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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield
Manchin Compromise Taking Shape; States Hit Hard by Shutdown; New Break in McCann Case; Baby Hope Gets Name, Possibly Justice; Doctor Stands Trial for Wife's Death.
Aired October 14, 2013 - 11:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: All eyes focus on the Senate, which reconvenes in about two and a half hours. That's not a moment too soon. Government could soon run out of cash to pay its bills if the debt ceiling is not raised. Democrat Senator Joe Manchin tells CNN a deal that he put together with Susan Collins is 70 percent to 80 percent done. And just a short time ago, Republican Senators Susan Collins and Bob Corker said a deal can be struck.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS, (R), MAINE: We're making progress and continue to meet throughout the day. And the conversations have been very constructive.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And are you making any changed to your proposal?
COLLINS: We're not going to release any details until we have an agreement. I hope we'll have an agreement. We're making progress toward an agreement but we're not there yet.
SEN. BOB CORKER, (R), TENNESSEE: I think, at the end of the day, the culmination needs to be something between McConnell and Reid. And I think all of the side talks that have occurred have helped create an environment for that to happen. I know Mitch and Harry are talking. And I think we're about to get to a place where, you know, again, we can move something hopefully off the Senate floor that's widely bipartisan. I think it's going to take that to have something move productively on the House side.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: Well, you heard what they have to say. Let's hope a deal comes soon.
The partial government shutdown is hitting some parts of the country especially hard. The personal finance website, Wallet Hub, ranked the states that are suffering the most.
Let's bring in Alison Kosik in New York.
Alison, this website ranked the five states feeling the impact the most. What are they and how are they determining this? ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: What's interesting is this, Poppy, is this is not just states that have a high number of government workers who are being hardest hit by the government shutdown. Let's show you the list that Wallet Hub came up with. It includes Virginia, Alaska, Alabama, Washington, D.C., and Maine.
Now Wallet Hub used several factors to come with this list. The number of federal workers per capita, number of small business loans, student financial aid per capita, and number of veterans per capita. It looked at that data.
And interestingly enough, the stories of those who are most affected, once again, it ranges from seniors filing for Social Security for the first time and being delayed getting the payments and to students who just can't secure the loans that they need. You're seeing this dysfunction on Washington, D.C., really trickle down to average Americans.
HARLOW: And when you talk about average Americans, all Americans, this economy that's been recovering from the worst recession since the great depression, you think about jobs. Let's talk about no deal by the Thursday deadline. What does that do for jobs? So many people now are talking about another possible job-killing recession.
KOSIK: That is, of course, a factor in this. Think about it. If you've got the wheels of the economy not turning, at least in the government sector per se, that's a huge chunk of the economy not operating. Then you've got Jack Lew saying he's going to be out of magic tricked to pay the billed. It's still going to have tax receipts coming in, but you're going to have that perception. And that's going to take -- consumer confidence is going to wind up taking a hit. Consumers are going to stop spending their money. So you see a sort of domino hatching. And businesses aren't going to make money and they're not going to want to hire and that hits the job market.
HARLOW: It really comes down to come assumer confidence. And a lot of business liters do not want to see a band-aid, a short-term fix.
Thanks. Appreciate it.
It has been six years since this 3-year-old girl -- you know her face -- since she went missing. But there may be a break in this case. British police have released a sketch of a person of interest. The latest on the Madeleine McCann case next.
Plus, 22 years ago, "Baby Hope" was found dead in the woods. She got that nickname because investigators had hope that one day her killer would be found and that they would one day learn her name. Well, that day may finally have come.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: Well, a possible break in the Madeleine McCann case more than six years after she vanished. Investigators say they want to identify and talk to this man. They say he was seen carrying a child with blond hair near the Portuguese resort where the 3-year-old went missing back in 2007. And investigators say there could be an innocent explanation but they need to talk to this man to figure it out.
Our Erin McLaughlin has more.
ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the face of a man who police want to find in connection with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Six years after the preschooler went missing while on a family vacation in Portugal, Scotland Yard released these computer generated sketches. It's a man who they say was in the area at the time she vanished. Witnesses describe them as a white male, 20 to 40 years old, short brown hair, and a medium build.
ANDY REDWOOD, CHIEF INSPECTOR, METROPOLITAN POLICE: The pictures are clear and I would ask the public to look very carefully at them. If they know who this person is, please come forward.
MCLAUGHLIN: It's part of an appeal to the public for information that includes a reconstruction of the events that unfolded that tragic night while she disappeared from her bed while her parents writing at a nearby restaurant. The appeal is now the focus of an exhausted investigation. It has spanned some 30 countries. They've analyzed phone records and interviewed over 400 witnesses. Police say they now have a better understanding in the timeline in which the kidnapping could have taken place.
JOHN O'CONNOR, FORMER COMMANDER, SCOTLAND YARD: Everything that can be of value has been examined and looked at, things which weren't done before. There's no guarantee that we're going to get an answer to this. But at least everything that been tried. I think at the very least we owe the McCanns that.
MCLAUGHLIN: Her parents have never given up hope and that they will find their little girl alive.
GERRY MCCANN, MADELEINE'S FATHER: There's been a number of cases over the last few years of children and young women being found after being taken and held for very long periods of time. We've always had hope. As parents we will think she's there until we see evidence clear that that isn't the case.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: I want to show you the two sketches. And Erin McLaughlin will join us.
Erin, let me pull up these two sketches because they look like two different men but they are actually the same man that police want to talk to but from two different witness' descriptions. I think a lot of people want to know, why are police just releasing this information and these sketches now?
MCLAUGHLIN: Well, as part of this new investigation, keep it mind, if just began. Scotland Yard's investigation just began in July. They've been able to establish a new timetable. And because they've been able to establish a new timetable, they've actually known about the sighting for quite some time. But that sightings that not made any sense in terms of the old timetable. But now with the new one, it makes more sense which is why they're looking at this very closely. And again, there could be innocent explanations as to why this man was in the area and seen with a small child at the time of her disappearance. But the police simply want to know more.
HARLOW: Erin, thanks. Appreciate the reporting, joining us from London.
Well, I want to talk about another case because this was all people had to remember. The little girl found dead in the woods, stuffed inside a cooler. The horrific investigation led to a lot of dead ends. That was until now. Coming up, "Baby Hope" gets a name and possibly justice. Our legal experts weigh in.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: More than 22 years after a child known only to many of us as "Baby Hope" was found dead inside a cooler in New York, there's finally closure. But so many more questions still. 4-year-old Angelica Castillo was never reported missing and her family never came forward in all the years detectives tried to identify her. They finally got a break in July. And then on Saturday, police announced "Baby Hope's" identity and an arrest. Her cousin Conrado Juarez confessed to smothering her with a pillow and sexually actually assaulting her back in 1991. He was 30 years old at the time. And he put her body in a cooler and dumped in along the road.
For detectives who spent years on this case, it has become personal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JERRY GIORGIO, RETIRED NYPD DETECTIVE: We took this baby to be one of our own. A family member. Someone we, you know, now have to look out for or care for or do whatever we could to make sure that she was resting peacefully. And then in the long-run, hopefully, bring to justice the person responsible. She was truly our baby.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: That is the lead detective in the search for the killer of "Baby Hope."
I want to bring in our legal panel now. I'm joined by CNN legal analyst and defense attorney, Danny Cevallos; and also defense attorney and former prosecutor, Randy Zelin.
So, guys, let's get right to it. It's still unclear how much Angelica's family really did know. The cousin said that his sister actually helped him disposed of the body but she died back in 1995.
Danny, to you first. Could other family members face charges here especially if they knew something for not reporting it?
DANNY CEVALLOS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY & CNN LEGAL ANALYST: If they're directly involved they would be account accomplices. But you can be an accessory after the fact if you assist in approximate crime. The important thing to know is that mere presence of a crime without special duty is not enough to hold a person liable. We may feel morally that people who had knowledge were evil people. Under the law you must do some affirmative act. Mere presence alone will not make eye ability in this case.
HARLOW: And one of the key things here is this confession that New York police say they have.
To you, Randy, the defendant police say he initially confessed. His lawyer tells the "New York Times" they're disputing that and he's pleading not guilty. What kind of affect could it have if we recants?
RANDY ZELIN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY, FORMER PROSECUTOR & CNN LEGAL ANALYST; Certainly if you remove the confession, which right now seems to be the strongest piece of evidence against this defendant, what do you have? We know nothing in terms of for forensic evidence. The witnesses have been gone for all of these years and never said a word and now coming out and making admissions. Who knows?
HARLOW: But in terms of the form of the confession, that's really key here. Was it a written confession, was it videotaped?
ZELIN: Absolutely. What will happen here, this defendant will say, listen, I either said this because I just wanted to go home and I didn't mean it. Or he's going to say, I never said those things. Depending on how it's memorialized, that will tell the tale as to whether or not this confession, if you will, will be deemed to be admissible.
HARLOW: Danny, part of what's being reported is there was a cab driver that basically this man say police have confessed took "Baby Hope" in the cooler along with his sister, then that picture was widely distributed. But other questions about the livery cab driver, for example, or anyone else outside of the family face any kind of charges in this.
CEVALLOS: New York courts have held that even when someone is present at the scene of the crime, the prosecution still has the burden to prove that they helped in the crime. Anything more than being present at the scene, you may be able to avoid liability.
HARLOW: Thank you both for joining us. Appreciate it.
Come up, he is accused of killing his wife, who is mother of eight, eight children. Now more than five years after her death, her husband, Dr. Martin McNeil, is standing trial. And some of the couples' children say their father is guilty.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RACHEL MACNEILL, DAUGHTER: My father orchestrated this whole plan in how to murder my mother.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
Well, jury selection begins tomorrow for Martin MacNeill, the prominent Utah doctor and Sunday school teacher who allegedly killed his wife of 30 years. So he could be with his mistress. This is a case grabbing national attention.
As CNN legal analyst, Jean Casarez, explains, some of the most damaging testimony against him will likely come from his own children.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN LEGAL ANALYST (voice-over): Martin and Michele MacNeill lived what seemed to be a charming life, he a prominent doctor and lawyer and she the doting mother of eight children. Yet, their almost 30-year marriage came to a tragic end one April night in 2007.
(BEGIN AUDIO FEED)
MARTIN MACNEILL, ACCUSED OF MURDERING WIFE: My wife's fallen in the bathtub.
911 OPERATOR: In the bathtub? Who's in the bathtub?
MACNEILL: My wife.
911 OPERATOR: OK, is she conscious?
MACNEILL: She's not. I'm a physician. I need help --
(CROSSTALK)
911 OPERATOR: Sir, I need I can't understand you, OK? Can you calm down a little bit?
MCNEILL: I need help! She's under the water, and I need an ambulance!
(END AUDIO FEED)
CASAREZ: Michele was found dead in her bathtub in their home in Pleasant Grove, Utah by their youngest daughter, Ada, who was 6 years old at the time.
Today, MacNeill stands accused of murdering his wife six years after her death, allegedly killing her so he could be with his mistress. He says she accidentally died. Prosecutors say they will show evidence that he poisoned her with an overdose of medication when she was recovering from a facelift. A facelift, prosecutors say, he forced her to have. Medical examiners found a powerful cocktail of drugs, including valium, percocet, and ambien in her system.
CHAD GRUNADER, PROSECUTOR: I will say that we're aware of the challenges that we face in this case. But we make no excuses.
CASAREZ: Since her death, Michele's two oldest daughters have been showing up for pretrial trial hearings in support of their mother, and accusing their father of the unthinkable.
RACHEL MACNEILL: My mother was just a wonderful human being. She deserves justice. She should never have trusted my father.
CASAREZ: Among the state's star witnesses will be at least one of his daughters, part of the effort to send him away for life.
Prosecutors say MacNeill used his medical knowledge in a plot to kill his wife. The motive? Prosecutors say he was carrying on a year-long affair with Gypsy Willis, who moved into MacNeill's home shortly after Michele's death.
MICHELLE MACNEILL, DAUGHTER: My mom deserves justice.
RACHEL MCNEILL: My father orchestrated this whole plan and how to murder my mother.
Jean Casarez, CNN, Provo, Utah.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: Our thanks to Jean for that.
Coming up, the cameras were rolling as the crowd heading into a ferry goes crash into the water. Look at it right there. We'll show you the frantic rescue straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: This just into us at CNN. Both sides talking in Washington. That is going to happen this afternoon. Coming from a White House official, the president, President Obama, also Vice President Joe Biden will meet with the bipartisan congressional leadership today. It's going to happen at the White House at 3:00 eastern time. Among the representatives of Congress who are going to be there you're going to have Majority Leader Harry Reid, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Speaker John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi will also be there. This meeting happening between those congressional leaders, the president, the vice president at the White House 3:00 p.m. today. We will be on top of it for you.
Let's take a quick look at other headlines.
Incredible images out of China. This is a foot bridge that collapsed and sent dozens of people into the water. This was all caught on camera. Wow. At least 11 people were injured. Luckily, everyone survived. They were crossing this bridge to board a ferry yesterday. The bridge had apparently just opened last month. An investigation is under way. But frantic. Some injuries but everyone is all right.
Meantime, 30 people ended up in the water after a party boat they were on capsized off the coast of Florida. Thankfully, other beaters and rescue crews pulled them out within minutes. Officials are investigating the accident and say the captain of the boat may not have been licensed. And this is just an incredible story. A hunter, who got lost in the woods for 19 days, got big hugs from his family -- look at him there -- because he was released from the hospital this weekend after being gone for 19 days. He's 72 years old. He survived in the California wilderness, he says, by eating squirrels, lizards and berries. He said it actually snowed on him. He covered himself with leaves to stay warm. Another group of hunters finally heard him calling for help on Saturday. His son says he is doing well. Good for him.
Thanks so much for watching. I'm Poppy Harlow.
AROUND THE WORLD starts right now.
