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Jury to Question Arias on Self-Defense Killing; Air Control Towers Closing; Rory McIlroy Explains Himself; Best Buy Ends Flexible Work; New Details in Surrogacy Case

Aired March 06, 2013 - 13:30   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: In just a few hours, the jury will pose questions to Jodi Arias. She admits she killed her boyfriend in his Arizona house, but says she did it in self-defense. Arizona is one of three states that allow the jury to question the defendant.

Randi Kaye breaks down the trial for us.

And we have to tell you, some of these images are graphic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If you believe what Jodi Arias says on the stand, Travis Alexander told her marrying her would be like winning the wife lottery.

KURT NURMI, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Had he ever proposed to you?

JODI ARIAS, ACCUSED OF KILLING EX BOYFRIEND: Yes, he did over the phone once.

KAYE: So, if their relationship was so good that even marriage was being discussed, how on earth did it get this bad?

Again, Arias' defense team tried to prove it was all self-defense. She shared this story of past abuse of Alexander choking her.

ARIAS: At first, I tried clawing at his face, but then I couldn't do that. It didn't feel right to gouge his eyes out or something.

KAYE: Citing examples like Alexander tying Arias to the bed with rope, the defense tried to show Alexander controlled her and, when he wanted sex, he took it.

NURMI: Would it be fair to say that he had an all-access pass to your body?

ARIAS: Yes.

KAYE (on camera): And what about Arias' failing memory the day Alexander died? She has testified that she shot Alexander first and doesn't remember anything after that. Here in court, her defense lawyer treaded to raise even the slightest doubt that it was Arias who stabbed Alexander nearly 30 times and sliced his throat so deep his head was nearly cut off. NURMI: Do you have any memories of slashing Mr. Alexander's throat?

ARIAS: No.

NURMI: When you were asked on cross-examination if you did that, do you recall telling us that you did?

ARIAS: Yes.

NURMI: Was that a recollection or a logical assumption on your part?

ARIAS: It was definitely not a recollection.

KAYE: What might have been Arias' motive? Was she perhaps driven to kill after finding out Alexander had been seeing another woman?

ARIAS: I certainly wasn't thrilled, no. I was devastated when I discovered that he wasn't being faithful to me.

KAYE: The defense was quick to point out Arias knew Alexander was cheating for some time, and still kept having sex with him, an attempt to show Arias didn't just snap on the day of the killing.

NURMI: This is something you had a long standing knowledge of before June 4th of 2008, isn't that correct?

ARIAS: Yes.

KAYE: For the first time, Arias told the jury she wishes she could turn back the clock and make some different decisions regarding Alexander. She said he thought he needed help, especially after she found him masturbating to a picture of a young boy.

NURMI: It was a startling event, was it not?

ARIAS: Yes, it was very shocking.

KAYE: The prosecutor cast doubt on this claim by questioning why she didn't share such a shocking event in her journal.

ARIAS: It was a highly negative event. It's not something I wished to remember.

KAYE: Nor does she want to remember the day Alexander died.

NURMI: The events of June 4th, 2008, do you want to remember those?

ARIAS: There's a part of me that doesn't ever want to remember it. I feel like I'm the person who deserves to sit with those memories.

Randi Kaye, CNN, Phoenix, Arizona.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: And we will be bringing that, perhaps, pivotal moment live to you later today on CNN. The federal government says it will shut down 173 air traffic control towers, a result of those forced spending cuts. We'll tell you what this means for fliers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Some airports are going to see their control towers shut down next month. The reason, those forced spending cuts you've been hearing so much about.

Aviation expert, Miles O'Brien, joins now via Skype. He's here in D.C. to talk about this.

Miles, I want to get your take on this because when I heard about this, I was wondering if we're talking about medium and small airports, is this going to affect travelers or just maybe recreational pilots?

MILES O'BRIEN, AVIATION EXPERT (voice-over): Mostly about general aviation. There are some scheduled airlines that fly into some of these airports that would be affected, but generally speaking, these are airports with less traffic. It's not like their closing down the tower at Hartsfield in Atlanta or LAX or JFK. These are airports that are on the smaller end of things, with less traffic. But having said that, they can get pretty busy.

KEILAR: And obviously, you are a private pilot. You engage in recreational aviation. I know that a lot of these smaller airports -- sometimes, you hit a certain point in the day, and the towers aren't manned any ways, and you have pilots who are kind of self-announcing to other pilots over the air, if you will. I know I don't have this quite right, but is this going to compromise safety, do you think, or do you see more of that happening?

O'BRIEN: It's always better to have another set of eyes. When it gets busy, it's better to have somebody in the control tower sequencing the traffic. But you are entirely correct. There are lots of airports that do not have control towers at all in the United States and there are some that have partially staffed towers, meaning not 24 hours a day. At which times, there are a series of rules pilots follow which basically amounts to an on-air party line where you announce yourself a certain distance away, say, hey, I'm in this plane and I'm coming in, is there any other traffic out there. Where are you? That's a simple way of describing how it works. Generally speaking, it's pretty safe as long as pilots follow those rules and pay attention to where that other traffic is. It gets a little dicier at busier fields when it helps to have somebody in a control tower sort of setting up a conga line for landing at the runways.

In the end, this could have, could erode a little bit, the safety margins we have out there for general aviation.

KEILAR: Talk to us about the kind of human equation here. Most of these employees who will be affected aren't actually employed by the FAA. They're contracted to do this work, right? O'BRIEN: Yes, these are so-called contract towers. The FAA actually hires a third party, another party to hire and staff these towers. It's a way of getting around some basically government hiring and union rules and saves the general public money in general by putting contract workers in these towers. They're every bit as safe as a FAA tower. The same set of rules apply. But they're not employed directly by the FAA or the federal govnerment.

KEILAR: Miles O'Brien, thanks for breaking it down. Appreciate it.

O'BRIEN: You're welcome.

KEILAR: First, Yahoo! Now, Best Buy. The retail company allowed non-store employees to work from home and set flexible schedules, but not anymore.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: The number-one golfer in the world, Rory McIlroy, says he's feeling the heat. He suddenly walked off the course a few days ago in a match where he was the defending champion. That's not something you do, right? Everyone in the golf world is now wondering what's going on with this guy. Today, McIlroy talked to reporters. He tried to explain himself.

And Rachel Nichols is here to tell us what he said.

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For the first time since this happened, he was very honest, forthcoming and very contrite. He needed to be. He's the world's number-one players and this shocked a lot of people when he just walked away. This is kind of the equivalent of a guy like Peyton Manning or Tom Brady going out on the football field, throwing a bunch of bad passes and then walking off the field and saying, I don't want to play anymore. I have a tooth ache, which was the excuse he gave.

He came out today, took responsibility for his actions and did remind people that unlike Brady or Manning, he is much younger now at the top of his sport. He's only 23, and as he said, he's still learning how to handle all of this as he goes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RORY MCILROY, PROFESSIONAL GOLFER: It was a mistake and everyone makes mistakes and I'm learning from them. And I guess for me -- you know, some people have the -- I guess the pleasure of making mistakes in private. Most of my mistakes are in the public eye. So you know, it's -- it is what it is and I regret what I did, but, you know, it's over now and it won't happen again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NICHOLS: Now, at the time that Rory did walk off the course, he said -- he was saying he had wisdom tooth problems. He said today his teeth are just fine and that he will visit his dentist in Belfast later in the year. But he's generally OK. There are a few other things going on with him though. He recently signed a deal with Nike, a huge deal, $20 to $25 million a year, but it also required him to change all of the clubs he played with. There's been questions, does that contribute to the bad play he's had and why he was so frustrated. He also happens to be dating the very attractive tennis player, Caroline Wosnacki. So there's been rumors flying, maybe there's trouble in paradise for these two, but he said, don't worry, everyone, they're doing just fine. She's coming to Miami to watch him play next week.

KEILAR: That's good news. We hope his personal life is going well.

Rachel, I watched him that final day of the 2011 U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club not far from here. He creamed the competition. And you saw this young guy just so sort of -- you could just -- he's up and coming, but it's tough. He's so young. And pressure makes people do some weird things. How much pressure is he under?

NICHOLS: A tremendous amount. As you said, he had this tremendous year last year. Really a prodigy, this Irish kid, charming, working class family. Great story. Everybody loved him. Won a bunch of tournaments. Won two majors. Got the world's number one ranking. Got a big money deal from Nike. That's a lot to suddenly change in your life. It's a lot of pressure to put on a kid that age. And he's saying he's having some trouble adjusting, knowing how to handle it.

Sports is a strange business. There's not a lot of other fields where you can be that young and be basically the head of an entire industry. People are looking at him throughout sports and throughout sports in general to figure out what he's going to do, not just his personal life, who he's dating, what he's going to do on the course, but what's he stand for all of a sudden. People are asking him his opinions on issues. It's a lot on a 23-year-old kid. Obviously, he is still learning how to handle it.

KEILAR: He's a tremendous talent, and certainly in the wake of the Tiger Woods fiasco, we hope he can manage to keep it together.

Rachel Nichols, thank you.

NICHOLS: Thank you.

KEILAR: Last week, Yahoo! caused a storm of controversy when the CEO banned telecommuting, but now, Best Buy is following suit. The company announced it is ending its own flexible work program.

Zane Asher joining us now from New York.

So Best Buy and Yahoo! are both struggling, Zane, and now they're both reigning in their work-from-home policy. Is this a sign this may sort of spill over? That other companies may do this as well?

ZANE ASHER, CNN ANCHOR: It looks as though, on the surface, that Yahoo! is setting some kind of new trend. But I spoke to Best Buy today and they said they made this decision a month ago. Here's what's happening. Best Buy essentially ending their seven-year flexible work-from-home policy. A spokesperson telling me quote, "It's all hands on deck. That means having employees in the office as much possible to collaborate and connect on ways to improve our business."

Now, this marks a complete turn around for Best Buy. In 2005, it launched its so-called Rowe policy, Rowe, R-O-W-E. It stands for "results only work environment." It essentially allowed employees to work where ever they wanted, where ever they wanted, as long as they got their work done. Didn't even need to ask their boss's permission. Sounds like a dream. But Best Buy called the policy flawed so he made some changes.

Best Buy isn't saying come to work, come to the office or else, so it's not quite as strict as Yahoo!. They're saying some employees will still be able to work from home, but they will now have to get permission from their manager.

We spoke to the woman who started Best Buy's work-from-home policy, Jody Thompson, a former employee and now, the co-founder of CultureRX. Here's what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JODY THOMPSON, FORMER BEST BUY EMPLOYEE & CO-FOUNDER, CULTURERX: The whole conversation needs to change today about work. The workplace isn't our parent. We have a job because we need to deliver results. And the conversations need to be about that. It doesn't need to be a paternalistic -- I feel like a child because I have to ask you permission to live my life the way that makes sense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: Right, so people are saying this policy is outdated. Best Buy said this is exactly the reaction they expected given the outrage over Yahoo!'s policy -- Brianna?

KEILAR: There is a lot of discussion about that.

Zane Asher, thanks for this report.

This story is also generating a lot of buzz. Yesterday, we told you about a woman who was paid to have a baby for a couple and was asked to abort the child when an ultra sound showed a defect. We will have a new development in this case, with the details ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: We're getting a lot of reaction from you on our story about a surrogate mom who was offered $10,000 to abort the baby she was carrying because it had severe disorders.

Elizabeth Cohen joining me now on this story.

First, Elizabeth, for those of us who haven't seen the story, remind us of what happened here.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: This was a surrogacy situation, everything was going fine, halfway through the pregnancy they find abnormalities. The genetic parents wanted to abort, but the surrogate did not. What ended up happening was she went to another state, she went to Michigan where she would be considered the legal mother, and then she gave that baby up for adoption -- Brianna?

KEILAR: It is a very beautiful baby, but obviously has some problems. And we know that this woman has found some parents to take on this child and adopt this child. You just got off of the phone with the lawyer for the parents who hired the surrogate. What did they say to you?

COHEN: We have been trying to reach him for weeks and he didn't return our calls. He finally did get in touch with us today. He said he would not comment on this case. But he basically said surrogacies can be very challenging, emotionally, ethically and legally.

KEILAR: And viewers are reacting to this. What are they saying, Elizabeth?

COHEN: They are. We have gotten nearly 9,000 comments on this story. And let me read to you two of them that represent some of what people are feeling.

For example, one reader says, "How dare she," meaning the surrogate, "enter a contract that says she'll carry out the wishes of the parents and then defy their wishes."

But then another person said, another reader said, "She didn't kill the child, that's enough for me to laud her," meaning again the surrogate. "She's not perfect. But neither are the rest of us."

And people really are in these two camps. They think the surrogate saved this child and they think the surrogate is a wonderful woman for doing this. Other people say, look, she took off, went to another state with someone else's child. And people really have fallen into two pretty distinct camps on this.

KEILAR: It really is a controversy and really makes people talk.

Elizabeth Cohen for us. Appreciate that.

COHEN: Thanks.

KEILAR: Coming up, why now is the time to sell your home.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: In this week's "Smart is the New Rich, Christine Romans explains how home staging can help you sell your house faster.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Tori Toth is a home stager. She's prepping this house for sale, outside and in.

TORI TOTH, HOME STAGER, STYLIST STAGGERS: Home staging gets your home sold faster and usually for more money.

ROMANS: A study by the Real Estate Staging Association claims 73 percent faster. The idea, you got to spend money to make money, usually 1 percent to 3 percent of the asking price.

Homeowner, Marisa Torres, is in.

MARISSA TORRES, HOMEOWNER: I'm hoping that when we're ready to sell, this house will get top dollar and people will come in and have the "wow" factor.

ROMANS: Achieving that "wow" factor will cost her $7,000 if she acts on al of Tory's suggestions.

She has to de-clutter and repaint the kitchen.

TOTH: So I'm really trying to either pull out the gray or a lighter gray so that the cabinets stand out. You want to keep a minimum of three larger appliances on your counter tops. Another great tip, remove everything off of your refrigerator.

ROMANS: The living room furniture should be downsized and rearranged.

TOTH: This is a really spacious living room except it is not really looking like that right now because there's large pieces of furniture in here. So the rule of thumb is to remove more than keep it in here.

ROMANS: Same thing in the bedroom.

TOTH: If you have a master bedroom that has a sleigh backing on it, it is eating up six to 12 inches of your square footage in your home.

ROMANS: New hard wood floors go in here, which will be staged as a second bedroom. But the biggest expense is redoing this master bath.

TOTH: The tile that they had in this room was old. And it was starting to crack. The bathtub had some cracks in it.

ROMANS: All in, it is a $7,000 gamble her realtor says will pay off. It is a bet this homeowner is going to take.

Christine Romans, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: And I want to end on this. A legendary rocker's fight against the paparazzi is now being waged on the floor of Hawaii state legislature. An anti-paparazzi measure, dubbed the Steven Tyler Act, passed the state Senate. This is a measure that allows celebrities to sue photographers if they take invasive photos on private property. The Aerosmith front man owns a home in Maui and he's asked a Senator in his district to sponsor the bill after the paparazzi took an unsolicited photo of him and his girlfriend last year. The bill goes up for debate in the state's house.

That's it for me. Brooke Baldwin takes it from here.