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Weekend Early Start

Michelle Knight Slips Out of Sight; White House on the Defensive; Castro's Daughter Speaks Out; Woman Buried Alive for 16 Days; Did Russia Withhold Key Details About Tamerlan Tsarnaev?; Interview with Ed Smart

Aired May 11, 2013 - 06:00   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I am Brianna Keilar, and you're watching our special edition of EARLY START WEEKEND. It is 6:00, and we're coming to you live from Cleveland, Ohio. Thanks for being with us.

All of the Cleveland victims are now out of the hospital, but Michelle Knight's family has yet to see her. We'll be explaining why.

Plus, new information about what suspect Ariel Castro's DNA test revealed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ED SMART, FATHER OF ELIZABETH SMART: Elizabeth is happy. She's well. And we are so happy to have her back in our arms. I hate even leaving her. I'm just always sitting there hugging her the whole time. It's real.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: That was Ed Smart back in 2003 when his daughter Elizabeth was found nine months after being abducted. He joins us to talk about the long road to recovery and how a family rebuilds when the unthinkable happens.

And, an incredible story of survival. A woman pulled out of the rubble in Bangladesh 17 days after the building collapsed. We'll tell you how she stayed alive so long.

Good morning. It is Saturday, May 11th.

The man accused of holding three women captive for almost a decade is now confined to a nine by nine foot cell. Officials say tests of Ariel Castro's DNA confirm he is the father of the six-year- old girl born to kidnapping survivor Amanda Berry. Police also have boarded up Castro's Cleveland home to preserve the crime scene.

Meantime, the prosecutor handling the case says he plans to charge Castro for, quote, "each day of kidnapping he allegedly carried out." Castro also could face murder charges related to claims he starved and punched Michelle Knight to induce at least five miscarriages. And this morning, while relatives of Berry and Gina DeJesus continue to celebrate their safe return, Knight's family doesn't know where she is. The 32-year-old woman has been released from the hospital, but a family spokesman says police won't tell them where she went.

Let's bring in CNN's Pam Brown.

So, Pam, you have a source that is telling CNN that Michelle Knight is, quote, in a very safe -- in a safe place and is very comfortable. What's going on here?

PAM BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, actually, our Susan Candiotti spoke to a source and was told that. And I spoke to the family spokesperson for Knight's family and I'm learning that they don't know where she is. They simply don't know where she is and they want to know. They told me on the phone, if you know where she is, please tell us. The mom has been trying to make contact with her. She went to the hospital. She's been trying to make contact since she left the hospital. The spokesperson told me she loves her daughter very much. She misses her. She hasn't seen her. She hopes for a call from her on Mother's Day, which, of course, is tomorrow. So it is clear here that the family is actively trying to make contact.

The grandmother of Michelle Knight went to the house of Gina DeJesus yesterday after she was -- after finding out she was released from the hospital, she had heard that Michelle would go to that house. She arrived with balloons in the car, and Michelle Knight wasn't there. So it clearly was disappointing for the family. Here's what the grandmother had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEBORAH KNIGHT, GRANDMOTHER OF KIDNAPPING SURVIVOR: Well, we had been told (INAUDIBLE) that she had been released and that she was coming over here. So we kind of wanted to come over here and show our support for her because we hadn't seen her. Besides, Gina's parents here have been wanting to meet us, so we figure (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Watch your feet, watch your feet, watch your feet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So, again, the family still trying to find out where their daughter is. As the spokesperson said last night, the police know where she is, but the police aren't telling us. But as we talked about earlier, Brianna, we're hearing from a source that she is in a safe place and is comfortable.

KEILAR: And will -- I'm assuming we will learn over time why that is that she hasn't been reunited with her family.

Pam, Cleveland Police took Michelle Knight off of the FBI missing persons list. This is something that happened not too long after she disappeared. Why did they do that? BROWN: Yes, 15 months after she disappeared, her name was taken off the FBI missing persons database. We reached out to Cleveland Police and they did respond and actually sent us a missing persons report. Essentially they said, they tried contacting a parent, a guardian, and they couldn't -- couldn't reach a response. And so, according to protocol, you're supposed to take a person's name off the list. However, according to the missing persons report we have, it says back in January of last year, it was validated. So we're trying to learn, does that mean they did reach someone who said she was still missing, and why wasn't her name put back on that database? Still trying to dig on that a little bit.

KEILAR: Pamela Brown following this story for us here in Cleveland. Thank you for that.

Now let's bring you up to speed on this morning's other top news. We'll head to Victor Blackwell at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.

Good morning, Victor.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Brianna.

Russia apparently did not tell the U.S. everything it knew about the older Boston bombing suspect. Moscow did warn Washington two years ago that Tamerlan Tsarnaev could be an extremist. A law enforcement source tells CNN the Russians withheld important details, though, like texts he sent his mother telling her he wanted to join a militant group and attack the caucuses area. Well, in a story first reported by "The Wall Street Journal," at least one member of the House Intelligence Committee says, if the U.S. had known about those texts, the FBI could have done a better job tracking Tsarnaev. But sources tell the paper, Russia probably did not want to reveal its sources and spy methods, and that the U.S. probably would have done the same thing.

Now, Tsarnaev is now buried in a Muslim cemetery between Washington and Richmond, Virginia. Now, remember, his body was unclaimed for almost two weeks. And Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he lived, refused to bury him. The Islamic group that owns the cemetery says a Christian woman actually led this effort, but county officials say no one asked them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FLOYD THOMAS, CAROLINE CO. VA., BOARD OF SUPERVISORS: This was a horrific act. This was a terrible crime. We don't want the county to be remembered as the resting place of the remains for someone who committed a terrible crime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: The Islamic group that handled the burial says it's not a political thing, but that Tsarnaev can't bury himself, of course. There's now a criminal investigation into the fertilizer plant disaster in West, Texas. You remember this video. Fourteen people were killed when the plant caught fire and exploded last month. The state fire marshal's office has ruled out several causes, but it's still trying to figure out the spot where the fire started. Now, one of the first responders is under arrest. Bryce Reed is accused of having materials to make a pipe bomb, but authorities are not linking him to the explosion investigation.

Hey, about two hours from now, NASA astronauts will begin an emergency spacewalk to fix an ammonia leak at the International Space Station. Now, this ammonia is used to cool the power systems. And you can see it here. See these little flecks near the bottom of your screen. That's the ammonia. It falls like snow because of that environment. Now, they noticed this leak on Thursday. If the leak is not fixed, NASA says it could shut down cooling systems in a matter of hours. Now, this emergency spacewalk is scheduled for two hours from now, as we said, 8:15 Eastern. Of course, we'll show it when that hatch opens and it begins.

Let's go back now to Brianna in Cleveland.

Brianna.

KEILAR: Thank you, Victor. We will be watching that, as well as those other headlines, including the Obama administration which is on the defensive over the deadly attack that killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in Libya. E-mail exchanges show administration officials apparently were more involved than they first let on in tweaking those talking points the White House used to describe last September's attack. CNN national political correspondent Jim Acosta is at the White House.

Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, White House and State Department officials are trying to make the case that they made the adjustments to those talking points in order to preserve the integrity of the investigation into the Benghazi attack. But that does not answer all of the questions about what the White House has said in the past about those talking points.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA (voice-over): Three days after the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Obama administration officials were firing e-mails back and forth to each other, discussing just how to explain to Congress what happened. According to a congressional source who has viewed the e-mail exchange, those administration officials apparently agreed to remove a key CIA assessment about who was involved in the incident from government talking points. A version of those talking points made their way to U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, who went on five Sunday talk shows and said protesters, enraged over anti-Islamic video, were suspected in both Benghazi as well as a separate siege in the U.S. embassy in Cairo. SUSAN RICE, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: Our current assessment is that what happened in Benghazi was, in fact, initially a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired hours before in Cairo, almost a copycat of the demonstrations against our facility in Cairo, which were prompted, of course, by the video.

ACOSTA: What Rice did not disclose is that investigators suspected an al Qaeda connected group, Ansar al Sharia was behind the attack. In an e-mail dated September 14th at 7:39 p.m., State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland wrote, "why do we want The Hill," as in Congress, "fingering Ansar al Sharia when we aren't doing that ourselves? And the penultimate point could be abused to beat the State Department for not paying attention to agency warnings."

At that point the e-mails indicate the references to Ansar al Sharia were removed. But Nuland chimed in again, "these don't resolve all of my issues or those of my building's leadership. They are consulting with NSS," as in National Security Council Staff. One minute later, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's policy advisors e- mails, we'll work this through in the morning.

Then Ben Rhodes (ph), a top national security official warns, the talking points shouldn't jeopardize the investigation and that the matter will be dealt with at a White House meeting the next day, when it appears a decision was made to drop the reference to the terror group. The end result, this e-mail to Rice, "you are doing the Sunday morning shows and need to be aware of the final posture that these points took." The big changes to the talking points run counter to what White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters last November.

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The White House and State Department have made clear that the single adjustment that was made to those talking points by either of those two -- these two institutions were changing the word "consulate" to "diplomatic facility."

ACOSTA: Carney's explanation now, that officials were concerned about protecting the integrity of the investigation, but that took a while after the briefing was originally scheduled for 12:30, then moved to 1:45, then again to 3:15.

ACOSTA (on camera): That is not a stylistic edit. That is not a single adjustment as you said back in November. That is a major, dramatic change in the information.

CARNEY: No, I appreciate the question and the opportunity again to make clear that the CIA produced talking points. It was a result of an interagency process on the morning of -- that Saturday morning.

ACOSTA: But when you say these (INAUDIBLE) -- these talking points --

CARNEY: And then -- and to that -- Jim, let me just finish this and then I'll -- and then I'll -- you can follow up. I accept that stylistic may not precisely describe a change of one word to another.

ACOSTA (voice-over): Earlier this week, the number two diplomat in Libya at the time of the attack said the administration's explanations don't add up.

REP. TREY GOWDY (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: She blamed this attack on a video. In fact, she did it five different times. What was your reaction to that?

GREGORY HICKS, FORMER DEPUTY CHIEF OF MISSION: I was stunned. My jaw dropped. And I was embarrassed.

ACOSTA: House Speaker John Boehner accused the administration of stonewalling.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: I would call on the president to release these unclassified, interagency e-mails so that the American people can see them.

ACOSTA: The White House says it's all politics. On the same day the e-mail surfaced, a new web video from a GOP super PAC zeroed in on Clinton's testimony on Benghazi.

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night and decided they'd go kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Also at the briefing, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney indicated the administration will not be turning over those e- mails requested by Speaker Boehner. And asked whether the White House might have handled things differently looking back, Carney said no.

Brianna.

KEILAR: Jim Acosta for us at the White House.

Now here back in Cleveland, this is what we'll be bringing you ahead. The daughter of the man accused of holding three women in captivity for years is speaking out exclusively to CNN, and she says all of her dad's odd behavior is now making sense. The clues she wished she hadn't missed, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Back to our special coverage here in Cleveland. The daughter of rape and kidnapping suspect Ariel Castro says she was horrified to learn about what happened in the home where she grew up. Angie Gregg spoke exclusively to CNN's Laurie Segall and she says she never suspected anything was going on.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANGIE GREGG, DAUGHTER OF KIDNAPPING SUSPECT ARIEL CASTRO: My husband and I are in complete disbelief that the friendly, caring, doting man I knew as my daddy was, in fact, the most evil, vile, demonic criminal that I have met or heard of over the past 10 years.

LAURIE SEGALL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is part of a letter that Angie Gregg wrote after learning her father was allegedly behind the brutal kidnappings in Cleveland, Ohio. Now she's speaking out.

GREGG: And to go to the vigils, to show these girls the footage of their parents' pleas for their returns, to rape, starve, and beat innocent human beings, I'm disgusted.

SEGALL (on camera): You've learned that your father wasn't the guy you thought he was.

GREGG: No.

SEGALL: What is it like?

GREGG: It's -- it's like a horror movie. It's like watching a bad movie.

SEGALL: Only you're in it?

GREGG: It's -- only we're in it. We're, you know, the main characters. And I never suspected anything was going on. But the more I sit and dwell on it, I think of things that make a whole lot of sense now.

SEGALL: You look back and you say, OK, you can piece together -- you're beginning to piece together a puzzle. Where were the signs?

GREGG: Well, he never wanted to leave the house more than a day at a time. He was adamant in the fact that he wanted to leave home early morning, and he had to be back by evening.

SEGALL: Were there certain areas in the home that were just off limits?

GREGG: Ever since my mom lived in that house, the basement was always kept locked. I've never been upstairs in the house, and I never had reason to be. I asked him if I could see my room for old time's sake, and he says, oh, honey, there's so much junk up there, you don't want to go up there.

SEGALL: When you think about, you know, what might have been, what was behind those doors, how do you -- how do you cope with that?

GREGG: I mean, it all makes sense now. Now I know. It's hard, but I have -- I have no sympathy for the man. I have no sympathy. He was just another -- another person who's lied and deceived and manipulating people. And I could never forgive him. I could never forgive him. If you would have asked me this last week, I would have told you he's the best dad and the best grandpa. SEGALL (voice-over): Now Angie realizes Ariel Castro may have fathered a daughter with one of the women he allegedly held captive, meaning she may have a sister.

GREGG: He showed me a picture that was in his cell phone, randomly, and he said, look at this cute little girl. It was a face shot. And I said, she's cute, who is that, you know? And he said, this is my girlfriend's child. And I said, dad, that girl looks like Emily. Emily's my younger sister. And he said, no, that's not my child. This is my girlfriend's child by somebody else.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: CNN has since learned the results of Ariel Castro's paternity test and he is, in fact, the father of Amanda Berry's six- year-old daughter who was born in captivity. And as we continue to follow a number of stories here on this Saturday morning, let's head back to Atlanta and Victor Blackwell.

Victor.

BLACKWELL: Brianna, thanks.

Nineteen minutes after the hour now.

I want you to imagine this. A woman trapped in cement and steel and darkness for more than two weeks. She had nothing to eat, just a few biscuits and water. Well, find out how this young woman managed to survive a real life nightmare. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Thanks for staying with us.

This story is incredible. It's in Bangladesh. A young woman is alive and she's recovering in a hospital after being buried alive for 16 days. You see a nine-story factory collapsed on top of her and she was trapped. More than 1,000 people died in that building. Let's go now to CNN's Sumnima Udas in neighboring New Delhi, India.

Again, an incredible story. How did this young woman survive for so long?

SUMNIMA UDAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Victor, it's really quite an amazing story. People in Bangladesh are simply overjoyed and overwhelmed by this news. You remember after days and days of just recovering dead, decomposed bodies, rescue workers were really not expecting to find anyone alive, especially after 16 days. And for the past 10 days, they haven't been able to pull out anyone alive either.

So, rescue workers say that as they were pulling out rubble from one of the lower floors, they saw something move and then they heard something, a rod hit another metal rod or something like that. And then they heard -- you can imagine how stunned they were when they heard a voice crying out for help, a woman's voice saying, please rescue me. I'm alive. I'm alive. As you can imagine, it's very, very unusual to find anyone alive underneath that kind of rubble in those kinds of temperatures. It's about 99 degrees Fahrenheit there. Very, very humid.

But rescue workers say she was able to find a pocket, if you will, a gap amid the rubble where she had enough oxygen and room, and also she had a little bit of water. Here's what she told reporters when she was in the hospital.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I had nothing to eat. I found water and nothing else. I couldn't breathe. For an hour, I looked for water and found it. Every so often I'd look for water. And I found a little bit and drank it. Then I didn't find anymore. With a lot of painful effort, I climbed downstairs by using a stick to break through tiny spaces. I called for help, but no one heard me. I'd hear sounds, but no one heard me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UDAS: They did eventually find her. Of course, it was a one-hour ordeal, and she's recovering now in the hospital.

Victor.

BLACKWELL: Sumnima, I read that she had just enough room to stand and sit but not enough space to lie down. So clearly she, as we saw in that video, has a lot of recovery ahead. What's her condition now?

UDAS: Well, doctors say she's actually doing very, very well. She's in stable condition. All her vital organs are functioning. She's eating. She's talking to doctors. She's even talking to reporters. And what's amazing is the condition that she was found in even then. She actually had suffered from no severe injuries, no severe bleeding either. And she -- so rescue workers say she was dehydrated and crying, but that's about it.

BLACKWELL: Wow. Sumnima Udas reporting for us next door in New Delhi, India. Thank you for that.

You know it is next to impossible for most of us to imagine what's ahead for the women pulled from the house of horrors, as it's called, in Cleveland, but the Smart family knows. The family of Elizabeth Smart. You'll hear from her father. That's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: It is half past the hour. Welcome back. I'm Brianna Keilar, live from Cleveland with the latest developments in the kidnapping investigation. But first, here's some other stories that we're watching this morning.

At least one lawmaker says Russia dropped the ball on the Boston bombing suspect. A law enforcement source tells CNN that Moscow withheld key details about Tamerlan Tsarnaev, like texts that he sent his mother telling her he wanted to join a militant group. A member of the House Intelligence Committee told "The Wall Street Journal" the intel could have changed everything. But sources tell the paper the U.S. probably would have withheld that information too. Tsarnaev is now buried in a Muslim cemetery between Washington and Richmond, Virginia. Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he lived, refused to allow his burial there.

It is election day in Pakistan, and it has been a deadly one. Bombs targeting voters have gone off in several cities. More than a dozen people have been killed and many more hurt despite heavy security there. Pakistanis are voting on the first transition between civilian governments in the country's history.

Sandy Hook Elementary School should be demolished, and the new school should be built in its place. That is the unanimous recommendation coming from the Sandy Hook task force. They say that tearing it down will help the community erase some of the emotional scars left behind after last year's mass shooting. 26 people were killed in that shooting in December.

And let's head now to Atlanta and Victor Blackwell.

BLACKWELL: Brianna, thanks. As we talk about the future for these three women who were released after Amanda Berry went to that door and trying to -- screamed for help. We talk about their future there, a few people who know what's coming up next. But we know that the story of Elizabeth Smart, the young girl who was kidnapped from her home in Utah back in 2002, she was rescued nine months later. Her family knows what's next. Her father, Ed Smart, as that -- as she was released, he was obviously elated. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ED SMART, FATHER OF KIDNAP VICTIM ELIZABETH SMART: Elizabeth is happy. She is well. And we are so happy to have her back in our arms. I hate even leaving her. I'm just always sitting there hugging her the whole time. Is this real?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Well, I spoke with Elizabeth's father about the road ahead, for not only the survivors in Cleveland, but also their families. Ed Smart joins us now. And it's good to have this conversation with you because you know more than anyone, better than anyone, what these families, what these women are going through right now. Give us an idea. The first few days after reuniting, what is happening for this family?

SMART: Well, you know, the first day was just so full of joy. I mean, having her back and reconnecting with her and enjoying things that we enjoyed previously together as a family. Following that, of course, the prosecution and all of the potentials of the trial come up. And she has to kind of understand what's going to happen in the future. And -- and then certainly, having been through as much as she had been, more than likely, she'll be going through, you know, forensic interview or debriefing by law enforcement. And certainly, that can be very difficult. I know, as Elizabeth, you know, basically debriefed these two forensic psychiatrists, you know, she had to go into detail about what happened to her. And, you know, certainly, that isn't easy, and it's very difficult. And certainly, as parents, you don't want to see your child go through, you know, the nightmare of having to relive things and be in such detail that, you know, it just is offensive.

BLACKWELL: And I'd like to ask you, I mean Elizabeth was kidnapped from your home. Did her kidnapping change your view of the world?

SMART: You know, certainly. I, you know, I had remembered hearing about instances such as what happened to Elizabeth, but I just always thought, well, that will never happen to me. And we, you know, loved just being kind of in the background, never being up front, certainly never being in the media. And, you know, because of what happened, the importance of other parents understanding what can happen -- that doesn't mean you should live in fear, or be scared, but you should be prepared, and you certainly should prepare your children.

And the bottom line is kids don't understand, when adults cross the line, they need to be able to do something, and know what to do. Whether it's screaming, yelling, running, you know, giving him a good knee in the groin, you know, all of these things are really important to know and to know that, you know, what has happened to these women, what happened to Elizabeth was not their fault. There are so many - yeah, there are so many victims and the number of survivors that feel a personal guilt and a responsibility about similar acts that happened to them. And they need to know that is not their fault. And they don't need to carry any guilt on this matter, and it's a matter of stopping these predators from doing it again.

BLACKWELL: And this will be ...

SMART: And to think that this happened three times on - I mean those are huge. I mean a kidnapping is a huge issue that, you know, certainly doesn't happen frequently in our communities, fortunately. And the one great thing that I certainly got out of this is, yes, there are some really bad people out there, but it's amazing the wonderful people that are there in our communities and help and care.

BLACKWELL: Ed Smart, father of Elizabeth Smart, reunited back in 2003 after Elizabeth had been with her captor for nine months. It's so good to talk with you about this. Thank you for your time.

SMART: Thank you. I appreciate being with you.

BLACKWELL: And we'll have more from Cleveland a little later in the show. But next, an emergency in space. As astronauts prepare to leave the space station to make some repairs.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Later this morning, President Obama will honor 43 law enforcement officials who have shown bravery and valor in the line of duty. The Rose Garden ceremony at 11:00 Eastern recognizes recipients of the National Association of Police Organizations top cops awards. Winners come from ten states. They include officers who responded to last year's shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin.

This evening Michelle Obama is scheduled to deliver the commencement speech at Eastern Kentucky University. She'll be addressing graduates of the College of Education and the College of Business and Technology. Next week the first lady is slated to speak to graduates as Bowie State University in Maryland and Martin Luther King Jr. High School in Nashville.

Prince Harry is in Denver this morning making another stop on his tour of America. The British royal will be attending the warrior games as sports competition for those who have been injured in combat. Athletes at the events represent troops from the Americas as well as the British Armed Forces. Prince Harry, as you may recall, served with NATO troops in Afghanistan. And later this morning, NASA astronauts leave the International Space Station for an emergency space walk. They're trying to fix an ammonia leak. This is something they noticed on Thursday. And this ammonia is important. It's used to cool the power systems there. So if the leak is not fixed, NASA says it could shut down cooling systems in a matter of hours. That emergency space walk is set for 8:15 Eastern. We will show it to you when it happens.

Now, meantime, we're keeping our eye on some weather and a powerful storm that dropped baseball-sized hail on top of homes in Texas. Check it out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Move!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Unbelievable. Tracy Inez (ph) from our affiliate KSAT in San Antonio, Texas, shot that video in her backyard. You can see that going right into her swimming pool. This storm also ripped down trees and knocked out power in some places. Meteorologist Karen Maginnis is in the CNN weather center with today's forecast.

I know we're expecting more storms, right? And probably very thankful for our friend who was shooting that video that she was safely indoors, Karen.

KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. And a hail that size really is so damaging and destructive. But we still got some pretty strong storm that are erupting across the coastal regions at Texas. Take a look at that. It really like -- looks like someone was throwing a stick, but in fact, this is about baseball-size hail (inaudible). The strong storm that's prevailing across the coastal regions at Texas right now. And take a look at this. Right now in coastal sections of Louisiana, extending on down towards Galveston, some high winds also seen in this area as a frontal system makes its way towards the east. Now, the storms are expected to continue through this afternoon as a frontal system continues to make its way toward the Eastern seaboard. As it does, we're looking at much cooler air on the back side of this, and that cooler air is expected to linger into Sunday as well. With temperatures mostly in the 50s and the 60s across this region. Well, it looks like that will be over the next several days, but as we go towards the middle of next week, some of these regions in the central United States can expect temperatures in the 90s, places like Bismarck and Fargo and Minneapolis, readings that have been about 20 degrees below where they should be. Well, they'll jump up into the 90s again.

Look for a couple of showers expected also across the Pacific northwest and a few isolated showers in southern California as well. And we start the morning out with showers and storms in New York, also for Boston. And for Cleveland those temperatures still remain on the cool side as well with mostly 60s, but watch for these temperatures to really rebound as we go into the next several days. Brianna, back to you.

Karen Maginnis, thank you for that.

Let's check out some of the other stories ahead with Victor Blackwell back in Atlanta. Hi, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Hey, Brianna, thank you.

This weekend, Jodi Arias is on suicide watch after telling a reporter she wants the death penalty, and she wants it soon. Well, now some people say she's just doing this for attention. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: We'll get back to our special coverage from Cleveland in just a moment. But first, to check on some of the other stories that were following. Michael Jackson's longtime makeup artist testified at his wrongful death trial this week that the singer appeared paranoid and was acting strangely in his final days. Karen Faye said Jackson was "acting like a person I didn't recognize." Faye also expressed concern about the tour schedule, but she was ignored. Jackson's family is suing concert promoter AEG Live over his death.

In Missouri, moviegoers were outraged over a publicity stunt that went horribly wrong. During a screening of "Iron Man 3" in Jefferson City, a man walked into the theater in full tactical gear carrying a fake gun. He was only promoting -- he was only an actor who was promoting the film. But several people called 911. Police responded to what they believed was a real threat. The Capital 8 theater has apologized on its Facebook page.

And for more than 12 hours, New Jersey police have been negotiating with a gunman who has taken three children hostage. He barricaded himself in his Trenton home. So far, he is still communicating with police. Authorities say the incident began on Friday, but they are not sure why. It's also not clear what relationship the children have to the man who is holding them. We'll be keeping you updated as we get more details on that developing story. Victor, back to you in Atlanta. BLACKWELL: Brianna, thanks.

Let's turn now to the latest twists and turns in the Jodi Arias murder case. Now, this week she was convicted of first degree murder. The sentencing phase will start next week. But most people are talking about the interview that she granted to a local television station immediately after her conviction. Now, I asked HLN's Jane Velez-Mitchell, first, how was Arias able to do this? But more importantly, why?

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HOST HLN'S JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, she took proactive action, according to the sheriff's department. I was told -- and we actually have a voice recording of this -- that she called the reporter, Troy Hayden, on Sunday, several days before the verdict. Remember, the verdict comes in on Wednesday, and she says, Troy, hey, listen, if for some reason -- and that's a direct quote - for some reason it comes back first degree murder guilty, I want you to come over to the jail right away so I can give you the interview. So she arranged this. She masterminded it, as it were, and that's one of the reasons why right now she is in the psych ward because, when he comes down, she proceeds to say very politely, oh, I want death. I don't want life in prison. Give me death. Bring it on. It will be the ultimate freedom. And with that, the sheriff's department, sheriff Joe Arpaio, of course, controversially known as the toughest sheriff in America, said, OK. you say you want death. That means you're a potential danger to yourself. I'm going to put you on suicide watch.

BLACKWELL: Is this for her manipulating the system? Do you think she really believes that? Is it remorse? What do you think?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I think it's a very passive aggressive move. It's her trying to play the victim again, which she has done throughout this entire case. Remember she's the one who viciously killed Travis Alexander. Now we can say murdered Travis Alexander, slit his throat ear to ear, 3 1/2 inches deep, stabbed him 29 times, shot him in the face. But what did she do the entire time? She said, I'm the victim here. Well, that's what she's doing again. She's pulling focus, getting the attention, and she's saying look at me. I'm a martyr. Now I'm going to die.

BLACKWELL: The prosecutors will have a chance to present additional evidence, and jurors have to decide whether Arias was cruel when she killed Alexander and if his death was caused in a cruel manner. Explain the next process here.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, this is what we all showed up to see was the aggravation phase. And we're expecting prosecutor Juan Martinez, who's done a masterful job to present his case that this killing was cruel. It seems like a slam dunk. He was stabbed 29 times, and his throat was slit ear to ear six inches across, but we didn't get a chance to have that happen because of all the hullabaloo and this cancellation, this mystery cancellation, which was, I believe, probably about the interview she gave and the fact that then she was put on suicide watch. There's got to be, I believe, some connection to that. So, essentially, the defense attorneys are now in a quandary. How do you defend somebody and try to save the life of Jodi Arias when she has said flat out on television, I don't want anybody to save my life. I want the death penalty. What is the defense team going to do? They're between a rock and a hard place, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Yeah, and Jane, quickly, I want to ask you about the talk about the Alexander family possibly filing this civil suit against Arias so she won't be able to make money off her story or family won't be able to make money off her story. Good move here?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yeah, and in these mega cases, we always see civil action after the criminal case, and I think it's very appropriate because she has been doing artwork, and she has tried to sell the artwork, and indeed I believe has sold some of the artwork online. So they have the right to try to recoup every last cent. They lost a human being.

BLACKWELL: All right, Jane Velez Mitchell, covering this trial like no one else. And we will stay with you for the next phase. Thank you, Jane.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thank you, Victor.

BLACKWELL: And the next phase, the sentencing phase starts next week. And for everything Arias, watch Jane Velez-Mitchell week nights, at 7 Eastern on our sister network HLN.

We'll go back live to Cleveland in a moment. But do you know psychic Sylvia Browne? She's been on a few infomercials, few talk shows? Well, she doesn't need a spirit guide to know what people there think about her. She can just go online to feel the anger over her incorrect prediction about Amanda Berry.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: When Amanda Berry's family was desperate for any word from her, they turned to a famous psychic, and that psychic Silvia Brown said she was dead. CNN's Jeanne Moos has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's one thing to be a psychic predicting love or the lack thereof.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you tell me where my love life's going?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nowhere.

(LAUGHTER)

MOOS: But there's nothing funny when it comes to predicting life or death.

SYLVIA BROWNE: She's gone, honey.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you know where she's at?

BROWNE: In the house or under the house.

MOOS: In that case, psychic Sylvia Browne was right. But now, she's under attack.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What a horrible human being.

MOOS: For being wrong about this girl.

AMANDA BERRY: Hello police. Help me. I'm Amanda Berry.

MOOS: Almost nine years ago, Amanda Berry's mom went on the Montel Williams show, where resident psychic Sylvia Browne spoke of Amanda.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think I'll ever see her again?

BROWNE: Yeah, in heaven, on the other side.

MOOS: The WMMS morning show in Cleveland reenacted the transcript. The host read the part of the psychic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: See, I hate this when they're in water. She's not alive, honey.

MOOS: Not alive? And who's this?

BERRY: I've been kidnapped and -- I've been missing for ten years. And I'm here. I'm free now.

MOOS: Amanda's mom is the one no longer alive. She came home from the psychic's reading telling the Cleveland plain dealer she was devastated. She died a little more than a year later after being hospitalized with pancreatitis. Now, Sylvia Browne is getting ripped on social media. Browne is a grief vampire, nothing short of evil.

You didn't have to be a psychic to predict what Sylvia Browne would say about her mistake. "I have been more right than wrong. If ever there was a time to be grateful and relieved for being mistaken, this is that time. Only God is right all the time. My heart goes out to Amanda Berry." There was one part of Sylvia Browne's prediction that her supporters say turned out to be accurate. The radio host read the psychic's words describing the man who took Amanda.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is this sort of Cuban looking, short, kind of stocky build, heavyset.

MOOS: Turns out the suspect is Latino with the last name Castro. One commenter posted, "Psychic Wins Lottery Again!" The headline you will never see anywhere." Instead, we saw this headline, and even we could predict what that could do to a mother's head. Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: Thank you for starting your day with us. We've got so much more ahead here on "CNN SATURDAY MORNING" which starts right now.