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More on California Amber Alert; Flooding Continues in Numerous States; Man Murders Wife, Posts Photo on Facebbok and Turns Himself In; Usher in Custody Battle Following Near-Drowning of His Son; Fourteen-Year-Old Boy on Trial for Allegedly Helping His Father Kill His Step Brother

Aired August 09, 2013 - 11:00   ET

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

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Thanks so much for being with us. I'm Ashleigh Banfield.

We have a lot to cover this morning. I want to take you first and foremost right to the West Coast where an agonizing wait has been made even more so this morning with word that the man who is suspected of kidnapping these two kids, a 16-year-old girl and possibly her eight- year-old brother could be armed with home-made explosives.

A nationwide manhunt is on for James DiMaggio, suspected of abducting one or both of these children whose mother was found dead after a fire in his home.

And now DNA testing is continuing on the body of a child also found in that burned home, resembling perhaps an eight-year-old boy.

Their grandmother, who has already lost her only child, spoke to CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH BRITT, HANNAH AND ETHAN'S GRANDMOTHER: When she comes back, that's a feeling I can't even tell you. Worse than the feelings we're having now.

It's just -- it would be so unbelievable, but she's all we have left. And that's it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Hard to watch that, but it's really uncanny. Take a look at grandmother and granddaughter. It's hard not to miss the uncanny resemblance between these family members. It makes it all the more difficult to see that she's wearing the picture of Hannah on her T- shirt.

I want to take us live now, back out there to Paul Vercammen, who's covering this story and has been since the beginning.

Why is it now an issue of explosives? Why are we hearing that there may be homemade explosives with this man DiMaggio? Where did that come from?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER: Well, Ashleigh, it came directly from the San Diego County sheriff's department.

And, not wanting to show too many cards, what they will say is that everybody needs to basically approach the suspect with extreme caution because they believe, as they said, that he may have improvised explosive devices on him.

And they have also warned, not only citizens, but law enforcement officers, let's say the suspect's vehicle is detained somewhere else in the western United States. They are saying approach the car with caution because they fear at some point he may have booby-trapped the car.

He might abandon the car and, of course, once that car door is opened or whatever the trigger is, the car could go off, so that's what's going on on that front, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: And then on the other front, and this is perhaps a front that's not getting as much attention, friends of Jim DiMaggio, speaking out on his behalf and suggesting this is so unlike the man that they know.

What else are we hearing about that?

VERCAMMEN: Well, as you know, Ashleigh, Jim DiMaggio had the trust of this family. And that's why this is such a colossal allegation of betrayal.

Friends of Jim DiMaggio now coming out and saying that they just cannot believe that he would commit any of these alleged crimes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW SPANSWICK, FRIEND OF JAMES DIMAGGIO: He's allegedly being accused of arson and kidnapping and murder. That doesn't match with the Jim that I know.

I think I'm surprised, as well as his sister, and I'm very extremely puzzled by this. And they don't believe the facts that are being represented by the media really represent what has led up to this and how Jim's acted in the past.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERCAMMEN: And, again, members of the Anderson family saying again time and time again that they just could not believe that Jim DiMaggio could do something, they trusted him and now we've got a nationwide manhunt.

BANFIELD: All right, well, Paul, if you hear anything, we are anxiously awaiting any detail on this. Please, do let us know. Paul Vercammen, live for us this morning.

We also have another major story developing and it's extreme weather. And it's hitting just about every one of us in this country, starting with destructive wildfires that are plaguing California. And three people are dead in flash floods across the Midwest and in the South. And also there's just storms all along the East Coast of this country today. So it's a bit of a round robin everywhere.

I want to take you first to California where 6,000 people -- 6,000 -- have been driven out of their homes by a wildfire that is just growing at every minute. The Silver Fire has now eaten through at least 14,000 acres and a steady wind, very problematic wind, is making it hard for the more than 1,400 firefighters working hard to stop it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are seeing fire behavior that we haven't seen in such a long time that the fuels are so dry and you add a little bit of wind to that and it really makes it a challenge for us to try to catch or keep up with the fire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Well, that's the dry part of the story in California. It's hoping for rain to help them battle the wildfire, but here's the wet part of the story.

First, Missouri, heavy rain causing major flash flooding there, and when I say flash, I mean flooding within minutes.

Our George Howell is live in Hollister, Missouri, and Chad Myers is live at the Extreme Weather Center.

George, let me begin with you. Clearly it looks like the flood has been sort of through and gone but, man, this does happen fast.

GEORGE HOWELL: It happened really fast, Ashleigh. In just a matter of minutes, this entire community was changed, all the result of the Turkey Creek in Hollister, Missouri.

This creek, the neighbors tell me, at one point, just 24 hours ago, was as high as where I'm standing right now. And I want to give you an example of what it did.

You look at this trailer home here. People tell me that this trailer home was on the other side of the property over there. So it was strong enough to shift it, to push it over here.

And this is also interesting. Look at this home. The shingling has been ripped off. This all the result of this rushing water.

But look at some of the things that are still in place, that weren't moved. Always strange to see the power and force of a storm like this.

And today what you see, you see people coming back, the bulldozers here. People are coming back to their homes for the first time to see what is left, to try to start over.

The good news here, Ashleigh, no one was injured. There's one neighbor who went door to door to door, knocking on doors, getting people out, getting kids out, getting families. A lot of people here certainly consider him a hero.

But there is a lot of damage, and people are worried about the weather, worried about other storms coming through.

I want to toss to Chad Myers now because, Chad, really, that's the concern. Is there more weather, more rain coming through this area?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: No question about it. More rain is coming.

It sagged to the south last night into Arkansas, but now that this front has shifted a little bit farther to the north, the rain will be back today.

Let me back you up five days, guys. Here's what it looks like. Sunday there was rain over St. Louis, south, and then one more day, Monday. Then another day, Tuesday, another day, Wednesday, another day, Thursday, and here we go, we're all the way up now to live on Friday and there's more rain on the map.

It's because, like a stationary bike, this stationary front isn't moving. So everywhere that you see white spots, this is Kansas, southeastern Kansas, parts of Missouri, almost to the Boot Heel, that's 10 inches of rain in the past five days.

And some spots picked up eight inches, including Branson in 12 hours.

That's just flooding rainfall that won't stop. And when you don't get that front to move, you're going to get more rainfall coming.

Back to you, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: All right, Chad, thank you very much for that. Keep an eye on things, as always.

I always ask you to keep us posted if you see something particular for certain groups that we need to warn. Chad Myers, live for us, thank you.

MYERS: You're welcome.

BANFIELD: In California, police are looking for this missing criminal defense investigator. Sandra Coke disappeared Sunday night from Oakland. She was last seen with Randy Alana, who a family spokeswoman said she had dated several years ago.

Two college friends of Boston marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev now face charges of obstructing justice. They've been indicted for allegedly taking fireworks and other items from Tsarnaev's dorm room to keep them from investigators finding them.

If convicted, they could face up to 20 years in prison, a very serious crime. Developing at this hour, the State Department is warning of a new terrorist threat, this one against the U.S. consulate in Pakistan's second largest city, Lahore. Most of the diplomats there have been moved, emergency moved, in fact, the embassy in Islamabad not far away.

The State Department also warning Americans against travel to Pakistan.

This latest development is likely to come up during President Obama's news conference. That's scheduled for later today. You can see it live right here on CNN. It gets under way at 3:00 p.m. Eastern time.

Singer Usher, headed to court today, it's an emergency custody hearing called for by his ex-wife after their five-year-old son nearly drowned in a swimming pool at his home.

What to expect, coming up next.

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BANFIELD: A horrifying photo and a bizarre and disturbing confession posted on Facebook, Derek Medina is accused of killing his wife, but then, here's where it gets weird, posting a picture of her dead and bloodied body on his Facebook page, and then also an accompanying message saying, "I'm going to prison or death sentence for killing my wife. Love you guys, miss you guys, take care, Facebook people. You will see me in the news."

The photo was online for at least five hours and it was shared hundreds and hundreds of time before the Facebook company removed the page.

CNN's Nick Valencia is here with more on the story. Is there anything more that you can tell us about Derek Medina and how this transpired?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Good morning, Ashleigh. We're learning a lot more about the suspect, Derek Medina.

Earlier this morning, we realized that he had a whole EmotionalWriter.com page, a website that he was writing where he says that he's a published author and writer for self-help books.

In these self-help books, he talks about effective communication and, as ironic as it may sound, Ashleigh, he gives marriage advice and counseling advice. In one book summary, he goes on to say how he saved his own marriage. He was married for three years, later divorced, only to remarry again.

And he said the purpose of this website was for his readers to find the purpose of life.

So it's a very ironic twist to Derek Medina's past in that he maintained this website. It's unclear how long that he maintained this website. But he was giving marriage tips and counseling tips to his readers. Ashleigh?

BANFIELD: Something else that was posted and it only makes me think about the criminal defense plan for this man who is undoubtedly going to face serious murder charges and that is that he was suggesting that he was being punched or that this was somehow a self-defense of some kind.

Is there any more information about that?

VALENCIA: Yeah, no new information about that.

But just to remind our viewers, he said -- he admitted this to police in a confession. He had time to go home, change his clothes, went over to his father's house where he admitted killing his wife, only to go to the police officer -- police department and turn himself in.

He said that he fired those shots, as you mentioned, in self-defense after a heated argument.

But another twist to this story is how this image got perpetuated. There was some third-party sites, BuzzFeed, Atlantic Wire as well as New York Magazine, that are receiving a lot of criticism today because they published this photo.

Now, CNN has elected to blur the image. This is a very disturbing photo, and if you have a weak stomach or there are children in the room, now is not the time to look at the TV.

But BuzzFeed and others aired this image, posted this image online without blurring it. They are receiving some criticism.

We have reached out to them to respond to that criticism, Ashleigh, but so far we have not received anything.

You have to remember, unless you're a friend of Derek Medina's or of his wife, you wouldn't have seen this image. And if it wasn't for these third-party sites, a lot of people wouldn't have seen this image at all.

Ashleigh?

BANFIELD: Or friends of friends who can get some access to that as well and, boy, this viral photograph, that can happen so, so quickly, evidenced by this.

Nick Valencia, thank you for that.

VALENCIA: You bet.

BANFIELD: Want to move on to another big story and that is music icon Usher and his ex-wife, they are both headed into a courtroom today because they are in a fight over the custody of their two young sons.

Tameka Foster Raymond filed for an emergency hearing after their five- year-old nearly drowned Monday in a swimming pool at Usher's house. It was the singer's aunt who called 911.

Now, Usher is the person who has the primary custody of these boys. But his ex says that he is an absentee father. This is her claim, that he spends 85 percent of the time away from his home and that those kids are in the custody of family and friends instead.

CNN's Elena Machado joins us live now from Atlanta, where that court hearing is expected.

So what are we expecting other than a garden variety custody hearing; nothing is garden variety when you have somebody who is in the klieg lights like Usher.

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's exactly right, Ashleigh. We are expecting Usher and his ex-wife to be in court in just a few hours. They will be discussing that emergency hearing. Tameka Foster Raymond requested a day after the near-drowning incident.

Now Usher and Tameka have two boys, ages 4 and 5. According to court documents, they share joint legal custody of the children, but Usher has had primary physical custody of the two boys since last year, which means the children live with him.

Now, in May, Tameka filed a civil action looking to change that, saying that Usher is gone most of the time and that the children are in the care of nannies and family members. And here's what Tameka's attorney told us about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANGELA KINLEY, TAMEKA FOSTER'S ATTORNEY: Ms. Raymond's only focus is on the health and safety of the children and that they would be in the custody of a parent or the other parent, not in the third-party setting for days at a time. That's the main concern, is the children being left with third parties for extended periods of time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACHADO: Now the attorney says the pool incident has brought this custody battle to a head. We know Usher's attorneys have filed a response, but they are not commenting. We hope to learn more when both sides meet in court this afternoon.

Ashleigh?

BANFIELD: Well, that is sure to be a very highly attended court proceeding. All right, Alina Machado, thank you for that. Do update us when you hear more about it. I want to take this exact conversation now to the legal arena. Our attorneys, Danny Cevallos and Jeff Gold join me now with what we can expect and how it might be different -- or maybe not -- just because they are famous people.

Let me start with you, Danny. Why -- and this is a bit of a strange question. And I think a lot of people might be thinking it. For the longest time, judges and courts often favored mothers when it came to custody. In this case, it was Usher who got custody of these boys.

Does it make any difference off the bat who was awarded the primary custody and the greater rights in a custody battle when it comes to challenging it later?

DANNY CEVALLOS, ATTORNEY: Well, from a gender perspective, you're right, that historically it seems that in the past women were awarded sole custody more often, but that's clearly changed.

The important thing to understand with this case is leaving your children in the custody of a third-party custodian, like an aunt or a nanny is not a per se violation of a custody order unless the parties have spelled that out specifically in the custody order.

So even though Usher has primary custody and she's alleging he's absentee, he's not really absentee if he's leaving them with third- party custodians.

Now if the custodians have a problem, if they are negligent or not capable, that's a different issue. But it's important to understand that simply leaving children with a third-party custodian while one is working is not itself a per se violation.

BANFIELD: So Jeff Gold, not to suggest that you've had a chance to look at their particular parenting plan when it came to this custodial agreement; usually they are pretty darn careful about the T's being crossed and the I's being dotted regarding time that you're with those children, whether the other parent is allowed to sign off on the caregivers and, three, first right of refusal; if you're gone for more than, say, I don't know, 24, 36, 48 hours, that custody reverts back to the noncustodial parent.

Could you imagine any circumstance in which a guy like Usher, who's got more money than God and great lawyers, wouldn't have done a very, particularly specific job on the parenting plan to make sure there's no loopholes?

JEFFREY GOLD, ATTORNEY: Yes, I can imagine them being sloppy about it, as many parents are. But look at what we have here, swirling around. We have tragedy, you know, the injury of his son. Remember, the custody was only given to him one month after the 11-year-old of Tameka had died in a boating accident.

We have acrimony. This is a mom who didn't get custody of her kids. She's been fuming, no doubt, for a year now.

And then she posts this picture on the Internet right after the injury of -- sort of an eerie picture of her and her son.

Why was that done?

And then finally, we have the legal end of it, where now they are in court dramatically, right after the incident and he's a celebrity. So it's all over the place. So it's anything but a run-of-the-mill case.

BANFIELD: And we should mention that that other child who died was not in the care of Usher at the time that that terrible tragedy happened. It was a water sports accident in which he died.

But specifically, Danny, if you want to challenge this and you want to use this pool incident as the reason for this, don't you have to show something like negligence, recklessness or abuse to be able to really overturn something a judge has already looked pretty thoroughly at?

CEVALLOS: You've got it, Ashleigh. Things happen. Accidents happen.

But if there is negligence, if there was a dereliction of duty, if this third-party custodian, this aunt or whomever else the child was left with, failed to watch the kid, failed to supervise adequately, then that's going to be a different issue. But it's not a per se -- it's not a per se thing.

BANFIELD: All right. Danny Cevallos, Jeff Gold, stand by if you will. I have got a couple of other things I want you to weigh in on in a moment, not the least of which -- how about this next one? A boy who looks like he could be anybody's kid is facing the prospect, the real prospect of spending the rest of his life locked up -- yes, that kid -- if jurors decide to convict him of murdering his own stepbrother. What the prosecution has to prove to make sure that Joshua Young stays behind bars for decades.

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BANFIELD: A 17-year-old boy could soon find out if he's about to spend the rest of his life locked up in prison -- 60 years, maybe even more. Think about how long that really is.

The attorneys are now giving the arguments in Joshua Young's murder trial. The prosecutors have said that he worked alongside of his own father to bludgeon his 14-year-old stepbrother to death behind a high school in Louisville back in 2011.

If you're think about him looking young sitting there beside defense counsel, when it happened, he was two years younger. He was 15. In that picture that you're seeing, he's 17. His defense started this morning by saying that his dad, Joshua Gouker, was the only killer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LESLIE SMITH, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: You really think he involved anybody else at all, anybody else at all to carry out this horrible crime? And it was horrible. And that's how you know who did it. By himself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: CNN's legal correspondent, herself an attorney -- and a very good one at that -- joins me now, Jean Casarez is with me. Jean, there are a couple of things when the jury gets this case that they can consider in order to get them to murder. It's not just did he do it or didn't he. They actually have a few theories that they can chose between.

How does that work?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN LEGAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is a murder case and it is a theory that either he acted alone in killing his brother, his 14-year-old brother, or he did it with his father.

Now, this is -- in the age of CSI, Ashleigh, this case has no physical evidence. It has no forensic evidence, it has no direct evidence. It doesn't have phone records, it doesn't have text messages.

Here's what it does have. It has Joshua Young actually confessing to this, very close in time, by saying, I killed my brother, Trey, and I've got clothes and a baseball bat. Help me get rid of it.

Also, Ashleigh, there's a timeline that is critical here because, remember, his father, who is a career criminal, pleaded guilty, saying I did this alone. I did it all by myself.

But you know what? The father's story has so many holes. There's a video of him from the Circle K and he's got a University of Louisville T-shirt on that has the number 34. That is just about the time that Trey was killed.

Hours later, when the body is discovered, Ashleigh, there he is, the father, in that very same T-shirt.

Shouldn't that be the bloody shirt?

Shouldn't that be the shirt that was thrown out because of that bloody, bloody scene?

BANFIELD: Wow, that's amazing evidence. But it's amazing that you said the confessions are so important, because those confessions were given to admitted liars. So the only way we know about the confessions are from admitted liars. It can't be very powerful to have a confession from an admitted liar.

CASAREZ: That's right. And that is very, very true. And the father had such an influence on these people that would make them lie, but here they are in court; the father's locked up. They don't have that pressure on them anymore.

So why should they lie at this point?

BANFIELD: All right. Jean Casarez, we're just looking at some live pictures in that courtroom as of now. So we're going to be on a verdict watch likely later today. I hope you'll stand by to be able to bring it live to CNN when that verdict comes down. It's a very emotional time, it's a very tense time when a verdict is about to be delivered, and it's made even more tense when you see a face like that, a young boy. Jean Casarez, thank you.

I just wanted to make one more note. We often say, oh, a sentence of life or a sentence of 20 years or 40 years or et cetera. If you think about a sentence of life for someone like Ariel Castro who's in his 40s or 50s, yes, maybe 30-40 years.

If you think about a sentence of life for this kid, it is a very long time. It is akin to somebody who might have been imprisoned at the start of World War II and still in prison today. So think about it, going to prison at the start of World War II, and still behind bars today, that is what that kid is facing. It's a remarkable reality.

Moving on, the accused Ft. Hood shooter, went out and just said it, I carried out the massacre. Not in those words but in so many words. This is as he is acting as his own lawyer. We're going to have the very latest on the court martial.

And I'm also going to talk to a lawyer who has had to go through this, stand by and watch your client as he defends himself and almost walks himself to a maximum sentence. It's all coming up just ahead.

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