unless he throws her at the mercy of the court by claiming her to be insane at the time or going through a stressful insanity program, he has no explanation for any of that. He just cannot explain it away. He`s going to be stuck with it. He`s going to have to live with it.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I don`t get it. Why would he promise then an explanation? Why would he say I`m going to explain everything in the first couple of minutes?

PADILLA: His explanation is going to be that she was under such great stress that it drove her insane.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, wait a second. Vinnie Politan, that ship has already sailed, right? She is not pleading not guilty by reason of insanity.

POLITAN: No.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: She is saying that she`s innocent.

POLITAN: Yes. If you`re going to plead insanity, you`ve got to do it ahead of time. You`re going to be evaluated by experts from both sides and it`s a whole different ball game.

I don`t know what this explanation is going to be. But you know what? I think they do have something because there is an air of confidence that they have, this defense team, so they`ve got to have some explanation. But I don`t know what it is, Jane.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, Jean Casarez, there was a ruling involving psychiatrists this week. Tell us about that because that may give us a clue as to how they`re going to explain why she went dancing and partying and got a tattoo that says "the good life" in Italian when her child was missing.

CASAREZ: Well, what actually happened in the midst of the hearing the defense actually withdrew their psychological expert that they wanted to put on the stand to testify as to what Casey had told them when they examined her. But there is a new motion where they say that even though they are not putting these experts on the stand that the events that Casey told them should come into evidence as part of the defense theory.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now here is -- I almost fell off my chair, people.

CBS News has conducted a focus group about Casey`s trial and the results are astonishing. Most of the group said they would acquit Casey of first-degree murder but they would convict her of involuntary manslaughter, which for layman`s purposes means unintentional killing without conscious disregard for human life -- unintentional killing.

So Leonard Padilla, how would they explain her or somebody on her computer Googling the word "chloroform a" long time before this child disappeared and chloroform obviously the prosecution will contend is what Casey used to knock the child out before killing her or in the process.

PADILLA: Well, in layman`s terms, she was trying to figure out a way to put her to sleep. She had no more money for Xanax. She had no prescriptions. She had to put her to sleep in order to get away from her to go partying. And she just over reacted by too much chloroform or chloroform too much times and that focus group picked up on the fact that hey she didn`t mean to kill her, even though she acted in such an outrageous manner, she didn`t mean to kill her. And that`s where you get your involuntary manslaughter.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Vinnie, you think it`s going to fly?

POLITAN: Well, here is the thing I don`t like about the focus group. They listened to four hours of stuff; they considered everything that they heard in media reports. A trial is a much different beast. There are rules of evidence and this thing is not going to be done in four hours, Jane. There`s going to be days and days and days of testimony and evidence presented by the prosecution and the defense so I think we`ll get a whole different result from it. Plus the jurors we`re getting aren`t going to be from Orange County.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. That`s true. But Jean Casarez, Vinnie`s point is well taken. That means that the jury is going to actually have less incriminating information possibly than all the incriminating things we`ve heard about Casey Anthony`s behavior in the months that her daughter was missing before her mother reported to police that the child was missing. So with even less information --

CASAREZ: Right.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: -- could the jury be more likely to acquit?

CASAREZ: You know what? Remember, this state is proceeding on two theories: premeditated murder and felony murder, aggravated child abuse and a killing ensued during the commission of that aggravated child abuse. So they`ve got a lot to work with.

POLITAN: Jane, if I could just jump in --

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right.

POLITAN: I don`t know how anyone comes to an accident here. Who is going to argue it was an accident? Not the prosecution. Is Jose Baez going to get up and admit Casey Anthony killed the child but it was accidental? I don`t think so.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But now that they`re saying from the former defense attorney that Zanny the nanny never existed, that she didn`t give the child to Zanny the nanny how are they going to explain the child just disappearing into thin air and this outline of a child in her trunk and cadaver dogs hitting on the trunk? Somebody connected with the family, I would assume, would have to in some way, shape, or form allegedly be involved because why would the dead child be in the trunk of Casey`s car? That`s what I don`t get.

Last word Leonard Padilla.

PADILLA: Here is what happened. When we got back to the very first night they told us that stain in the car had been in there since they purchased the car, while Lee driving the car the stain was always there and that it was no secret to anybody. They told us that stain had absolutely nothing to do with the death of this child.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And you will probably hear that in court if it gets in. Thank you, fantastic panel.

Nancy Grace has so much more on the Casey Anthony trial. Will Casey now have to take the stand in order to clear her name? Nancy Grace with the latest breaking developments at the top of the hour.

Coming up, royal wedding fever. I`ve got it. Do you? The pressure is building.

You know, imagine having been compared to Princess Diana. What does that do to Kate? And then this whole, whole wedding observed by the entire world. Imagine the pressure. The pressure this woman is under.

We`re going to talk about it next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRINCE WILLIAM, GREAT BRITAIN: I`m actually excited; quite happy when it`s over. But no, well, she is excited and, you know, we`re looking forward to spending the rest of times and the rest of our lives together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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RICHARD QUEST, CORRESPONDENT, CNN INTERNATIONAL: This is just a day or two before her wedding. She is out and about in London. She`s buying her last-minute clothes believed to be for the honeymoon and now of course she has the full panoply of royal protection.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Forget about the shopping just one week before the royal wedding and the bride-to-be is putting her foot down. Don`t look for this modern-day bride to use the word "obey" in her vows. Oh, no. Kate Middleton`s ditching the archaic phrase, thank God.

Well, turnabout is fair play. Prince William apparently doesn`t want to wear a wedding ring.

Kate must be having some monster-sized royal butterflies about now. If you think the attention on these two is bad at this moment, just wait until next Friday.

Who on earth could handle it? Will Kate be able to?

Straight out to our very own royalty from Beverly Hills, that is. Lisa Vanderpump of the "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills"; she`s back with us as our exclusive HLN royal wedding contributor and she`s got her -- what would you say in royalty lingo -- right-hand paw with you.

LISA VANDERPUMP, "REAL HOUSEWIVES OF BEVERLY HILLS": that`s right.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let`s see -- let`s see your baby. There is your little --

VANDERPUMP: There he is.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. And he`s in purple. You`re in purple and I am also in royal purple.

VANDERPUMP: Absolutely.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: We`re all in royal purple. Lisa is going to be here with us on HLN as the royal wedding day approaches to give us all the British Scooby Doo.

All right. I understand that the royal couple actually went to Princess Diana`s grave. Tell us about this.

VANDERPUMP: Yes. I think he is kind of showing a lot of respect to his dead mother the way he has handled this. I`ve been very impressed with it. I think her greatest legacy really is Prince William and I`m very proud of him, the fact that, you know, with the ring he is integrating his mother into everything and I really, yes. I think he`s done an excellent job in taking Kate to the mother`s grave the week before the wedding. I think I was very touched by that.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Good move. The Brits love Kate Middleton almost as much as they loved Princess Diana according to a new poll but many say the similarities end there. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: She`s older and university-educated. She`s been around a while.

Number two, she knows her fiance far better than Diana did. Diana was a shy, young woman who suddenly found herself in love with her prince charming.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ok. To Rob Shuter, "Naughty but Nice" PopEater columnist, I understand you`ve got the lip smacking Scooby Doo. Tell us about the kiss.

ROB SHUTER, POPEATER COLUMNIST: It`s great. They have actually scheduled ten minutes for the kiss. In a British wedding you do not kiss the bride in the church. But what is going to happen is they`re going to come out on the balcony of Buckingham Palace and for ten minutes they`re going to be on that balcony.

I`m not sure they`re going to be kissing for the entire ten minutes but they will be out there waving at the media and that is the first kiss we are going to see as man and wife.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, you`re telling me they`re going to be playing tonsil tennis for ten minutes on the balcony even though they`ve been shacked up for ten years --

VANDERPUMP: No way.

(CROSSTALK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Because we know after you`ve been shacked up for a couple of years, you`re not going to be playing tonsil tennis for 10 minutes. Come on.

SHUTER: No. It`s scheduled. The whole day is scheduled and they put ten minutes out on the schedule for this kiss. So, let`s see.

(CROSSTALK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I hope somebody brings the chewing gum.

Lisa Vanderpump, weigh in on this ten-minute kiss. I don`t know. I think that`s -- well, it could be fun to watch. I`m a voyeur.

VANDERPUMP: Absolutely. No way. They`re not going to be doing that tonsil tennis for ten minutes. No. It`s not going to happen, Rob. Ten seconds. That`s it. I`ll put money on it. Ten seconds. That`s it.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Really?

VANDERPUMP: Yes. Absolutely. They`re royals.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: What is this when everybody is making a big deal about the fact that she`s not going to say "obey"? When is the last time anybody said "obey" even in the black and white half an hour sitcoms that I used to watch as a kid nobody said "obey".

VANDERPUMP: Diana didn`t say "obey" either. I think that was omitted from her vows as well. Come on. We have to move on. Who`s obeying -- I`m not obeying my husband.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, Rob Shuter, why is Prince William not going to wear a ring? I don`t like that.

SHUTER: He doesn`t want to. He doesn`t want to wear a ring. He has made it very clear he doesn`t want to wear a ring. His father doesn`t and so what the prince wants and the future king wants is what the future king gets. He said no and that`s the end of that. He`s not going to wear one.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: He wants to kiss for ten minutes but he doesn`t want to wear a ring. I don`t get it.

We`ve been talking about so many famous people, Elton John, David Beckham -- all these famous people going to the wedding. But there`s a not so famous fellow. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What I want to do is see Kate go down the aisle. That`s going (INAUDIBLE) I think because I think I`ll be a bit choked and that is what I want to see. That would be great. That would be something special.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And that fellow owns the neighborhood bar in the area where Kate grew up. I`m sure they`ll be having a good old time.

Next Friday we are going to have complete royal wedding coverage here on HLN. It`s going to be very exciting. "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT`s" Brooke Anderson will be across the pond for the ceremony.

Thank you so much, Lisa and Rob.

Keep it right here for all the royal wedding coverage. It`s going to be fun.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s just no excuse for a mass slaughter of wildlife in a situation where a non-violent solution is just so easy to come by.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight escalating outrage in a New York town where the city officials are declaring war on sweet, innocent deer. In a decision that critics say was a sneak vote, the town leaders voted to wipe out most of the area`s deer population claiming they`re damaging plants, carrying ticks, and they get hit by cars. So, kill them before they get hit by cars?

Look at these beautiful creatures. How could anybody think about just killing them all? Critics say this brutal slaughter will turn Cayuga Heights, New York into a constant killing field.

Straight out to one of my heroes, Ann Druyan; Ann, thanks for joining us. You live in Cayuga Heights where this is all happening. You are a pillar of the community here, and the wife and partner of the late great astronomer Carl Sagan. And you are also an outspoken opponent of this plan.

So, I have to ask you what upsets you so much about this plan for mass deer slaughter in your town?

ANN DRUYAN, RESIDENT OF CAYUGA HEIGHTS: Thanks, Jane. Well, I live in Cayuga Heights because I love living in a place where there`s still animals, wildlife living freely that we haven`t sterilized Cayuga Heights into some kind of lifeless suburb. And so I`ve been working with James LaBeck (ph) and others for the last two and a half years to find a kind of solution to this problem.

Now, there`s strong feelings on both sides. I love the deer; it thrills me to see them. But the people on the other side hate them and really many of them have referred to them as rats that have to be exterminated.

It`s a kind of, I think, displacement of scapegoating of the deer. "If we could only get rid of the deer, we`d get rid of the Lyme disease. We had biodiversity."

But of course, the only way to settle a problem like this is to really go to the scientific evidence. So we consulted leading experts on Lyme disease and biodiversity and this plan, this crazy plan not just to kill the deer but to kill them in the most stressful, brutal way possible. I`m surprised they`re not advocating using flame throwers to just set them on fire.

So we consulted the experts and they said this is exercise in futility. You can shoot the deer, but deer are opportunistic. They will move in from the surrounding areas.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: What you`re saying is they`re going to come back? If you shoot the deer, they`re going to come back. They`re going to replace that population that was shot, and then they`re going to have to shoot them again.

Now, you know Ann, you pled with the mayor in front of the board of trustees, which is like the city council. Let`s watch your interaction or confrontation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DRUYAN: You have already pronounced this whole thing an exercise in futility, and yet you will not change your mind. You`re like nuclear power plant operators who are telling us there`s nothing going on in Japan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, I understand that this plan is to lure the deer with a bunch of food like corn, and then when they get to eat the corn, nets drop down and they can either be shot with a bolt through the head. This is called a bolt and net. And apparently the New Jersey SPCA on opposes netting and bolting and saying it`s cruel and not acceptable. The other alternative is sharp shooters.

So I`m thinking these are very dramatic things to be going on in a small town, and we reached out for the mayor.

On the other side, I want to hear about your alternatives, Ann. Stay right there.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ann, if you have to speak to your neighbors and fellow community members, what would you tell them right now? What would you say?

DRUYAN: I`d say that all life is related. That`s the great revelation of the modern scientific revolution is that there`s a continuum of life.

The deer nurture their young. They have feelings. Telling yourself that they have no feelings and it`s ok to destroy them in the cruelest, most brutal way is denial.

If you want a garden, build a fence around the garden to protect your garden. I believe in your right to have a garden, but I also believe in Earth Day, in the idea that we have to begin living on this planet as if we`re a part of the fabric of life, not here just to dominate it, destroy it, and kill everything that gets in our way.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m sure your late husband would be horrified with this plan. I wish you the best of luck in stopping it. And helping the deer live.

DRUYAN: Thank you.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Nancy Grace starts now.

END