Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Walking In Zimmerman's Footsteps; Second Phase of Zimmerman Jury Selection; Williams Apologizes For Rape Remarks; Seven Hurt In Nitrogen-Laced Pool; Prosecutor: "Modern Day Slavery"; Search For Hoffa's Body Ends; Afghan Government Suspends Talks With U.S.; Men's Warehouse Fires Co-Founder

Aired June 19, 2013 - 14:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Today for the very first time, the parents of George Zimmerman showed up in court at his Florida murder trial. Also in that same courtroom, the parents of the teenager Zimmerman fatally shot, Trayvon Martin so these two couples on opposing sides in the same room advocating for their sons.

Zimmerman is on trial for second degree murder for the shooting 16 months ago. Attorneys are in the second phase of jury selection. Zimmerman says he was acting in self-defense. Now we get to retrace his steps from a video he did detailing his steps that deadly night. Here is Vinnie Politan from our sister network, HLN.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VINNIE POLITAN, HLN ANCHOR (voice-over): We put a camera on the hood of our car and drove through the neighborhood at night. The same drive that George Zimmerman said he made. He told police he was on his way to target.

(on camera): On the sidewalk or in the grassy --

ZIMMERMAN: In the grassy area.

POLITAN: In the grassy area. All right, about right in front of where the car is?

ZIMMERMAN: Yes, sir.

POLITAN: You just --

ZIMMERMAN: I drove past him. I went to the clubhouse on the right hand side.

POLITAN: This is where everything starts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

POLITAN: This is your front yard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, right here. POLITAN: This is where Trayvon Martin is and this is the street where George Zimmerman is driving down and sees him for the first time.

(voice-over): So what would this look like at night? In this re- enactment we stood in the same spot where George Zimmerman said Trayvon Martin stood in the front lawn in the dark. Zimmerman says he doesn't call police just yet. He continues down the street. All the way down until he gets to his subdivision's clubhouse. He parked there and made that infamous, nonemergency call to police.

UNIDENTIFIED DISPATCHER: Do you know what the -- he's near the clubhouse right now?

ZIMMERMAN: Yes. He's coming towards me.

UNIDENTIFIED DISPATCHER: OK, on the left hand side from the clubhouse?

ZIMMERMAN: He's running.

UNIDENTIFIED DISPATCHER: Which way is he running?

ZIMMERMAN: Down towards the other entrance of the neighborhood. Then he walked past me. He kept looking at my car and still looking around at the houses and stuff. Then dispatcher said where did he go, what direction did he go? I said, I don't know. I lost -- because he cut down here and made a right.

POLITAN: That's when George Zimmerman says he lost sight of Trayvon Martin. So he says he pulls his vehicle out and gets back on the road.

ZIMMERMAN: So I backed out and I parked right about where that sign is in the yard.

POLITAN: In front of the Ford truck?

ZIMMERMAN: Yes. And I saw him walking back that way and then cut through the back of the houses.

POLITAN (voice-over): Now, this is where George Zimmerman says he gets out of his vehicle, looking for an address.

ZIMMERMAN: And then I thought to get out and look for a street sign.

POLITAN: Right.

ZIMMERMAN: I got to about here and I had a flashlight with me.

POLITAN: OK.

ZIMMERMAN: The flashlight was dead, though. I looked around. I didn't see anybody.

POLITAN (voice-over): Zimmerman says he kept walking down the sidewalk towards the front of those homes to get an address. On the way back --

ZIMMERMAN: I was walking back to my truck, and then when I got to right about here, he yelled from behind me, to the side of me. He said, you got a problem? I turned around, I said, no, I don't have a problem, man.

DETECTIVE SERINO: I'm going to be the kid. What the -- is your problem? You say what you said.

ZIMMERMAN: I don't have a problem.

SERINO: At that point nothing was said. Think. What did you say the first time he hit you? There was no conversation prior. OK, we're good. Open up your eyes. Nothing at all.

POLITAN: This right here is where George Zimmerman says he shot Trayvon Martin. There are no street lamps here. The only light is what comes from the windows of these homes beside him.

UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: Somebody's yelling for help, but I don't know.

UNIDENTIFIED DISPATCHER: Do you think he's yelling help? All right, what is your --

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Let's go straight to Sanford, Florida to HLN legal correspondent, Jean Casarez, who is covering all of this for us. So Jean, let's just begin with race. Obviously race plays a role here. You're an attorney on either side, whether you're the prosecutor or defense, I mean, how do they consider race when selecting jurors?

JEAN CASAREZ, HLN LEGAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, I spoke with Mark O'Mara on camera on the eve of jury selection. I asked him that very question. He said, I don't care what color the juror is. I care about a preconceived notion, someone who's already taken a position that they can't move away from and will not listen to the evidence.

I think that's what this individual questioning has really brought out because I've seen it in some. And also, though, remember, the probable cause affidavit that is -- was attached to the information, the charging document, it says that George Zimmerman profiled Trayvon Martin. That is from the prosecution. They didn't define it.

So I think we're going to need to listen to the opening statements because was -- did he profile him because of the hoodie he was wearing, because he was walking at night by himself on the complex or because he was black? I think that's a very important part of this case, to see where the prosecutor is going to go because the elephant in the room, it is racial profiling.

BALDWIN: And then here as we mentioned in the same room for the first time you have both the parents of George Zimmerman and the parents of Trayvon Martin. What's it like with them in this one room together?

CASAREZ: You know, they don't cross paths. They're in one room, but it seems that they are in separate rooms. This is the first time we've ever seen George Zimmerman's mother. She has never shown herself publicly. What I have been told by the family is that Robert Zimmerman, the brother of George, he is at home because their grandmother has Alzheimer's. They don't believe because of the past threats they can bring someone from the outside to take care of her. She requires 24-hour care. He's at home so the parents can be in court. They'll probably be alternating so someone is always with their grandmother.

BALDWIN: Jean Casarez for us in Sanford. Jean, thank you.

Now let's talk about tennis great Serena Williams who may have been guilty of putting her foot in her mouth here. Do you remember this rape trial? We covered it, Steubenville, Ohio, involving members of the high school football team? Two players were convicted of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl while she was drunk.

Well, after Serena and an interviewer for "Rolling Stone" magazine saw a segment about it on television, the interviewer asked Serena Williams what she thought about the ruling. Let me just read a bit of what she said here. I'm not blaming the girl, but if you're a 16- year-old and you're drunk like that, your parents should teach you, don't take drinks from other people. She's lucky. Obviously I don't know. Maybe she wasn't a virgin. But she shouldn't have put herself in that position unless they slipped her something. Then that's different.

Words of Serena Williams here, well, just a short time ago after getting blasted by thousands on Twitter, Williams has now released this statement sawing this. What happened in Steubenville was a real shock for me. I was deeply saddened. I am currently reaching out to the girl's family to let her know that I'm deeply sorry for what was written in the "Rolling Stone" article.

What was written, what I supposedly said, is insensitive and hurtful and I by no means would say or insinuate that she was at all to blame. She goes on, I have fought all of my career for women's equality, women's equal rights, respect in their fields, anything I could do to support women, I have done. Serena Williams.

Coming up, take a look at this video. We're going to see some smoke. Look at all the smoke. That is actually a swimming pool. It's a huge party in Mexico. Someone poured liquid nitrogen into the pool water. What happened next, not at all cool? That story is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: What happens when you mix liquid nitrogen and a pool party? Answer, a chemistry lesson that turned nearly tragic. Look at this. This was Leon, Mexico. This was Tuesday, huge pool party. I know it's hard to see this pool because the staff reportedly poured liquid nitrogen into the water creating all this fog you're looking at. Maybe it looks like fun if this is the kind of thing you like.

After just a couple of minutes the party turned into panic because people started passing out. Somebody actually jumped in to pull others out of the water. So much liquid nitrogen had been used, as it evaporated it created an atmosphere almost devoid of oxygen. Here's the thing, you see these people trying to get out. You can't smell it.

They couldn't taste it. Their brains simply were not getting oxygen. So the result here, seven partygoers were hospitalized. Gustavo Valdes with CNN Espanol has been looking into this. So now we're hearing a criminal investigation has been launched.

GUSTAVO VALDEZ, CNN ESPANOL: That's correct. I spoke with assistant for the state attorney general in the state in which this party happened. He told me that initially there had been an event in a bar, at the local bar. They handed out invitations to this pool party. The people moved there. They had this showing of whatever chemicals, he thinks, they used. They haven't been able to confirm exactly how many or which chemicals they used.

People started to pass out. I spoke with the Georgia poison control people here in Atlanta. They tell me when you mix liquid nitrogen with any acid it creates a reaction that can make people nauseous. Also what you said. There's that void of oxygen. People start to pass out. Seven people were taken to private hospitals, one of them still in critical condition.

BALDWIN: Critical condition.

VALDES: This morning, somebody at the hospital told me that they are trying to keep it in a private section and the family has limited contact with them. Five people have already filed criminal lawsuits against the organizers.

BALDWIN: The other question is why one would want to pour liquid nitrogen into a pool. We don't have that answer yet. There has been talk the drink maker Yjaegermeister was somehow, you know, associated with this pool party. Have you reached to Yjaegermeister? Is that the case?

VALDES: I've reached out to the U.S. base of Yjaegermeister, which apparently is the one that controls the Mexico distribution. They haven't returned my e-mails. I also reached out to their international headquarters. They haven't returned the e-mails. We don't know to what extent they might have been associated with this. The report says it was a Yjaegermeister sponsored event. We don't know if somebody from the brand itself was involved in the decision. What we know is that seven people hospitalized.

BALDWIN: Gustavo Valdes, thank you so much. We'll follow up and see why. Thank you.

Coming up next, a woman and her child allegedly held captive for two years. She told the feds she was even threatened with dogs and snakes and forced to live in, quote, "subhuman living conditions." But the mother of one of the suspects here says this is completely false. We will take you there live, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: One prosecutor is calling this case modern day slavery. We first broke the story yesterday on this show. Remember, it was this woman and her child held captive inside this home in Ashland, Ohio. She was forced to eat food, do manual labor according to these allegations, threatened with pit bulls and pythons.

The U.S. attorney says living conditions were subhuman. So now we have three suspects, here they are, charged with forced labor and stealing the woman's government benefits to get money to buy drugs. One suspect's mother, though, says the accusations are absolutely false. She talked to Piers Morgan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PIERS MORGAN, HOST, CNN'S "PIERS MORGAN LIVE": Are you disputing that your son along with the other suspects kept this woman who is, we know, mentally disabled, and her child, captive for two years?

BECKY, MOTHER OF JORDI CALLAHAN (via telephone): Yes. That's wrong. She's not --

MORGAN: What is --

BECKY: She's not mentally disabled.

MORGAN: OK, so what is wrong about it?

BECKY: Everything is wrong about it. The girl, supposedly victim, went where she wanted to go wherever she wanted to go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let me bring in Ted Rowlands. He is there standing in front of that suspect's home in Ashland, Ohio. Ted, you have learned some pretty disturbing new details about this case. What is that?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, here's the bottom line. The more this unravels, as you just alluded to, it is complicated. It's not black and white. The federal government says they have an ironclad case. The depiction that they give you is absolutely disgusting. According to a source she was given dog food at one point. They treated her and her daughter worse than they did the animals, pit bulls, snakes, iguanas.

This is the house. It's divided into three separate living quarters. They were living first in the back one, then the middle one, someone else living up top. There are neighbors all around here. It's in a back alleyway. You talk to neighbors. They say, yes, she was able to come and go because they'd see her coming and going, but they never saw the daughter. Whether she was told you go and you better come back or something's going to happen to your daughter, who knows.

The other thing that's interesting, they said, even the ones who never talked to her said she was clearly disabled, clearly mentally disabled. What the federal government is accusing these three of doing is basically absolutely taking advantage of someone who's mentally ill and turning her into a slave.

BALDWIN: I know you're also hearing the U.S. attorney's office in Cleveland says another arrest may be imminent. Ted Rowlands for us in Ashland, Ohio. Ted, thank you.

Coming up, the executive chairman and the co-founder of Men's Warehouse, you know, he's the "I guarantee it guy." Well, today he was fired by the company's board. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Some of the hottest stories in a flash. Rapid fire. Roll it.

First up, no dice in the latest search for the body of Jimmy Hoffa, it is over. FBI agents are wrapping up things in a suburb north of Detroit after a two-day excavation based upon this tip from former mobster Tony Zarilli. Even though authorities expanded the search site today they went away empty handed again.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is suspending security talks with U.S. officials and refusing to participate in peace talks with the Taliban. Karzai slammed the U.S. over the opening of a Taliban office in Qatar where peace talks are expected to begin tomorrow. President Obama says, he's not surprised and he expected some friction before the talks begin.

If only his job were guaranteed. Men's Warehouse has fired that man whose voice you hear, George Zimmer, the face and co-founder of the company. Zimmer grew Men's Warehouse from one small store in Texas back in 1973 to more than 1,100 stores nationwide. The company reported more than $2 billion in revenue last year. No word yet as to why Zimmer was let go.

Suspect profiling, and the New York Police Department, city leaders are considering this proposal that would limit the descriptions of suspects to little more than the color of their clothing. Officers are fired up, releasing this ad, saying, quote, "how effective is a police officer with a blindfold on?" We'll discuss coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Time now for some of the hottest videos of the day. We call it hit play.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN (voice-over): Caught on tape, a massive volcanic eruption in Mexico just outside of Mexico City. It exploded this week sending a giant dark gray plume of smoke way into the atmosphere.

Road range in a suit and tie, the men dressed for the office got out of their cars in Los Angeles to duke it out on the 405. One guy gets the other in a choke hold and takes him down. This brawl landed one of the men behind bars. To India now where monsoon-like rains are flooding the country. Look at this, a car being swept away by the flooding as the road just collapses right under it.

And this delivery was a little too speedy. A FedEx truck slammed into a house in Ohio. All the while this guy was still sleeping inside.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In there sleeping. Put my cigarette out. Next thing I know I heard this noise, woke up. Came out, looked in the front room. Seen all this dust and seen this big -- seen this big ole truck in my front room.

BALDWIN: And finally, this. You've probably seen the commercials for Chia Pets, you know, those tiny plants shaped like animals. Well, researchers at Appalachian State University in North Carolina say Chia seeds could be beneficial to athletes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of research shows that maybe it has an effect with sustained energy and that the -- the actual fat will help you run longer.

BALDWIN: If it does work, you will probably be seeing Chia oil in your local health food store before you can say. That's today's hit play.

(END VIDEOTAPE)