Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

People Still Missing After Oklahoma Tornado; Pistorius Awaiting Hearing in Murder Case; Leaked Photos in Pistorius Case; Angelina Jolie Hits the Red Carpet; Supreme Court Decisions Soon; Senator Frank Lautenberg Dies

Aired June 03, 2013 - 09:30   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: -- But a weekend storm in Oklahoma proved to be too much for three storm chasers. They died. Their story is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Good morning. Thank you so much for being with me. I'm Carol Costello. Altogether, the five tornadoes that tore a path of destruction through Oklahoma for the second time in nearly two weeks is blamed for 13 deaths. Today the focus turns to finding six people who are still missing including four who hid out in storm drains. CNN's Ed Lavendera is in hard-hit El Reno, Oklahoma. Good morning, Ed.

ED LAVENDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Well, that search for those still missing has already started again here this morning in the Oklahoma City area. So that will continue. We'll monitor that as well. But you know, Carol, it's interesting, this tornado that struck on Friday night wasn't as strong as the tornado that struck Moore, Oklahoma just two weeks ago. But that doesn't mean that the havoc that it wreaked wasn't any less destructive.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAVENDERA: The search for six missing people swept away in flash floodwaters will continue Monday morning. The bodies of three children and two adults were found Sunday. They drowned as they tried to hide in storm drains from Friday night's storms. Three storm chasers were also killed by the ferocious tornado, their car mangled and shredded by the storm's force found on a back country road.

Around Oklahoma city, again people are staring at their homes and piles of rubble and for Dana Trammel, it's not first time.

When you look at all of that, where in the world do you begin?

DANA TRAMMEL, TORNADO VICTIM: Well, if it hadn't been for the other time, you know, I probably would have been more devastated than I am now. But I'm used to it now.

LAVENDERA: Used to it because as crazy as this might sound, just two years ago, another tornado destroyed his house.

Do you feel uncincredibly unlucky?

TRAMMEL: Sometimes. It's kind of hard to take. The more I walk around and look and see the stuff that's scattered everywhere, it makes it a little tougher.

LAVENDERA: It is hard to take.

TRAMMEL: Yeah. Well, I mean this is basically you're looking at everything I owned.

LAVENDERA: Trammel says the only thing he wants to find is an old picture of his little boy with a cast on his arm running around in daddy's shoes.

TRAMMEL: I'm just afternoon trade it's gone. I don't think it's possible. As much as it rained, even if it's there, it's more than likely ruined.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is really nothing left much of anything.

LAVENDERA: The acres of Angels Farm is a refuse for abused animals in the town of El Reno. Angela Coble cares for everything from pigeons to dogs to llamas. One of those llamas was killed. This llama and several horses and donkeys had to be taken to shelters for treatment of wounds. But her family lived here, in a 117-year-old two story farmhouse that had endured countless Oklahoma storms, but not this one.

ANGELA COBLE, TORNADO VICTIM: It was special because we really had our fingers planted pretty deep in caring for the animals. It was just like a simple country life kind of home. You're away from the city and I loved it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: This weekend one of the things, the constant themes we've heard over and over form people as we've talked to them about what it's been like this tornado season, they say this has been a tornado season for the ages. But they are kind of at the edge of their nerves. And with so many tornado warnings and so many close calls with these storms. And they can't wait for this tornado season to simply be over.

COSTELLO: I bet. Ed Lavendera reporting live from Oklahoma this morning.

Coming up, in the NEWSROOM a day before a court hearing for accused killer Oscar Pistorius. CNN's found rare and never before seen photos of Reeva Steenkamp, the model girlfriend Pistorius is accused of murdering. We'll talk about that and crime scene photos released to the public.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Olympian Oscar Pistorius, forced out of hiding, will appear in court tomorrow. Pistorius has admitted to shooting and killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, but prosecutors want to postpone the case so they can investigate further what happened that night. It will be one of Pistorius' first and only public appearances since February.

This is exclusive CNN footage of Pistorius' uncle's house where the South African sprinter has been living since getting out on bail. Pistorius says he's not left the house, spending most of his time in a room surrounded by photos of Reeva, and that he's even grown beard.

On the heels of tomorrow's hearing, we've also found rare and never before seen modeling photos of Reeva Steenkamp taken just months before her death. Here is Robyn Curnow.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It was on the beaches of this South African seaside town that a young law student aspired to be a model posing for these amateur snapshots. That young wannabee model was Reeva Steenkamp.

Just a few years later, she had transformed herself into a Cover Girl. She might have looked different, but she didn't change inside, said her student friend, Kerry Smith, who took those pictures on the beach about 8 years ago.

KERRY SMITH, FRIEND OF REEVA STEENKAMP: If anything, that's Reeva in her natural beauty. Not a stitch of make upon, hair blowing in the wind with the sea behind her, sun setting behind her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Another one from the shoot.

CURNOW: Reeva was a confident, professional model -- ambitious, too, says Gareth Barclay (ph) who shot these photographs a few months before she was shot dead by her boyfriend, Oscar Pistorius.

Pistorius says it was a tragic accident, that he thought she was an intruder. The state says it was murder. For now, it's just images of Reeva that are left to explain the kind of person she was.

GARETH BARCLAY: Most of the photos I took of her aren't even edited. That's just how she is. Skin was always great. Beautiful eyes. Beautiful features.

CURNOQ: Reeva asked Barclay to this photo of the tattoo etched on her neck.

BARCLAY: For her it was very personal to her. She never really spoke about it. She just wanted a personal al photo of it.

CURNOW: Reeva had a tattoo on the back of her neck that said, "only God will judge me" in Italian. Do you know why that specific tattoo?

SMITH: It was something that her grandfather had always said and was very close to her own heart.

CURNOW: Words she felt defined her. While Oscar Pistorius will eventually be judged in a South African court. (END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Robyn Curnow is live in Johannesburg, and we're going to talk in a little bit, Robyn, about these crime scene photos that were released to the public. How is Reeva's family taking this?

CURNOW: Well, her family have spoken of their grief. In a recent interview her mother gave quite an emotional account saying he shot her until she was dead, he shot her until she was dead, I want to know why. A question any mother would want to know. And of course there is also the other side of the story, I was inside Oscar Pistorius' uncle's home, we saw Oscar and his uncle telling me he can't imagine the grief the Steenkamps are going through. He says no doubt they must be feeling utter sadness, but also anger. So this is a story, a tragedy that is not just polarized two families, but also reverberated across the country because Oscar Pistorius was such a hero here.

COSTELLO: Around the world, too. Robyn Curnow, many thanks. This is one of the images I was talking about. It was leaked to the media last week. Purportedly shows the blood splattered bathroom where Pistorius fatally shot his girlfriend. And you have to look closely, but you can see a trail of blood leading from a bathroom and there is also blood on the walls and the toilet. And what appears to be two bullet holes in the door. Criminal defense attorney Page Pate joins me now to analyze this. How harmful to the case is the release of the photos? I mean there's more that one photo. We're just showing you one. The rest are really graphic.

PAGE PATE, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Right. It can be harmful, but remember, South Africa is very different than the United States. He's not going to have a jury trial over there. So we don't have to worry about pretrial publicity affect the way jury's going to listen to the case at trial. In South Africa, he'll be judged by a judge. So the type of prejudicial evidence we see, graphic photos, grizzly testimony, it's not going to be as detrimental to the defense as it would be if there were a jury trial.

COSTELLO: But there are other problems in the case. For example, the lead investigator is now gone from the police department of South Africa because he himself was accused of killing someone. So I'm just not clear how this is going to be a fair trial all around for Reeva Steenkamp.

PATE: Well, South Africa has apparently always had problems with police corruption and mismanagement and incompetence in their police force. So I think it's going to be interesting to see how the police force goes forward with this case, how the prosecution overcomes these credibility problems that they have with their lead investigator because credibility of the law enforcement officer is critical in a case like this.

COSTELLO: Well, the hearing starts tomorrow. Page Pate thank you so much for coming in. We appreciate it.

PATE: Thank you Carol. COSTELLO: Still ahead in the NEWSROOM, the CDC links a frozen fruit mix to a hepatitis A outbreak in five states. We'll tell you about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right. You see the empty podium there. In just a few minutes, President Obama will speak about mental health issues. This is in response to last year's shooting massacre at Newtown at that Connecticut elementary school. If you'd like to watch more about the President's speech coming up, head to CNN.com. We're streaming the event live for you.

Also this morning, Angelina Jolie on the red carpet and looking healthy, happy and grateful (ph); this is her first public appearance she decided to have a double mastectomy. Her husband -- her partner, I should say -- Brad Pitt was by her side, both in London to promote Pitt's latest movie. At times, both were emotional.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANGELINA JOLIE, ACTRESS: I feel great. I feel -- I feel wonderful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And she looked great, too. As you know, Jolie decided to have her mastectomy after going to a company called Myriad. It ran tests and discovered Jolie had the BRCA gene, the breast cancer gene. Jolie chose this company, Myriad, to do the test because she, like every other woman in the United States, had no choice. This company retains exclusive rights to all testing and research for this breast cancer gene.

That's right a company holds a patent on your genes and today the U.S. Supreme Court could decide on whether it should have that right. George Washington University Professor and constitutional lawyer Jonathan Turley is here. Good morning.

JONATHAN TURLEY, LAW PROFESSOR, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Good morning. So at the crux of this case, can human genes be patented?

TURLEY: Well you know interesting thing about this case is it comes after decades of very broad readings of patent laws. You know the Supreme Court says that basically you can patent everything under the sun that man makes. But of course genes are not made by man.

But this company is saying that they spent a lot of money isolating this gene sequence to allow people like Jolie to get the benefits from it. But the Supreme Court is dealing with a very fundamental question, as you know. But it's also part of a broader question that's been raised by many people, including myself, in the last couple of years, which is the extent to which people can now claim property ownership through copyright, trademark, patent law -- it seems like everything under the sun literally has someone's property mark on it.

And the Supreme Court will render this decision and it could be transformative, at least for the patent field.

COSTELLO: Ok.

And the other thing the U.S. Supreme Court may rule on this month, this week, even today, we're expecting an opinion on the fate of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In a nutshell, that law prohibits certain states from implementing changes in voter laws without the approval of the federal government. Those states include South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana. How is the court likely to rule?

TURLEY: Well, the odds are that they could strike down Section 5. A couple of years ago, Chief Justice Roberts stated that he had serious questions about Section 5, which is the thumping heart of this law. It's the thing that requires pre-clearance approval for 16 states and a number of the Justices, including Chief Justice Roberts asked whether this was really outdated, asked, what does it take for these 16 states to be treated like the other states for the purposes of this -- this law? They probably have the votes to strike down Section 5.

Now, if they do that, it could impact the mid-term elections, but how significant an impact is hard to say. I expect that Congress would get busy on coming up with a new formula for the legislation.

COSTELLO: Ok.

And the other cases at issue, same sex marriage, right -- they're biggies. And you're going to stick around the U.S. Supreme Court is supposedly is going to make all of these decisions --

(CROSSTALK)

TURLEY: Yes.

COSTELLO: -- this -- or release their decisions this month and we hope they do, right?

TURLEY: Yes and -- but they tend to have a sense of theatre in holding off major decisions like same-sex marriage, affirmative action. They tend to hold at least one or two to the very end. Many people felt that would be the same-sex marriage decisions -- there is two of them.

But that would not apply if they go for an out, if they decide to dismiss the case on standing or technical grounds. So we're watching those very closely.

COSTELLO: And you're going to stick around because it could happen within the next hour.

TURLEY: Absolutely.

COSTELLO: Jonathan, thank you. We appreciate it. Jonathan Turley thanks. We're back in a minute. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: And CNN has just confirmed some sad news that Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey has died. His office says the lawmaker died this morning due to complications from viral pneumonia. The World War II veteran was 89-years-old, he was the oldest member of the senate. And he'd been struggling with health issues in recent weeks -- Frank Lautenberg dead at the age of 89.

Dana Bash, you're on Capitol Hill. Well it's just sad. But he missed some Senate sessions because of illness, right?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He did. He was absent for -- for many, many votes at the beginning of this year, the end of last year because he was ill. But I just have to stay say that Frank Lautenberg is somebody who will universally be missed.

He was in the Senate for a very long time. He actually just reminded me not too recently that he was -- had been the last serving World War 2 veteran. You mentioned he was 89. He certainly until recently was a very spry 89. He also was somebody who was unabashedly liberal. He was a leader on more gun restriction, even at a time when that was certainly not what was appropriate for Democrats politically.

He really fought to help consumers. That was a big passion of his, to try to push for better safety, for children, for mothers in the products that they used. And he also had served for a very long time as a bare-knuckle, hard-knuckle Democratic senator from New Jersey. In fact, he was in the Senate two separate times. He had retired back in 2000. And then he came back. He was appointed after another senator, Bob Toricelli left in disgrace.

So he is somebody that has a lot of experience in the senate. I will also say that in the past couple of month, he had a little bit of a public spat with the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, Cory Booker, who announced that he wanted his seat. Frank Lautenberg was not shy about saying he was not happy with that. He really made it clear that he wanted to sort of go and retire on his own terms and he had already announced that he was going to retire.

So now, obviously, everybody is shocked at the news. They are going to mourn him, but also going to look ahead to see what happens in the senate when it comes to New Jersey, because the governor is, of course, Chris Christie, a Republican. He is going to have to decide who he appoints to fill out Frank Lautenberg's term.

COSTELLO: Yes. And Frank Lautenberg in the end decided he was going to retire, not run against Cory Booker, right?

BASH: Exactly.

COSTELLO: Why did he decide that?

BASH: Well, you know, I definitely got the sense that he was already headed towards announcing he was going to retire. He hadn't been well. He, again, e had served in the senate five terms. He kind of had had enough. I think that the only reason he delayed announcing his retirement is because he was so unhappy with the fact that Cory Booker, a fellow Democrat announced that he was going to challenge Frank Lautenberg in a primary. He just didn't really think that was respectful.

Eventually, he did announce that he was going to retire. But he did so with some sarcastic and, frankly, some biting words for Cory Booker. We'll see what happens with that. But I think that it goes without saying that for myself and other reporters who covered Frank Lautenberg, he was always a gentleman, Carol. He was always very polite. Always had a joke even when it came to something that was really made him mad, like the Cory Booker situation; he tried to make light of it. He was just a very pleasant man to deal with. He will be missed.

COSTELLO: Oh, Dana Bash, thanks so much.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

Happening now in the NEWSROOM, deadly chase.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go south. Brandon if you don't go south, we're going to die.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold on, brother. Hold on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Storm veterans caught and crushed by the violent storms that struck Oklahoma.

This morning, new questions about the risks these scientists take.