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Judge Denies Mistrial; Tornadoes Whip The Plains; Hofstra Student Dies; The Man Behind Tumblr

Aired May 20, 2013 - 13:59   ET

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

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everybody. I'm Ashleigh Banfield, reporting live at the Maricopa County courthouse, where Jodi Arias' trial is under way. And the developments have been fast and furious. Just like many days in this bizarre case, there have been extraordinary twists.

Now we are learning that this defense team plans to put no mitigating witnesses up in Jodi's defense. Intimidation being quoted for the reason one of those witnesses does not want to testify. A request for a mistrial because of it. The judge said no, on with the show.

And then another request for these attorneys for Jodi Arias to withdraw from this case. This is the second request to get off and quit this case in just a matter of days. Once again, motion denied by this judge, on with the show.

But what will the show entail at this point? Will Jodi Arias herself get up and speak and beg for her life? Will Jodi Arias get up and beg for her death? Will Jodi Arias say nothing at all?

Joining me now are Ted Rowlands, who's been covering this case gavel to gavel as well.

Ted, this is just yet another remarkable set of circumstances in a remarkable death penalty case. Where do they stand right now? Where are the arguments? Where are the lawyers?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's just - it's happening very fast. Right now they're at the bench, bench conference, but it looks like they're going to adjourn for the day. And we still don't know the answer, is Jodi Arias, tomorrow, going to address this jury before each side gets a close.

Clearly today what happened was is the defense got up in front of the judge and said, listen, we can't have this witness on because she's intimidated. She's intimidated because of your ruling to allow the cameras into the courtroom and it's manifested itself to the point where now this witness, who could make a difference of whether or not our client lives or dies, is too scared to take the stand, so we want a mistrial. And as you said, the judge said, no, move on. They said, well, we quit. She said, no, you don't. You keep going.

Now, the question to them is, all right, is your client going to talk or not? And they're working that out. It appears they're going to adjourn now for the day. And we will find out tomorrow whether when we start up it's just going to be a quick closing from the defense or will they close at all? We - it's just a very bizarre day where we expected multiple witnesses for the defense and we expected to hear from Jodi Arias. We're not hearing from any of them.

BANFIELD: Well, and let me just give some updated information. Our Gray Swann (ph), our producer who is in the courtroom, Ted, as you and I find this out together, is giving us updates on whether Jodi will speak. It appears now she's going to speak, but not until tomorrow, midday.

ROWLANDS: OK.

BANFIELD: The judge, at this point -- let's not forget, this jury has actually heard, Ted, opening statements promising them what's coming in this phase and that now is going to change. So the judge at this point is trying to figure out a way to do a very fair defense and somehow cure the notion that this jury is expecting to hear from people and won't. So now I understand they're going through this with the attorneys to try to figure out how to cure this issue and instruct this jury as to why they're not going to hear from Patricia Womack (ph) and perhaps even that ex-boyfriend who was supposed to stand up today as well.

ROWLANDS: Darryl Brewer (ph), yes.

BANFIELD: Honestly this is one of the more bizarre - yes, I mean, look, you and I have covered a lot of death penalty cases. They don't get more serious than this. And every move, it's absolutely critical, especially when preserving the record.

Jodi, on the other hand, if you can walk me through her phase in all of this. Do we even know at this point whether she wants to do the allocution or testify?

ROWLANDS: It appears as though she is going to talk tomorrow and it will be an allocution. It's not going to be a testimony. That's what we're hearing from the courtroom now. And like you say, we're just getting this as it happens. And they have adjourned for the day.

You mentioned that the jury was prepped. They were prepped for -- to hear from witnesses and to hear from Jodi. So it looks as though they will hear from Jodi, but it will be interesting to see how this judge handles the very delicate procedure of informing the jury that you're not going to hear what you were promised and here is why. S we'll have to see. Now she actually -- the judge is right now talking to the jury and she's likely just to tell them to go home.

BANFIELD: Ted, let's listen in. Ted, yes, let's listen to the judge.

ROWLANDS: OK. Yes.

BANFIELD: Unfortunately, we just - we just missed what she had said, but you can see the entire court standing. Jodi Arias standing as well. Her two attorneys, Jennifer Willmott and Kirk Nurmi, poised (ph). This has got to be one of the most difficult cases that I dare say either of those two attorneys has had to -- has had to handle in their careers. They - life sentence off the top. They don't get more serious than a death penalty case.

ROWLANDS: Oh, yes.

BANFIELD: You cannot make mistakes. You must preserve the record. Obviously protecting what that jury hears and what that jury does not hear and protecting the jury from anything that appears to be anything circus-like also critical for this judge. You just saw the great seal of the state of Arizona. That's the indication when the judge is off the bench, off go the cameras. And that's the moment that family members, et cetera, they know that there's no further broadcast.

I want to bring in Faith Jenkins and Jeff Brown. Faith is from New York. She's a former --

ROWLANDS: Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Go ahead, Ted. Go ahead.

ROWLANDS: Ashleigh, just a little tidbit I can add to you. The defense also asked for a stay so that they could take this to another court. That was denied as well by the judge. They asked for a stay to give them more time to have this litigated and the judge denied that request as well.

BANFIELD: OK. Good to know. There's been a lot of denying these 11th hour motions and requests from this defense team. Understandably. This is a defense team that has a massive road to hoe and they have been performing an uphill battle. I dare say since day one on this case. But particularly in the last few days as they come into this second phase, this sentencing phase, a two-part sentencing phase with an unruly client.

It is fair to say this is an unruly client. She went on television saying she preferred to die as her attorneys have worked for years to save her life. And with me, as I said earlier, from New York is Faith Jenkins, who's a former prosecutor and now a criminal defense attorney. Also joining me is Jeff Brown, who is a criminal defense attorney. He's joining us from Tampa, Florida.

Thank you, both.

Faith, to you first. You're a former prosecutor. I'm sure that this prosecutor is somewhat bewildered as he watches these developments, probably no more bewildered than the defense team. Can you try to lay a little bit of perspective on what we're seeing develop here, Faith?

FAITH JENKINS, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, what we're seeing here as this case moves forward, and, I mean, I think the only predictable thing about this case, at this point, is that it's unpredictable as every hour moves forward and we keep going forward in this case. But what we're seeing here is Nurmi trying to make strategic moves. Here he's saying, I want a motion for a mistrial because we have to do everything we can. This is life or death. And this is it. The moment is now. We have to put forth a case in the mitigation phase. How can we do that? We do not have all the witnesses available. Because, guess what, the jury, they're going to look and they're going to see she doesn't have a family member there. Her mother's not testifying. She only has these two individuals who are prepared to get up and testify and now she only has one.

So Nurmi is saying, because of the threats, this woman, her friend, is not going to testify. We are then not putting up this other witness. Now he's really looking at an issue for appeal because he's saying, I have an opportunity here to make a strategic move. I'm not going to put up my witnesses if we can't really put forth a case that we want to put forth in the mitigation phase right now.

BANFIELD: And I'll tell you what, I think we're even beyond that. I don't think it's just the intimidated witness who doesn't want to testify any longer, this defense team has now suggested to this judge there are no mitigation witnesses now that will testify. The story behind the ex-boyfriend and why he now won't be standing up for Jodi Arias is still a mystery. And it takes a while for us to get any kind of public records. They don't come out right as they're filed or even adjudicated by this judge. They actually take a day or so. And maybe we'll find out beforehand.

But, Jeff Brown, look, I get it, defense attorneys have to preserve the record at every movement in a case. That's their job. Or you find yourself down the road in a case of ineffective assistance of counsel. In this particular case, though, these are not only defense attorneys who are trying to protect the record for any kind of potential appeal, but they're trying to quit the case. They've had it. This is the second round of trying to quit the case in days.

JEFF BROWN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes. You know, what we're looking at here, under the Supreme Court of Strickland v. Washington, when you get to an ineffectiveness of assistance of counsel claim, the question that the count's going to be looking at down the road is whether or not this is deficient lawyering, and whether or not there's prejudice here. The fact that these witnesses or a witness chooses not to testify happens in trials all the time. I've had that happen in countless trials. I've tried over 125 trials. Death cases as a prosecutor and defense counsel as well.

The question, though, that the court would want to know is, was this witness under subpoena? You know, the defense can subpoena the witness and force the witness on to testify. Now, that may not be a good strategy for them because, you know, you don't want to put a witness that's reluctant, but you can force that witness on the stand. So what we have here is trial strategy by the defense lawyers saying, she doesn't want to testify, we're not going to force her to testify. I don't see this as being anywhere close to ineffective assistance of counsel. Lawyers make trial strategy decisions all the time. None of those will come back as ineffective assistance of counsel claim. So that's the issue that they're debating right now. The bigger question, though, is, why did they move for a motion to withdraw? Why are they trying to get off this case? And I think it has something to do more than that. I think the issue that's going on here is that they don't like where the defendant is taking them. She may be giving them instructions to do certain things that they don't feel is in her best interest, such as letting her get on the stand and testify that she wants to be put to death. So I think there are bigger issues that are going on behind those motions.

BANFIELD: How about - how about, Jeff, a client who gives an interview to a local television station minutes after finding out she's guilty of first degree murder, before they're even able to get into the penalty phase, that's what you call intransigence to the max. And any attorney worth his weight is probably going to say to the judge, I give up, I cannot stop this freight train that's just run amok. So, I mean, look, I don't think we -

BROWN: But that's not -

BANFIELD: have to be within closed doors to find out that Jodi Arias is a difficult client. Make the last point quickly, if you would.

BROWN: Well, she did that, though. So that's something that's on her. The lawyers aren't responsible for that.

BANFIELD: Yes. Yes.

JENKINS: They've lost control of their client and that's the issue. They've lost control of their client.

BROWN: Totally.

BANFIELD: She may be uncontrollable. There may be no control over someone like this.

I have to put you on pause there for a moment. Faith Jenkins and Jeff Brown, if you could stand by for a moment. We've got a lot more on this case. But we also have this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Boy, that thing is huge.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, we're getting hit with rain here soon. Got to get ready to go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Wow. An absolutely terrifying weekend in the Midwest. Tornadoes, monster tornadoes, more than two dozen of them reported in five different states. Two people now reportedly killed. Up to 300 homes damaged or completely destroyed. Our George Howell is standing by in Shawnee, Oklahoma, one of the areas hardest hit.

And I can see the debris behind you. It's probably not surprising they're now calling this an EF-4 tornado, at least one of them, that went through your area, George.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ashleigh, an EF-4. I mean when you get here on the ground and you see the damage, you see the destruction that a tornado like this can cause, I mean it's overwhelming. I mean you look around, you see all of this debris. These are people's belongings. These are parts of their home. And now, today, is a day where people have come back to see what's left over. You know, to try to pick through and find things to start over.

Now, all day we've been telling you about the home of Jenny Addington. And this is -- used to be her home. This used to be the door. This used to be the living room. And this used to be the kitchen over here. We've been following this situation with her. She was in the restroom, in her bathroom, when this storm came through. Tell us about what happened to your mom, Jesse.

JESSIE ADDINGTON, SHAWNEE RESIDENT: Umm, she was in the bathroom. She said she was getting ready and, you know, she told her cat that it was going to pass and everything was going to be OK. And then she said, all of a sudden, she heard the wind, big high winds, and the - her bedroom windows blew out and all the windows were blowing out and she heard it and she said she didn't have time to even think. I mean it just collapsed on her. And she said it threw her around like a rag doll.

HOWELL: I did want to come back to you, though, because, you know, your mother survived and you were telling us about some good news. Tell us about that.

ADDINGTON: My best friend found her dog. He was inside the house when their house got picked up. So they think he might be paralyzed, but he is alive. So it's kind of a good thing. I wish I could find my cat, but, you know.

HOWELL: Thank you for taking time. I mean you celebrate the little things out here. And it's going to take a long time for people to clean up.

There is a small window of time, Ashleigh, for people to come here, look for things, and then get out of the way because, again, more storms are coming through this area again tonight. So, you know, this is not the place to be when that happens.

BANFIELD: There is just nowhere to seek shelter when you see something ripped off its base like that. Unbelievable pictures. George Howell, thank you, live reporting for us in Shawnee, Oklahoma, one of the hardest hit areas.

And coming up next, a police officer responding to a home invasion ends up accidentally killing a college student. What on earth went wrong? And could anything like this have been prevented? I'm going to speak with a former hostage negotiator about protocol and whether this could have been prevented even with protocol, after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: It is an unthinkable tragedy. A 21-year-old Hofstra University student taken captive while celebrating the end of the college year with her twin sister and their friend. Police arrived at Andrea Rebello's off campus house after a 911 call came in reporting that a gunman, a home intruder, had broken in. When the officers arrived, they say the suspect was holding a gun to Andrea's head, but then turned that gun towards the responding police officer. A split second decision to pull the trigger ended Rebello's life, but it was not the hostage taker who fired that fatal shot. It was the police officer who was there to instead save her. Andrea Rebello, a public relations major, was remembered at her school's graduation ceremony.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live the life you love and love the life you live. Please join us in a moment of silence in her memory.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: A psychologist at the school also spoke about the veteran officer involved in this shooting, saying that he is likely suffering too and will have to live with this for the rest of his life. Joining me now is Wally Zeins, a former NYPD hostage negotiator.

Wally, this is just an incredible tragedy. When it comes right down to the investigators and what they need to look at right now, does it all come down to the point of what they knew and when they knew it? Did they know that there was a hostage situation or did they just think it was an armed robber in a home?

WALLACE ZEINS, FMR. NYPD HOSTAGE NEGOTIATOR: Well, Ashleigh, you know, we can second guess and do desktop quarterbacking, but the bottom line to it is, a decision had to be made very, very quickly. I understand that the hostage team was called and their emergency service was called, but the officer did go in and when he saw that perp point the gun at him, all bets went off, which means that he had to think about his life and he had to think about the hostage and he had to think about, what is he going to do?

Gunfights in New York City, they happen in -- within three seconds and between seven and 20 feet. So there's not a lot of time to think. And you actually get tunnel vision in a situation like this. He did what he had to do. And it's a tragic, tragic thing that took place. And, you know, you look at some of these incidents --

BANFIELD: Let me ask you this, Wally.

ZEINS: Pardon me?

BANFIELD: I -- there was - I want to ask you, there was an expert earlier on today who said that one of the first things in the officer's protocol should have been to find safe refuge where he could continue his work while out of the line of fire. But if he had to make a split second decision, seeing a gun turning towards him, do you dive out of the way and risk him killing the hostage or do you shoot?

ZEINS: That's a decision that is made by the particular individual. You know, you're taught that once a person points the gun at you, you're going to end up having to think about your life or the other person's life.

Also, this guy may have wanted suicide by cop. I mean the name of the game in this is that it was a - it was a terrible, terrible tragedy. Yes, our protocol in the New York City Police Department is, we have a hostage incident, we try to cover and containment and start to get a dialogue going with the particular hostage taker. We also try to get the person into a dialogue where the hostage team gets there and the emergency service personnel get there and then the first responding officers come back out and let the hostage teams start the conversation.

BANFIELD: Just a very sad story all around. Wally, thank you for your insight this afternoon.

From high school dropout to billionaire. It is not a story you hear often. You probably don't even recognize this person. But Yahoo! has finalized a deal to buy his company for $1 billion, approximately, give or take. Surprising details about him, his background and this company coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Country music star Kellie Pickler has certainly performed in front of packed houses and this week she's competing in the finals of "Dancing with the Stars." So she knows a thing or two about being under pressure and being in the public eye. She says it is absolutely nothing compared to when she was singing for the troops on a USO tour. And she talks about why volunteering with the USO is so important to her in this "Impact Your World."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLIE PICKLER, MUSICIAN: Hey there, I'm Kellie Pickler. I come from a military family. I've always had a great deal of respect for our service men and women. Work a lot with the USO. I love working with them. And we've been able to go and do so many tours overseas.

Where are my girls at? All right.

To be in a position where you can take a little piece of home to your service men and women, I mean why would you not do that?

Because they need to know that we have their back, because they have ours. Just the right thing to do. And that's why I do it.

The USO, they've been doing this for over 60 years. And you cannot compare those shows to any other show that you do. I wish I could just donate my whole time to just doing those tours. I'd do it in a heartbeat. I love it.

Join the movement, "Impact Your World," and you can be a part of something really special.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: Will the Powerball winner please stand up or least come forward and tell everybody that you're the one that we all are so frustrated won that big jackpot? Somebody in Zephyrhills, Florida, bought the winning ticket at this Publix store, and it is a bonanza. It's worth $590 million. But so far nobody is saying boo. No one's come forward to claim it. And even the mayor, at this point, is pretty stumped.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does anybody know who the winner is?

MAYOR DANIEL BURGESS, ZEPHYRHILLS, FLORIDA: That is the best kept secret in town. You can't keep a secret in this town. And I know that for sure. The rumor mill's flying, but somebody knows, but they're not saying.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: So, while there is one winning ticket, there are certainly a lot of losing tickets and a lot of losers out there. One guy who's definitely not one of them, did not play Powerball, but he's a very rich man today nonetheless and it has nothing to do with luck, has to do with being pretty clever.

David Karp, Yahoo!'s newest employee, at the ripe young age of 26 years old, a college and a high school dropout. A high school dropout. And the man behind the website Yahoo! just bought for $1.1 billion in cash. Tumblr. Tumblr, better known as cash cow. The Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer is betting a lot on the social blogging site, hoping to tap its younger and more active user base for advertising dollars. And in return, she promises concerned Tumblr users to, quote, "not screw it up." That's a big, tall order, too.

We're going to get to the Tumblr founder, David Karp, and his new fortune in just a moment. But first, let's go over just exactly what Tumblr is. If you don't know yet, think of it as a big old blog and a Twitter feed. You can post pretty much anything you want on it. Thoughts and pictures of video and links. But what makes Tumblr unique is the ability to reblog something. So, say you have a favorite sports team, mine, for example, happens to be the Winnipeg Jets, for very good reason, they are excellent. Bobby Hull used to play for them. Here's a Tumblr devoted to all things Winnipeg Jets. Where's my Evander Kane? Where is he? Where is he? I don't see him right there. All right, so they post the pictures. You can post anything that you like. You can reblog the same content and share it on and on. My personal Tumblr for all to see, there you go, you got the gist of it, or you don't.

Let's get to the guy behind this site though. I want to bring in Laurie Segall with CNN Money for more on David Karp.

Wow. Honestly, a high school dropout? And we're not even talking millionaire, we're talking billionaire at this point. I said it wasn't a lucky thing and I'm right, right?

LAURIE SEGALL, CNN MONEY: You're absolutely right. You know, I know David. I've met him a couple times. A lot of people say he's just a genius. He's a very, very smart guy. And the one thing I'll say that he said right as this all happened, he wrote a note and he put it on Tumblr and he said, we're not turning purple. Our headquarters isn't moving. Our team isn't changing. Our road map isn't changing. You're looking at it right there.

But really what he's trying to get at is what a lot of people were talking about, will this remain authentic? Is Tumblr going to, you know, become part of Yahoo! and is it going to change? A lot of people concerned about that.

But, really, David Karp is an interesting character. I will tell you that, Ashleigh. I just -- to go over a couple of things you might not know about him. He -- you mentioned this earlier. He didn't finish high school. Taught himself to code at a very young age. He founded Tumblr at 19. And also, I should mention, he founded Tumblr in New York. A huge tech company in New York City, not Silicon Valley. A lot of people think you have to start a tech company in Silicon Valley. And he very much set the precedent that you absolutely don't have to do that.