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Ariel Castro Pleads Guilty; Augie Nieto Lives with ALS; Contestants Accuse "American Idol" of Racism.
Aired July 26, 2013 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Now to one of the most shocking kidnapping case in recent history. This is out of Cleveland, Ohio, where three women were held against their will in a house for years. The man accused of doing it said something today that might keep him from being executed.
I want to bring this Gary Tuchman in Cleveland now.
We're talking about Ariel Castro. Prosecutors formally offering him a plea deal. What happened?
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Unless Ariel Castro escapes from prison he will be spending the rest of his life behind bars without the possibility of parole. Ariel Castro coming into the courtroom this morning wearing glasses and handcuffs, shackled hands and legs. Looked over at us for a little while. He agreed to accept the plea bargain. He agreed to accept the charges against him, including aggravated murder. He pleaded guilty to all of it. In exchange, the death penalty has been taken off the table. He was sentenced to life in prison, plus 1,000 years. He'll be a convicted criminal.
What was shocking about this, Suzanne, was some of the things he said. He was very nonchalant. He acted like he was there for a parking ticket. At one point, he said, I was a victim as a child. The judge said save that for next Thursday. He also said, I miss my daughter very much. That daughter is the daughter of the woman he raped. He aid that in court. He said that like he expected pity from the judge. He also said, I'm willing to work with the FBI. If he's convicted, he will never be getting out of prison.
MALVEAUX: Gary, I understand there's a couple of things about the house. What is going to happen to this home? There are reports it might be destroyed, is that right?
TUCHMAN: They're going to tear down the House today and give it to an organization called the Cleveland Land Bank. When they were talking about the House another interesting thing was mentioned. The judge said that we have recovered $22,000 in cash and assets. The state will keep that money. Castro then said, there's more money than that. The prosecutor said we'll tear down the house and if anybody falls out, we'll take that also.
MALVEAUX: Is he going to be separated from other prisoners? What is the situation going to be for him? There's not going to be some inmates too keen on him.
TUCHMAN: People like that, rapists, they're all bad people who are behind bars, but rapists, especially child rapists have it the worst. Not clear what kind of arrangement will be made for this guy. The official sentencing August 1st. Right now it's not official. The judge accepted it but you can bet it will be accepted. And once it is, then the arrangements will be made for how this guy will live out the rest of his years.
MALVEAUX: Gary, thank you. We appreciate that.
Here in the U.S., somebody threw paint on the Lincoln Memorial. This is green paint slashed on the base of the Lincoln statue, right near the left shoe. Police found it about 1:30 this morning. Nothing was written or spelled out. It was just splashed on the marble. But the Lincoln Memorial is now closed while the Park Service workers try to clean that up.
This week, we have been shining a spotlight on a disease that's frightening and deadly. It ravishes the body but not the mind. Life Fitness founder talks, Augie Nieto, talks with us about living with ALS and his passion for finding a cure. Our own Sanjay Gupta goes behind the mystery of the disease.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: This week we've been shining a spotlight and going in-depth with ALS. It kills off motor cells, taking away a person's ability to move, eat, breathe or move on their own. Right now there's no cure. Scientists are getting there.
I met Augie Nieto a year and a half after my mom was diagnosed with ALS. He was the first person to give me hope.
Here's story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: Once an overweight teen, Augie Nieto became the face of fitness. He started selling stationary bikes out the back of his van. He went onto create Life Fitness. At age 39, he sold it for more than $300 million. Young, rich and athletic, Augie and his beautiful wife, Lynn, and their four children thought they had it all.
AUGIE NIETO, FOUNDER, LIFE FITNESS: Your legacy lives forever.
MALVEAUX: But at age 47, Augie was hit with the shocking news. He was diagnosed with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, a fatal decision that would paralyze him and strip him of his ability to eat, or move. He tried suicide.
AUGIE NIETO: I didn't want to be a burden.
LYNN NIETO, WIFE OF AUGIE: He took a fistful of bills. I remember being in the emergency room after we went to the hospital in the ambulance and just crying over him saying if you want to die, I understand.
AUGIE NIETO: I could hear what everyone was saying to me. My son told me I was no longer his hero.
MALVEAUX: After three days in a coma, he woke up.
LYNN NIETO: Would he be disappointed to find out he was alive. He woke up and was pleased he had a second chance at life.
AUGIE NIETO: I made the decision I was going to be a hero in my son's eyes again.
MALVEAUX: From that moment on, he never looked back. He launched Augie's Quest, a foundation that has raised $37 million to support research for a cure.
AUGIE NIETO: I'm probably busier now than before my diagnosis.
MALVEAUX: He's written to books and communicates by tapping with his toes using his right foot to type and left foot to hit enter.
AUGIE NIETO: This is my command center.
MALVEAUX: For ALS patients, the ability to communicate is critical.
LYNN NIETO: It gives that independence.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Any of these functions that you see here, I can access with my eyes.
MALVEAUX: One company is paving the way. Within 10 minutes, they taught me how to speak with the blink of an eye.
(on camera): I said I need something to drink. How do I speak it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Select the speak button.
COMPUTER: I need something to drink. I need something to drink.
MALVEAUX: That's awesome.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: We're not sure why but the eye movements appear to be one of the last muscle groups most affected by ALS.
MALVEAUX: Augie continues to exercise, inspiring the fitness community, like the creator of Zumba, to stay focused on the disease.
(MUSIC)
BETO PEREZ, CREATOR, ZUMBA: As I say, welcome to my class. I want you to try to do something. He moved one leg I think. He moved a leg like that. I say this is the Augie Step.
(CHEERING)
PEREZ: The Augie Step.
MALVEAUX: While technology and social media are improving the quality of life, researchers are working to find a breakthrough, a cure.
DR. JEFF ROTHSTEIN, ALS SPECIALIST: We learned that not all ALS patients are the same.
MALVEAUX: At the Packard Center for ALS research at John Hopkins, Dr. Jeff Rothstein's team is studying a mutated gene that could provide a cure.
ROTHSTEIN: One of the newest genes in ALS has a very unusual defect. The DNA globs up like old chewing gun sticking to things and that deprives the cell of what it can normally do.
MALVEAUX: The hope is in stem cell research.
ROTHSTEIN: We have stem cells from patients that have this mutation. We can look at those cells. With these therapies, we can watch that go away completely.
GUPTA: They're injecting it in the spinal cord and saying go fix this. Find those motor neurons and make them work again.
MALVEAUX: Other ALS trials are testing drugs that are already on the market treating similar diseases like M.S. One of the big challenges is figuring out how people get ALS in the first place.
ROTHSTEIN: The vast majority of ALS is sporadic. That's a medical term that just means it just happens out of the blue.
MALVEAUX: ALS is considered a rare disease in part because patients don't live long enough to be counted.
ROTHSTEIN: If you develop a disease and die within a year or two or three or four, you don't develop a population.
GUPTA: It could be much more under diagnosed.
MALVEAUX: For Augie and Lynn, it's been an eight-year journey since Augie's diagnosis.
AUGIE NIETO: I think that's what he had me stronger is the ability to see uncle nap love.
LYNN NIETO: It's a privilege to walk with somebody along a path that's hard.
MALVEAUX: It's a path that so many families are forced to take.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: Augie says he's one of the lucky ones. He has extraordinary resources to have 24 hour care. He's experimented with various drug trials and is determined to fight this disease. But with the tap of a toe or a blink of an eye those with ALS are refining what it means to be alive. These are the faces of ALS. My mother Myrna Malveaux, 25-year-old Steve Gleason and 53-year old Augie Nieto. They all say it's the emotional connection they have with those they love that keep them alive. They also say this disease has taught them what unconditional love looks like.
Thank you for the amazing response we have gotten. And I want to share a couple of your tweets. This one from Ray, "Thank you for sharing your story. We need to find a cure for this horrible decide. Lost brother-in-law four years ago." This tweet from Kristen. "Wonderful and powerful family. Thank you so much. I lost my brother Michael six months ago after his 17-year-old fight with ALS." Daniel tweets, "Message of the day#. Be strong. Don't wait to live life before it's too late. Thank you."
If you'd like to read more about ALS and how to help push for a cure, go to CNN.com/impact your world and malveauxmission.org.
You can also watch the series starting tomorrow at 6:00 a.m. on CNN. Thanks for your attention.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: Stocks taking a bit of a breather today. No doubt, some Facebook investors cashing in on yesterday's stock surge. Shares shot about 30 percent up in one day.
Alison Kosik at the New York Stock Exchange.
Facebook hitting its stride after getting off to a rocky start, yes?
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: This could be just the beginning. As you said, Facebook shares jumping almost 30 percent yesterday. Yesterday was its best day since just after it went public. In fact, Mark Zuckerberg's network went up by $3.8 billion just on that move. Technically Zuckerberg still is not worth as much as he was before Facebook went public. Let's not take too much time feeling sorry for someone worth $16 billion who was once worth 17.5 billion on paper.
The most important news is that Facebook has shown a lot of progress, making money off mobile users. When it went public it was getting almost zero revenue from mobile advertising. Now 41 percent of total ad revenue comes from mobile. That's good because more and more of us who use Facebook are using the mobile app. We saw Facebook shares bounce around. We're seeing some profits being taken off the table. The price is still about 10 percent below the IPO price of $38 a share. But we're seeing the price targets for this company going up to $44 a share.
Wall Street is beginning to believe that people who've stuck around since the IPO, that they may finally, finally start to reap the rewards.
MALVEAUX: We're not going to feel too badly for Zuckerberg. (LAUGHTER)
He still has a lot of money.
Thanks, Alison.
KOSIK: Exactly.
MALVEAUX: Here's some photos from around the world that we'd like to share with you. In Bali, Indonesia, this giant shark was seen flying in the sky. It is not a sequel to the sci-fi movie "Sharknado." This is a kite, part of a religious festival to apiece Hindu gods for blessings.
In Portugal, British Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife buy squid at a fish market. Cameron is on a two-week vacation with his family by the southern coast.
Here's a look at what is trending. People around the world blaming the moon for their lack of sleep. That's because a group of researchers from the University of Basil in Switzerland have confirmed it does impact your sleep. The study volunteers in a sleep lab found that when there's a full moon, people take about five minutes longer to fall asleep. They have less deep sleep as well. They sleep about 20 minutes less than they do during a new moon.
It's goal, to turn an American into an idol. But 10 former contestants are now accusing "American Idol" of booting people off the show because they are black. Do they have a case?
We're seeing the first images now of the late James Gandolfini's last movie. Going to show you that up next.
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MALVEAUX: Tough times for "American Idol."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Keith Urban, Nicki Minaj, Randy Jackson and Mariah Carey.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: The popular show's ratings have been falling. "Idol" faces a new problem. Nearly a dozen former contestants are suing the show claiming racist behavior by the producers.
More from our entertainment correspondent, Nischelle Turner.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's been the biggest show on television.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is "American Idol."
(CHEERING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TURNER: A show with a diversion group of judges and contestants, which has produced four African-American winners --
(SHOUTING)
TURNER: -- out of 12 competitions.
(SINGING)
TURNER: But now a lawsuit filed in federal court on behalf of ten former "Idol" contestants says the producers of the show engaged in racist behavior. They are asking the courts for more than $25 million each. FOX, which broadcasts "Idol," and producers behind the show declined CNN's request for statement.
James Freeman, the attorney behind the suit, tells CNN he believes "Idol" producers targeted black men on the show for ridicule and dismissal if they are discovered to have any sort of criminal record. His complaint alleges white contestants who are accused of similar offenses are allowed to continue in the competition.
It was the dismissal of season 11 finalist, Jermaine Jones --
(SINGING)
TURNER: -- that Freeman says inspired him to work on this case. Jones was dismissed after the Smoking Gun website revealed he was the target of several arrest warrants. But his name is not on the lawsuit.
JERMAINE JONES, AMERICAN IDOL CONTESTANT: I was asked to be a part of it. But I decided not to because, like I said, I want to take the good with the bad. I'm just moving forward.
TURNER: He says contestants know what they're getting into when they sign up to be on "Idol."
JONES: You had an opportunity to make something of it. So what have you done over these years to earn you $25 million?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TURNER: Suzanne, of the ten former contestants filing suit, only Cory Clark, Jacob Smally and Jiniha Joyner (ph) advanced to voting rounds. The others were sent home by the judges in auditions.
Now, we did see a white contestant, Matt Farmer, dismissed from the show this season after it was discovered he lied about being injured by an IED while serves in Iraq -- Suzanne?
MALVEAUX: Thanks, Nischelle. Just over a month after his death, a new tribute to late actor, James Gandolfini. Here's the official poster from his last leading role. The movie "Enough Said." It also stars Julia Louis Dryfuss. It features Gandolfini in a romantic role. It's going to make it into theaters in late September. The "Sopranos" star died from a heart attack last month while on a trip in Rome, Italy.
We'd like to end on a happy note. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: I love him. Some things just get better with age, don't you think? Mick Jagger turning 70 years old today. Happy birthday. Still got the moves, got the voice. Still going strong with Rolling Stones, of course. Check it out. Jagger when he was younger. He and the Rolling Stones celebrating their 50th anniversary as a band together. New music and an extensive tour. Rock on.
Have a great weekend. That's it for me. I'll be back tomorrow morning. I'm anchoring "New Day" starting at 6:00 a.m. eastern.
For now, Brooke Baldwin takes it from here.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Suzanne, thank you so much. Have a great weekend.
