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New Day

Zimmerman Protest Turns Violent; Zimmerman "Had A Right To Defend Himself"; Summer Sizzler Bakes Northeast; North Korean Ship Seized; Gas Prices Rise for Summer

Aired July 16, 2013 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUROR B37, JUROR IN GEORGE ZIMMERMAN TRIAL: I think he's guilty of not using good judgment. He shouldn't have gotten out of that car.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: A CNN exclusive. A juror reveals what happened during deliberations in the Zimmerman trial. Find out what mattered and what didn't. An interview you can only see here.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And breaking overnight, protests against the verdict grow. Dozens arrested, a camera man assaulted, all this as a star witness from the trial speaks out only to CNN. What does Rachel Jeantell say now?

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Boiling point. This will be a sizzling week of the summer for a huge chunk of the country. A brutal, dangerous heat wave that is not going away anytime soon.

CUOMO: Your NEW DAY starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan, and Michaela Pereira.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, July 16th, 6:00 in the East. I'm Kate Bolduan.

CUOMO: And I'm Chris Cuomo joined us always by our news anchor, Michaela Pereira. Good morning to you. And we have just a jam packed show. Exclusives for you. This morning, we're bringing you all sides of the George Zimmerman story here this week.

First, we brought you to defense team and those closes to Zimmerman. Today, you'll hear from prosecutors and their key witness, but most importantly, you're going to hear from one of the jurors speaking out only to CNN in the hopes of helping people understand their verdict.

BOLDUAN: This juror, she's going to tell you why some originally wanted to vote guilty, what changed their minds and what they decided about those key 911 tapes. And also, what brought these six women to tears during their deliberations? It's really a remarkable interview. CUOMO: And then, we're going to take what she says, we'll put it through the filter of legal analysis. We'll have our team here, Jeffrey Toobin, Danny Cevallos, Sunny Hostin, and Vinnie Politan to help understand what it means and why the case went the way it did.

BOLDUAN: And also, Anderson Cooper, of course, who interviewed the juror. He'll be joining us as well later in the show to talk more about it.

PEREIRA: Some really compelling stuff this morning. In addition, we want to bring you up to speed on two very important stories breaking this morning. A North Korean ship seized by Panamanian officials carrying weapons. We're showing a photo right here of a missile-like weapon that was found on board.

Also closer to home, gas prices are surging in the last few days. They have spiked 16 cents. We all want to know is just how high they are going to go. That's coming up.

CUOMO: All right, now, we're going to get to the exclusive interview with the juror who only wants to be known as B37 in just a moment, but first breaking news on the reaction to the verdict. Overnight dozens arrested, one cameraman hospitalized and with the Justice Department now weighing in, this situation continues.

CNN's Alina Machado is live in Sanford, Florida. Alina, good morning.

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris. Things have remained calm and peaceful here in Sanford, Florida, for the third night in a row we have seen protests in other cities across the country.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MACHADO (voice-over): Hundreds of protesters across the country voicing their opposition to the not guilty verdict. Overnight in Los Angeles, police say incidents of vandalism and assaults have resulted in more than a dozen arrests.

CHIEF CHARLIE BECK, LAPD: Unfortunately, the rights of the many have been abused by the actions of a few.

MACHADO: Paramedics treated a local news crew at the scene. The LAPD said someone threw a hard projectile at the crew, hitting the photographer in the head. In Oakland, California, all lanes of Interstate 880 were shut down by hundreds of protesters, a similar scene in Houston and in Atlanta, in front of the CNN headquarters. Hundreds of thousands of people have signed an online petition by the NAACP pushing for a civil rights case against Zimmerman. Attorney General Eric Holder says the Justice Department will continue investigating possible federal charges.

ERIC HOLDER, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Moreover I want to assure you that the department will continue to act in a manner that is consistent with the facts and the law.

MACHADO: Florida prosecutors say they are still convinced Zimmerman is guilty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One word to describe George Zimmerman.

ANGELA COREY, FLORIDA STATE ATTORNEY: Murderer.

MACHADO: Meanwhile Zimmerman's parents say they are sorry for the tragedy.

GLADYS ZIMMERMAN, MOTHER: We are deeply sorry for this tragedy, deeply sorry, and we pray for that family, we pray for Trayvon Martin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACHADO: Now Zimmerman's parents say the family have received death threats and say their lives will likely never be normal again -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Alina, thanks so much. From the reaction outside of the courtroom to what was happening inside the jury room. This is a CNN exclusive. Juror B-37 as she was known sitting down with CNN's Anderson Cooper. She is the first to speak out about what led to their verdict, what was going on in that jury room. She did the video in shadow fearing for what may happen to her family if her identity was revealed. When the deliberations first begun, the jury was split down the middle.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Did you take an initial vote to see where everybody was?

JUROR B37: We did.

COOPER: So where was everybody? How was that first vote?

JUROR B37: We had three not guilty's, one second degree murder and two manslaughters.

COOPER: Can you say where you were on that?

JUROR B37: I was not guilty.

COOPER: How do you then go about deciding things?

JUROR B37: We looked through pretty much everything, that's why it took us so long. We're looking through the evidence and then at the end we just -- we got done and then we just started looking at the law. What exactly we could find and how we should vote for this case. And the law became very confusing.

COOPER: Yes, tell me about that.

JUROR B37: It became very confusing. We had stuff thrown at us. We had the second degree murder charge, the manslaughter charge then we had self-defense, stand your ground. We actually had gotten it down to manslaughter because the second degree. It wasn't at second degree any more.

COOPER: So the person who felt it was second degree going into it, you had convinced them, OK, it's manslaughter?

JUROR B37: Through -- going through the law and then we had sent a question to the judge.

COOPER: You sent a question out to the judge about manslaughter?

JUROR B37: Yes.

COOPER: And about --

JUROR B37: What could be applied to the manslaughter, we were looking at the self-defense. One of the girls said that -- asked if you can put all the leading things into that one moment where he feels it's a matter of life or death to shoot this boy or if it was just at the heat of passion at that moment.

COOPER: So that juror wanted to know whether the things that had brought George Zimmerman to that place, not just in the minute or two before the shot actually went off.

JUROR B37: Exactly.

COOPER: Did you feel like you understood the instructions from the judge, because they were very complex?

JUROR B37: Right. That was our problem. I mean, there was a couple of them in there that wanted to find him guilty of something. And after hours and hours and hours of deliberating over the law and reading did over and over and over again, we decided there's just no way -- no other place to go because of the heat of the moment and the stand your ground. He had a right to defend himself. If he felt threatened that his life was going to be taken away from him or he was going to have bodily harm, he had a right.

COOPER: So even though he got out of the car, followed Trayvon Martin that didn't matter in the deliberations. What mattered was those final seconds, minutes when there was an altercation and whether or not in your mind the most important thing was whether or not George Zimmerman felt his life was in danger?

JUROR B37: That's how we read the law. That's how we got to the point of everybody being not guilty.

COOPER: That was the belief of the jury, you had to zero in on those final minutes/seconds about the threat that George Zimmerman believed he faced?

JUROR B37: That's exactly what happened.

COOPER: So whether it was George Zimmerman getting out of the vehicle, whether he was right to get out of the vehicle, whether he was a wannabe cop, whether he was overeager, none of that in the final analysis mattered. What mattered was those seconds before the shot went off, did George Zimmerman fear for his life?

JUROR B37: Exactly. That's exactly what happened. COOPER: And you have no -- do you have any doubt that George Zimmerman feared for his life?

JUROR B37: I had no doubt George feared for his life in the situation he was in at the time.

COOPER: When you all realized OK, the last holdout juror has decided, OK, manslaughter, we can't hold George Zimmerman to manslaughter, there's something we can really hold him to, not guilty. In that jury room, what was emotionally what was that like?

JUROR B37: It was emotional to a point, but after we had put our vote in and the bailiff had taken our vote that's when everybody started to cry.

COOPER: Tell me about that.

JUROR B37: It's just hard. Thinking that somebody lost their life and there's nothing else could be done about it. I mean, it's what happened. It's sad. It's a tragedy this happened, but it happened and I think both were responsible for the situation they had gotten themselves into. I think both of them could have walked away. It just didn't happen.

COOPER: It's still emotional for you?

JUROR B37: It is. It's very emotional.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: So what do we understand from what we just heard from Juror B37. Let's bring in Criminal Defense Attorney Danny Cevallos. First question is, does it seem like they were focusing on the right things, that they were asking the right questions in that room?

DANNY CEVALLOS, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It does. I'm always surprised what jurors focus on. On the whole I feel like this juror and this jury in particular they were focusing on a lot of the proper issues, the issues they should have been focused on and I think that goes to not only the jury instructions but the attorney's summation, O'Mara's where he tells them what to look for and walks them through what they should have analyze. But I think in this case the jury instructions, I read them myself and I know Jeff Toobin and I agreed they were confusing.

CUOMO: Right. We were saying while we're listening to it that if he had been a guilty verdict, you believed that something she said in that interview would have been grounds for an appeal.

CEVALLOS: Yes, jury instructions, the standards, for whether or not they are -- they become appealable or if they were improper, if they're so confusing as to mislead the jury and how that's defined includes does it require further clarification on an important issue and that's what we saw. I mean, the jury needed clarification on at least one issue like manslaughter so even though there are no comebacks from a not guilty verdict. I have to wonder if it had gone the other way would that have been an appealable issue. It's hard to say.

CUOMO: We didn't hear an answer whether or not they didn't understand them. We just heard her say they were confusing. But it doesn't matter because it was not guilty so there's no appeal by the defense. There are a lot of talks whether those jurors were the right jurors. You heard her say two things. We thought he was guilty of not using good judgment, George Zimmerman. Of course, that's not crime and "We wanted to get him for something. We tried." What does mean to you?

CEVALLOS: You know, it's really interesting. You could read it one way, I thought this juror said the jury concluded that Zimmerman did some questionable things right up until the moment of the altercation, once the altercation started then it appears they included it was Trayvon Martin's Martin, that he threw the first punch, he said as much. However, when she talks about Zimmerman you hear the language of some kind of liability. We felt that he had done something wrong. We felt that he had gone a little too far, and I'm paraphrasing what she said.

But you start to hear some of the language of, at least, maybe criminal negligence if not maybe even the depraved heart murder but I don't think it ever rose to that level. However there seem to be culpability and she says they wanted to find him guilty of something. But there wasn't anything there although they ultimately concluded under the law as they understood it he didn't do anything. When you hear her talk, you could see her going either way.

CUOMO: And interestingly she did sound like a lot of people outside the jury that for all the things that bothered them it ultimately came down to self-defense.

CEVALLOS: Yes, exactly. I mean, if it came down to self-defense ultimately, first of all, that's a get out of jail free card as Mark O'Mara observed to both manslaughter and Jeffrey Toobin said this also, of manslaughter and second-degree murder. However, it looks like they went through each and every of the elements. They adhered to their duty but boy, I mean, it's interesting to hear their walk through the path.

COUMO: And that it was very, very difficult for them and they took it very seriously. Danny Cevallos, thanks you very much. Appreciate you being here. We're going to be talking about this more all morning. Obviously, we are going to have more of this exclusive interview in our next hour and remember Anderson will be here in the 8:00 to describe the situation to us.

BOLDUAN: Another big story we are all should be paying attention to this morning in the northeast, an oppressive and dangerous heat wave. It's making life absolutely miserable for tens of millions of Americans. Look at this map, those in the deep red areas are in for a whole lot of hurt. It's going to be a scorcher. Temperatures are in the 90s but feel much hotter than just that. It doesn't look like we're going to get a break any time soon.

Indra Petersons is outside braving these early morning hot temperatures with more. Good morning, Indra. INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning. Yes, we're part of that deep red you just showed us. Right, we're talking about the early morning hours and already 80 degrees. We kind of taking a look around me. A lot of people trying to take advantage of the cooler part of the day going for the early morning jogs. They probably have to get used to it. This affects the country for a pretty much big part of the week here.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETERSONS (voice-over): Heat and humidity continue to pummel the east coast as a brutal heat wave sends temperatures off the charts from Michigan to Maryland.

MARIA WISE, NEW YORK RESIDENT: It's just really hot out here. I feel like I'm going to melt.

PETERSONS: The heat is no laughing matter. Heat kills an average of 119 people per year and this heat wave could last all week.

KEVIN BAUMLIN, VICE CHAIRMAN OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE: Your body temperature starts to rise higher than your ability to get rid of heat, perspire, et cetera or cool down then your body can get into significant trouble.

PETERSONS: In New York, a major energy company has set up a command center. They will monitor the city's electrical systems as the temperatures continue to climb.

CHRIS OLERT, SPOKESMAN FOR COH EDISON: The heat wave impacts the system because literally it doesn't cool off.

PETERSONS: The high voltages from overheated systems have already caused power outages throughout New York.

OLERT: This indicates there are 1,128 customers without electricity.

PETERSONS: With Washington, D.C., blazing in the mid-90s, it's dangerous for anyone working outside.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Humidity gets high. It gets harder to breathe and just sweat a lot. Every once in a while a guy will pass out.

PETERSONS: The soaring temperatures are affecting up to 50 million people this week. All of them are just trying to figuring out how to beat the heat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have air conditioning at home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Staying in the AC.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PETERSONS: We're not just talking about high pressure hanging around and these warm temperatures for one day. It really is going to stay with us for the next several days. We have a lot of concern out there. Look at the advisories. We're talking about major cities. We're talking about New York, D.C., Southern New England, definitely a lot of warm, humid air to be dealing with.

Like I said, really throughout the week with the heat indices, once you combine temperatures that already 10 degrees above normal for July with high humidity in the afternoon we're talking about it feeling 105 degrees out there. So the big question is, you know, how long is this going to stay? When are we actually going to see this relief?

Well, the good news is by the end of that week, we should start to see some relief. That's kind of a mixed bag. That cold front could mean some severe weather as we head into the weekend. We have to watch out for that as well.

CUOMO: All right, Indra, thank you very much. We want to go now to another story that's breaking this morning. We're following it. Authorities in Panama have seized a North Korean flagship they say was carrying a cargo of undeclared weapons. CNN's Barbara Starr has the latest from the Pentagon. Barbara, what is this about?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Chris, details still are coming in. The Panamanians said it was a North Korean ship carrying weapons. The president decided to tweet a picture of it. He has tweeted now a photo of the cargo. It appears to be weapons in shipping containers. He is asking for an international team of inspectors to come on board this ship and find out exactly what it is.

President Martinelli says the North Koreans had all of this hidden in a cargo of sugar, so now it remains to be seen what exactly the North Koreans were up to. But apparently when the Panamanian seized this ship a lot of drama broke out -- the crew resisting arrest, the captain apparently attempting suicide.

According to the Panamanians, look, they got a tip about this from some intelligence service this cargo of weapons there. The question, who were the North Koreans up to, who were they selling it to, what was this smuggling all about? Very provocative, very close to the U.S., of course.

And the Panamanians take great pride in maintaining security control over the Panama Canal. They are not happy at all -- Chris.

CUOMO: The big question -- where were the weapons, if that's what they are, where were they headed?

Barbara Starr, I know you'll stay on it. Thank you very much. We'll be back with you when you learn some more about that.

BOLDUAN: Yes, weapons hiding amongst brown sugar, it does sound a little suspicious.

CUOMO: I don't think it can sound anything else. But we have to learn more about it.

BOLDUAN: We'll be looking for more details. Barbara will be all over that. We also have a lot of news developing at this hour. Let's get straight to Michaela Pereira.

PEREIRA: Big day today, isn't it?

BOLDUAN: Yes.

PEREIRA: All right. Good morning, everyone.

Making news:

Russian President Vladimir Putin is not sympathetic to NSA leaker Edward Snowden's ordeal. He says he wants Snowden out of his country, ASAP. On Monday, Putin said he doesn't want the situation to affect relations with the U.S., but he said the White House scared other countries to the point that no one wants to take Snowden.

A dramatic capture of the leader of the ruthless Zetas cartel. Mexican military chopper stopped his truck outside of a border city Monday. Miguel Angel Trevino Morales allegedly had $2 million and eight weapons with him when he was captured. Two people with him were also arrested. Trevino faces organized crime, homicide, torture and money laundering charges.

Police are investigating a suspicious white powder found by a flight attendant on a JetBlue flight from Fort Lauderdale to Hartford, Connecticut. It was discovered in the plane's bathroom shortly before landing last night. Flight 460 landed safely and thankfully no one was injured.

Controversy following former CIA director David Petraeus even before he starts his next gig. Now, he's taking a massive pay cut. Gawker reported City University of New York was going to pay Petraeus $200,000 to be a visiting professor. That's reportedly eight times what a first-time adjunct professor was paid. Later that figure went down to $1. Petraeus' attorney said it was never about money.

You know, sometimes, a short cut is really a bad idea. A woman in China tried to squeeze between two walls to get home. Boy, did she get stuck. She was trapped for seven hours overnight before folks in the neighborhood found her. Firefighters eventually broke down one of the walls to cut her out. I bet she won't take the shortcut anymore.

BOLDUAN: I think there's more to that.

PEREIRA: She's infectious. She's infecting you.

BOLDUAN: Conspiracy theory, they thought she was a ghost.

CUOMO: Trapped for seven hours is bad. It doesn't matter what led you to be in there, the poor woman. I'm happy they got her out.

Another example, you know, not here at home but even abroad, these first responders, they just get people out of terrible situations all the time.

PEREIRA: Every call they get you don't know what to expect. That's what amazing me about our first responders.

Boy, oh, boy. Thank you for what you do.

CUOMO: Absolutely. All right. We're going to take a break here on NEW DAY.

When we come back, CNN's exclusive interview with Rachel Jeantel. The prosecution star witness. She was the woman on the phone with Trayvon Martin moments before he died. What was going through her mind when she was on that stand?

BOLDUAN: Also, just in time for your big summer vacation, yes, gas prices skyrocketing. They go up in the summer, but they're going up fast. We're going to tell you how high they might climb.

CUOMO: I saw the same place change the numbers twice yesterday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Welcome back to NEW DAY, everyone.

It is money time and our focus this morning on the sudden surge in gas prices. You know you already felt it at the pump, you don't need me to tell you about it. But what does it mean for the rest of the summer?

Alison Kosik is here with more on this. So, where are prices right now?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: OK. Well, prices are moving higher. If you look at the trend overall, they just are going higher. The AAA is saying that the average price of a gallon of gas is sitting at $3.64 a gallon, up 16 cents from a week ago.

You know, gas prices all year, they've kind of been up and they've been down, they were actually the highest in March but that trend is going higher especially, as we dig in deep into the summer driving season which we're in right now. There are lots of factors.

BOLDUAN: What is behind it? Last week when I was talking to Christine Romans, we were talking about overseas oil prices but what's pushing them up?

KOSIK: Right. There are several reasons and one of them is those tensions in Egypt. You know, the Suez Canal, is an important shipping center for oil so it's not an issue of supply, it's more of an oil delivery issue so that bleeds into supply.

Another thing squeezing prices, there are lots of refinery shutdowns, some are scheduled, some aren't scheduled and this is happening as the perfect storm meaning time. We're having that peak summer driving season so that's also adding to the pressure as well.

BOLDUAN: So, look into your crystal ball and how high for the rest of the summer at least do you think we're going to go? Do you think the trend is going to be up or do you see a dip coming? KOSIK: We're hearing that the trend is going to be higher, because these tensions are continuing. These refinery shutdowns are continuing.

And also, guess what time it is? It's that hurricane season time. So, that means that oil platforms, oil refineries, they could be damaged.

And that could add to the pressure as well. Shut down even for a short period of time. It has some affect on the pump.

All right. Alison, thanks so much.

KOSIK: You got it.

BOLDUAN: All right. Coming up next on NEW DAY: another CNN exclusive you don't want to miss, one on one with Rachel Jeantel. You remember them, and you remember her. She was one of the star prosecution witnesses in the George Zimmerman trial. Her reaction to the not guilty verdict and what she thinks of critics who call her friend Trayvon Martin a thug.

CUOMO: And you're ready for this, few things generate interest like a panda and you're looking at two of them because this time, there is news first time more than 20 years a panda in an American zoo has given birth to twins. You're looking at them, look how tiny they are, as opposed to those fingers, unless that person has really banana hands.

We're going to check in with the mom and their cubs.

BOLDUAN: They grow up fast, though.

CUOMO: Would you have known those were baby pandas?

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