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Arizona Mom Freed from Mexican Jail; Tsarnaev Brothers Worked Out Before Attack; Leaked Photos in Pistorius Case; Stocks Pointing to Lower Open; American Woman Killed in Syria; Outcry as Detroit Weighs Art Sale

Aired May 31, 2013 - 09:00   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM.

YANIRA MALDONADO, RELEASED FROM MEXICAN PRISON: I'm very grateful that I'm free.

COSTELLO: Tearful thanks from the Arizona mom locked in a Mexican jail for more than a week on a trumped-up drug smuggling charge.

Also, for the first time, video of what Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his little brother Dzhokhar were doing just 72 hours before the bombing. They were working out.

Plus.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is your wall cloud right there. Look at that wall cloud, dude. Dude, it's coming straight at us.

COSTELLO: Tornadoes, flooding, fires, and now comes the heat.

And Amelia Earhart's plane? Found?

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And good morning. Thank you so much for being with me. I'm Carol Costello.

This morning the nightmare is finally over. An Arizona mom walked out of a Mexican jail and into the arms of her husband.

Right now she's back on American soil just hours after a Mexican judge threw out accusations of marijuana smuggling.

Yanira Maldonado says she screamed -- you heard her -- when she was told.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MALDONADO: I'm free. I'm totally like, I'm, free, I'm free. I was innocent. So I was very, very happy. So to be out. (END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: We're covering all of angles. Rafael Romo is in Nogales, Arizona, where Yanira Maldonado spoke to us. And Casey Wian is in the family hometown of Goodyear where the community awaits her return.

Rafael, I want to start with you. What was the turning point in securing her freedom?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SR. LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: Well, it was a very important piece of evidence that defense attorney introduced into the proceedings yesterday. It was a video showing the couple, Gary and -- and her -- and his wife, boarding the bus, getting into the bus, only carrying a couple of blankets, a couple of bottles of water and her purse, and you couldn't see any other packages, you couldn't see them carrying anything else.

And when the judge saw that, that's when the prosecution's case began to crumble, and the defense attorney says that was the piece of evidence to -- that we needed to conclusively show the judge that Yanira is innocent and that eventually that was going to help us set her free. So very happy family this morning and back here on American soil -- Carol.

COSTELLO: OK. So why didn't Mexican police look at the security video before they threw her into jail?

ROMO: They had to go through a process. The video had essentially to be subpoenaed and it took a couple of days before they had access to it. Part of it had to do with technical problems. The software, being able to transfer the video to the courthouse, but we had an opportunity to actually sit down in the courtroom when the video was shown to the family, to the defense attorney, and the prosecution, and it is -- it was very clear, Carol, that there was no way that inside two very small blankets they were going to be able to carry more than 12 pounds of marijuana.

COSTELLO: Wow. Rafael Romo, thank you.

Let's get to Casey Wian now in Goodyear. Do we know when she's due to arrive home?

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We don't know exactly when, Carol. It will be sometime later this morning. Perhaps early afternoon. We believe they're getting some very well deserved rest in Nogales, Arizona, which is about a 2 1/2 to 3-hour drive from here in Goodyear.

What I can tell you, though, is Yanira Maldonado's daughter, I spoke with her overnight as she was preparing for her mother to arrive home. She was ecstatic. Very happy. You remember the interview we did with her earlier this week. She was devastated, distraught, emotional, she couldn't even speak about her mother's situation without breaking into tears.

This family has maintained all along that she was 100 percent innocent. And as this court case proceeded throughout the week, their hope grew even strong.

Rafael talked about that videotape evidence. Even before that videotape evidence was played when the members of the Mexican military who arrested Yanira Maldonado did not show up to give up their side of the story earlier this week, that gave the family hope that this case would reach a positive conclusion.

They were expecting that it would happen sometime later today. It was quite a positive surprise that it happened so quickly overnight -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Casey Wian reporting live from Goodyear, awaiting the family to arrive home. Hopefully they'll be there shortly.

New chilling video this morning shows the Boston bombing suspects together working out in a Boston gym. The image is taken on a surveillance camera just 72 hours before the attack.

Could the brothers have been prepping for the Boston bombing?

CNN's national correspondent Deborah Feyerick is in New York to answer some questions for us.

Good morning, Deb.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. And, you know, the only time we have actually ever seen the brothers together before now is when they were walking down Boylston Street to allegedly plant the bombs that attacked the Boston marathon.

Now we see them together again, three days before those attacks took place. They appear relaxed, calm, very sort of mellow in terms of what they're doing. It's an interesting glimpse into the days before.

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FEYERICK (voice-over): Seventy-two hours before the bombs detonated almost to the minute, suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev worked out together in a gym in Boston. Security cameras at the Waikru Mixed Martial Arts Center show the brothers arriving with a friend just before 2:45 Friday afternoon.

We spoke to the manager who asked we only use his first name Michael. He says Tamerlan, who you see in a hat, looked different, noticeably missing, Tamerlan's full bushy religious beard which he's had for about two years.

The manager describes Tamerlan as extremely opinionated and outspoken about his Muslim religion and says he didn't ask Tamerlan why he'd shaved because he didn't want to engage in what was likely to be a long, heated debate. Now he wonders whether Tamerlan shaving the beard may have been part of an Islamic ritual purification prior to death.

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERROR ANALYST: Shaving the beard may be a way to blend in, not to attract scrutiny from security services in carrying out the Boston attack.

FEYERICK: Tamerlan trained at Waikru several times a month for free, a professional courtesy to the nationally ranked Golden Gloves boxer. Dzhokhar rarely came, showing up just two or three times in roughly two years.

CRUICKSHANK: We've seen with Western militants, want-to-be jihadists, a real emphasis on physical training, physical fitness, wanting to be prepared for jihad.

FEYERICK: Almost immediately, the manager, who is off screen to the right, asks the men to follow posted gym rules and take off their shoes. Younger brother Dzhokhar complies right away. Tamerlan does not. Arguing instead. Not giving any ground.

The manager later e-mails the owner asking him to ban Tamerlan, calling him arrogant, selfish, never helping anyone else. The argument doesn't seem to faze Tamerlan who is the first one in the ring. His years of training are evident. Watch how skillfully he handles the jump rope. Dzhokhar has more difficulty, less stamina as he struggles to hold up the oversized shorts.

The manager says the man in the middle was introduced as a friend. We blurred his face. He was later questioned and released by the FBI. Tamerlan remains focused, barely missing or breaking stride.

It's right here that the brothers interact. They seemed relaxed. Dzhokhar resting at times, Tamerlan moving, moving, working out 72 hours before two bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston marathon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK: And, Carol, the FBI agents who went to this gym days after to question the owners say that they did get a snapshot of the video. They were in such a rush that they didn't get the video in its entirety, just still shots so that they can pursue the investigation. One lead, one strong lead from there, was this man who was recently shot and killed in Florida. Ibragim Todashev, apparently he, too, trained there and he knew Tamerlan Tsarnaev -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Wow. Deborah Feyerick, reporting live from New York City this morning.

We just got these pictures in to CNN. For the first time we're seeing bloody crime scene photos from the scene where Oscar Pistorius shot his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentine's Day.

Joining us from Johannesburg, South Africa, is CNN's Robyn Curnow.

Robyn, you've seen these photos. Describe them to us.

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, I think the key photograph is that bloodied bathroom in which Reeva Steenkamp shot. You can see from the images there's blood on the floor, there's blood on the toilet seat. Also key is the door because as you remember Oscar Pistorius shot his girlfriend through a closed door and then markers on that door indicating where the bullet holes went through.

Now of course, that's key because forensics, ballistics will be able to determine what height. You know, what trajectory the bullets went -- the bullets went in. And, of course, that will either disprove or prove Oscar Pistorius' version of events that he didn't have his -- his prosthetic legs on and that it was just a tragic accident.

If they prove from the direction of the bullets through that door that he did have his prosthetic legs on, well then that's a whole another story. So essentially, what you're looking a very key piece of evidence that is being leaked or sold to another news organization. The legal ramifications of that? Will it delay the case? You know, what kind of impact will it have?

Perhaps not the same as in the U.S., where this is not a jury system in this country. So it's just a judge, as legal expert telling me, it might not have as much an impact in terms of contempt of court. But still issues around bribery and corruption, and possible criminal charges, both for the person who leaked this information and the organization that might have bought it.

COSTELLO: And just a word about that photograph. I know it's difficult to see anything at all because we -- CNN had decided the picture in black and white. It's in color, it was just too grisly to show in the morning. But again it's unusual that a crime scene photo would be released to the public.

I know that you exclusively got into the uncle of Oscar -- the uncle's house of Oscar Pistorius, where Oscar is staying right now. What does he say about this case and evidence that's continuing to leak?

CURNOW: Well, first of all, before I even get to that, just remember that this is so startling, the release -- the secret leaking of this evidence is so startling, even Oscar Pistorius' own legal team has not seen these photographs until today. They literally have been put into the public forum before the defense team had a chance to analyze them. So this is highly irregular and there's going to be some serious repercussions from this, no doubt.

As for Oscar Pistorius, I actually got to see him, an exclusive invitation into his uncle's home where he's been living for the last three months since he was released from police custody. Oscar looked very sad, he had grown a beard, and I know that when I put the question to his uncle later who is speaking for him, because Pistorius is not giving interviews, Pistorius has said to me that he still had a lot of photographs of Reeva and that he was still in deep mourning, and his uncle said, yes, his state of mind has been very, very shaky essentially.

That he's -- you know, they're very worried about him. And that he really is still very much battling to get over this issue, not only that his girlfriend is dead, but that he was the instrument that led to her death. And his uncle felt that Oscar will never get over this, and it's something he's going to have to cope with, you know, beyond the fact that there is a big trial ahead.

COSTELLO: Robin Curnow, reporting live for us this morning.

Wait until you see this. Here it is. Look at that. A two-passenger airplane poked out of the roof of an apartment building in Herndon, Virginia. And remarkably there were only minor injuries among the two people on board. And one person actually was hurt in the building because that plane went into somebody's apartment.

A witness says -- the person actually in that apartment said the pilot stumbled out of the wreckage and said to the stunned resident, I think we hit your apartment. You think?

A crane was brought in a couple of hours ago to remove the plane from the apartment building. You see that? Sources tell CNN affiliate WJLA that the plane was coming in from Philadelphia and it ran out of fuel.

We're also following some severe weather. Areas from Oklahoma through the Ozarks bracing for tornadoes today. This new threat coming the day after homes were ripped apart and businesses damaged by high winds and several reports of tornadoes on Thursday.

At one point, areas from Texas all the way to Michigan were under tornado watches. And it wasn't just the high winds that had residents on alert. Many areas also saw torrential rain and even golf ball sized hail.

And again, rain would be a welcome sight in Southern California, where 500 firefighters are battling a 1,000 acre fire in Santa Clarita. A nearby community is under a mandatory evacuation. Investigators don't know yet how that fire started.

Taking a look at "YOUR MONEY" now. It has been a roller coaster week on Wall Street. All three major indices closes -- closed higher on Thursday, but the months' long momentum seems to be waning now.

Alison Kosik is in New York to tell us more. Good morning, Alison.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Get ready for stocks to fall at the open. Today's concern is Europe because what we learned overnight is that unemployment in the 17-nation Eurozone it climbed to a record 12.2 percent. That's more than 19 million people in Europe without a job, many of them are young people.

Now here's why all of this is spooking our markets. Because it means less demand for our goods. For American goods that are exported to Europe. The EU is our second biggest customer, second only to Canada and exports to the EU were down by about $5 billion in the first three months of this year, compared to the first three months of last year.

So, Carol, that's why you're going to see stocks under pressure today, but the Dow still on track for six straight months of gains, and the average up more than 3 percent for May, all that in a month that usually sees investors sell stocks. You know, the old adage, sell in May, go away? Not applying this year -- Carol.

(LAUGHTER) COSTELLO: Alison Kosik in New York this morning.

It's going to be 3.6 million miles away. Today, a huge asteroid will zip by the earth. The shooting piece of space rock is about 1.7 miles wide. That's nine cruise ships wide. It also has its own orbiting moon, which NASA calls a potential city killer on its own.

But don't worry, the asteroid won't come anywhere close to hitting the earth. The asteroid fly by, happens just before 5:00 p.m. eastern Time if you want to be on the alert, though.

Just ahead on THE NEWSROOM: an American killed fighting alongside Syrian rebels. What drove her to risk her life for Syria?

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COSTELLO: Eighteen minutes past the hour. Time to check our top stories.

A little more than an hour from now, college student will join President Obama at the White House as he presses Congress to stop student loan rates from doubling. Without action, interest rates on federally subsidized Stafford rates will jump to 6.8 percent on July 1st. Washington also is debating a long term fix. House Republicans want loan rates to fluctuate with the market, capped at 8.5 percent. The White House wants fixed rates, no cap.

Every photographer has been laid off at "The Chicago Sun-Times." Every single photographer, that's according to "The Chicago Tribune." "The Tribune" says "The Sun-Times" will now use freelancers and have reporters shoot photos and video as well.

There's a new national spelling bee winner this morning. He is 13- year-old Arvind Mahankali. He's from New York, and won by spelling knaidel correctly. Knaidel is a German derived Yiddish word for dumpling.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARVIND MAHANKALI, 2013 SCRIPPS NATIONAL SPELLING BEE CHAMP: Knaidel, K-N-A-I-D-E-L, knaidel.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And he might have been a little nervous, because get this, he took third place at the spelling bee twice and was eliminated on German words both times. His price package includes $32,000 in cash and savings bonds.

A 33-year-old Flint, Michigan, woman is dead, reportedly killed while fighting alongside Syrian rebels. Her name was Nicole Mansfield. Her passport and driver's license were shown on Syrian TV, along with the identification of a British woman. Mansfield's family confirmed her identity last night. According to the Syrian TV report, the victims, both victims were found with weapons.

Nick Paton Walsh joins us now.

Nick, what else are Syrians saying about Mansfield's death?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they were allegedly killed in Idlib, a city in the north of the country, hotly contested between the regime and rebels. They have shown grisly pictures of their corpses, but also the Volkswagen they were driving, ammunition, bonnets, the driver's license and alleged passport of Ms. Flynn and also the British passport of what seems to be a British man as well.

Of course, Syrian state TV, seizing upon this, what they have long claimed to be foreign involvement, fueling what they say is a terrorist insurgency. Of course, most conceive it to be the result of oppression, people fighting back against that. We don't know much more in terms of allegations.

But we know from speaking to the grandmother in the United States that that Nicole it seems converted to Islam in the last three to five years. She hadn't seen her with six to eight months. Didn't know how she came to me in Syria, and three years ago, went to Dubai for, quote, "religious reasons," had to cut that particular trip short.

Little known as this point, although we are clear about her identity. But, of course, we're just hearing allegations made by the Syrian state to have a clear agenda to push here -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And you have been inside Syria. It must be unusual to see an American woman fighting alongside rebel forces.

WALSH: We don't know if she was fighting, but it's interesting that she would be in a contested area, being caught in what appears to be an ambush in Idlib. There are many activist groups, humanitarian groups. She could have been working alongside those. We really don't know much about that.

But, of course, the issue really is the broader one, the foreign involvement inside the Syrian role. The government, the Syrian state, says there are lots of foreign fighters, from Iraq, Libya, you name it where, fighting along side al Qaeda affiliated groups inside the country. The West partially agrees with that.

And then, of course, on the Syrian side, we've just seen Hezbollah group, a large military group inside Lebanon, fully throw their weight behind the Assad regime. So, these foreign forces flowing into the country. It's curious, though that in this week, where so many other nations are accused of that, this one particular American female that the Syrian state chooses to tout as an example of foreign influence here, Carol.

COSTELLO: Nick Paton Walsh, reporting live for us this morning. Still ahead in THE NEWSROOM: Detroit fire sale at the city's museum. They are seriously thinking of selling Degas, Rembrandts, and Van Gogh to raise billions of dollars.

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COSTELLO: Fire sale in Detroit. Potentially on the table: Van Goghs, Rodins, and Rembrandts. It's a scenario that's appalling to many art lovers around the world. But Detroit is deeply in debt, and what better way to raise a couple billion dollars than to auction off the city's fine art.

More now from CNN's Poppy Harlow.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Matisse, Renoir, Van Gogh, Diego Rivera's iconic "Detroit Industry," treasures at the Detroit Institute of Art.

GRAHAM BEAL, DIRECTOR, THE DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS: So, this is a Monet.

HARLOW: A Monet that could be sold to pay down Detroit's debt. More than $15 billion in debt, Detroit's emergency, Kevin Orr, asked the museum for an inventory to appraise its 60,000 pieces.

BEAL: They basically let us know that the collection was not off the table.

HARLOW (on camera): What makes Detroit unique is that the city actually owns all of the art here, making vulnerable for sale. In most cities, a nonprofit owns the art.

(voice-over): In a statement, Orr insists there is no plan on the table to sell any asset of the city. But says if it is possible that the city's creditors could demand the city use its assets to settle its debts. That's if Detroit files for bankruptcy.

(on camera): What did you think when you heard that this was under consideration?

LAURA BARTELL, LAW PROFESSOR, WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY: He has got to look at what assets Detroit has, what they are worth and whether they should be sold.

HARLOW: Would it be irresponsible for him not to do this?

BARTELL: Absolutely.

HARLOW (voice-over): But the possibility of selling off beloved masterpieces is sparking heated debate.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I cannot even imagine this not being here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's one of the things that to me that makes the city worth going to.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope it doesn't get sold off.

HARLOW (on camera): What would the sale of this mean?

BEAL: It would be a tragic irony. The first U.S. museum to acquire a Van Gogh, in 1922, and then 90 years later, we sell it?

HARLOW (voice-over): Some works were donated with the mandate they not be sold. Most, though, are on the table.

CHARLES PUGH, DETROIT CITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT: How in the hell are you going to sell a Renoir or a Van Gogh or a Jacob Lawrence painting to pay our bills?

HARLOW (on camera): But this city more than $15 billion in the hole.

PUGH: But, see, selling your artwork should not be one way to fix it. It's like selling your kids. There are other assets we can leverage, get this money that we need.

HARLOW: What power do you have?

BEAL: We have the power of the courts. We will defend. We'll do everything we can to defend the integrity of this collection, yes.

HARLOW (voice-over): As have people in three counties, who voted last year to increase their own taxes to support the museum when the city no longer could. But if Detroit goes bankrupt, nothing may be able to save these masterpieces.

Poppy Harlow, CNN, Detroit.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And the "Detroit News" is reporting today that a state lawmaker has introduced a bill that could prevent the sale of those priceless works of art. That bill will be up for discussion next week. We'll keep you posted.

Still ahead in THE NEWSROOM: the fed moves in, investigation bears down. We're live in Texas for the latest on the ricin investigation.

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