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New Day

Dangerous Plunge; MacNeill Murder Trial; Shark Attack Survivor; Interview with Harrison Ford

Aired November 04, 2013 - 08:45   ET

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


CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Wheel of death at the ARIA Resort in Las Vegas. But on Friday night, one performer came terrifyingly close to that fate. At times flying 40 feet above the stage, like in this video, maneuvering into and out of the revolving wheel with no harness or safety mat. A veteran acrobat slipped, falling off the wheel. The show staff drew the curtains and transported the performer to the hospital before resuming their act.

This accident just a painful reminder of the June incident at Cirque du Soleil's performance of "Ka" at Las Vegas' MGM Grand, where 31- year-old veteran acrobat and mother Sarah Guillot-Guyard died. Guillot-Guyard was being hoisted nearly 100 feet in the air during the show's finale, like in this photo seen here, before a wire broke. Guillot-Guyard plummeting nearly 100 feet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You could hear people crying. And all the actors were basically looking down.

ROMANS: Just days before Friday's accident, the Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration proposed fines of more than $25,000 against Cirque du Soleil for safety violation in Guillot-Guyard's death. The agency also proposed $7,000 in fines against the casino.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know firsthand that Cirque du Soleil takes every possible precaution to make sure that the artists are safe and that there are safe measures backstage.

ROMANS: Both companies defend their safety procedures and said they will appeal the fines.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: And certainly what those acrobats do every night is simply amazing. Cirque du Soleil says the injured performer is expected to be released from Las Vegas University Medical Center in the next few days. Again, not releasing the name, but saying this morning he is in stable condition.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: I guess that's the best you can ask for at this moment. Hopefully he makes a swift recovery.

Thanks, Christine. ROMANS: You're welcome.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, now we've been following this trial for you since its beginning. It's in Utah. It's the murder trial of Dr. Martin MacNeill. The state's case is now drawing to a close. Jurors have heard from MacNeill's daughters. The daughters believe their father killed their mother so he could be with his mistress. But even more crucial testimony still to come. Here's Ted Rowlands.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The prosecution's case against Dr. Martin MacNeill could hinge on this week's final witnesses. Four federal prison inmates that claim MacNeill, while serving time for forgery, confessed to killing his wife. Their identities are being kept secret for protection.

CHAD GRUNANDER, PROSECUTOR: They are expressing concern about their safety upon return to the prison in Texarkana.

MARTIN MACNEILL (voice-over): My wife's fallen in the bathtub.

DISPATCHER (voice-over): Who's in the bathtub?

M. MACNEILL: My wife.

ROWLANDS: Prosecutors believe the doctor murdered 50-year-old Michele MacNeill in a bathtub after giving her a powerful combination of drugs. Because the medical examiner reports were inconclusive, they hired expert Dr. Joshua Perper to support their theory.

GRUNANDER: So your examination of the lungs and the microscopic slides of the lungs -

JOSHUA PERPER, FORENSIC EXPERT: Yes.

GRUNANDER: Support a finding much drowning?

PERPER: Yes.

ROWLANDS: Prosecutors had no direct evidence against MacNeill. Their case relies on circumstantial evidence, including testimony last week from five of MacNeill's daughters that describe their father's behavior before and after their mother's death, including hiring his lover, Gypsy Willis, as the family nanny just days after Michele's death.

SABRINA MACNEILL, MACNEILL'S DAUGHTER: I remember her going up into my dad's room that night and then have the door closed and I just remember stay - I remember staying up at night thinking, what in - what in the world? I mean, I thought she was our nanny. Why is she up in dad's room?

RACHEL MACNEILL, MACNEILL'S DAUGHTER: He was making jokes about being single and just laughing and it made me sick. ROWLANDS: MacNeill's lawyers are expected to attack the credibility of the prisoners this week. As for the daughters, they argue that misplaced feelings of loss and anger have pushed them to lie about their father.

RANDALL SPENCER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: You've made up this story that you told today since this interview, haven't you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, MACNIELL'S DAUGHTER: No, I have not.

ROWLANDS: Prosecutors could wrap as early as Tuesday, meaning depending on how much of a case, if any, the defense presents, the jury could start deliberating Dr. MacNeill's fate by the end of this week.

Ted Rowlands, CNN, Provo, Utah.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: What an amazing case that is. All right, Ted, thank you so much.

Coming up next on NEW DAY, it was a dramatic rescue, saving a six- year-old boy from a shark attack. He was dragged to shore with the shark still attached, if you can believe it. He survived, thankfully. This morning, Logan Hamby and his family are here to tell their amazing story.

CUOMO: And Harrison Ford is here. Dozens of iconic roles, a legendary career and number one at the box office once again. "Ender's Game" is the movie. The man is here to discuss and give us advice on what not to do on morning TV.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to NEW DAY.

Boy, do we have a fish story for you. Not the kind you're thinking. Imagine this, a Florida vacation turning into a nightmare for a family from Alabama. That's six-year-old Logan Hamby. He was enjoying a swim with his sister when he was attacked by a shark. That fish bit down on his leg and would not let go as his father dragged him to shore. Thanks to the help of his big sister and some good Samaritans, Logan survived and is here right beside me wearing his cowboy boots and ready to take on a - no, you better not take on another shark, Logan. You need to stay out of the - the mouth of sharks.

Let me talk to mom and dad and introduce you to the whole Hamby family. We've got Logan here. We've got Leah, dad, Ken and mom, Donna.

I understand you were actually on a delayed honeymoon when this all happened, correct?

DONNA HAMBY, SON SURVIVED SHARK ATTACK: We were.

KEN HAMBY, SON SURVIVED SHARK ATTACK: We were. PEREIRA: So walk me through what happened. Ninth day at the beach. You're in Florida. And all of a sudden you guys decide to go in the water. You're not even in the water long, what two minutes, and you hear Leah screaming?

K. HAMBY: We heard Leah screaming and we -

LOGAN HAMBY, SURVIVED SHARK ATTACK: We thought it was a jellyfish.

K. HAMBY: Donna saw first a fin rolled (ph) over Logan. And I looked around and I - oh, we took off. And we -- I thought it was jellyfish. I didn't see the fin.

PEREIRA: You thought it was jellyfish? You thought it was jellyfish too, right, Logan?

LEAH HAMBY, BROTHER SURVIVED SHARK ATTACK: No. I thought it was a stingray.

PEREIRA: You knew it wasn't, Leah?

LEAH HAMBY: I knew it wasn't.

PEREIRA: How did you know it wasn't?

LOGAN HAMBY: Mama, you thought it was a stingray.

LEAH HAMBY: I saw the tip of a fin before she saw the (INAUDIBLE).

PEREIRA: And then you just started screaming?

LEAH HAMBY: Uh-huh.

D. HAMBY: The shark.

LOGAN HAMBY: And I saw Leah (INAUDIBLE).

PEREIRA: Did you feel anything, Logan, at that point?

LOGAN HAMBY: Uh-huh.

PEREIRA: You did? What did you feel?

LOGAN HAMBY: The tail.

PEREIRA: You felt the tail? So she's screaming. He's struggling. How -- you must have moved faster than you've ever moved in your life.

K. HAMBY: Definitely so.

D. HAMBY: We were very close.

PEREIRA: You were very close to the shore. You weren't that deep.

D. HAMBY: No.

PEREIRA: How many feet of water do you think?

K. HAMBY: Less than knee deep.

D. HAMBY: Less than knee.

K. HAMBY: Knee deep. Less than knee deep.

PEREIRA: Are you kidding me? And so you run over. You grab him, get him out of the water and onto the beach, but the shark wouldn't let go?

K. HAMBY: Right, the shark was still attached to his lower - lower limb.

PEREIRA: So what did you do?

D. HAMBY: I was reaching - I was thinking, use your arm for a crow bar. I didn't have anything to -- because it was hanging from his little leg and he's so small. And a guy come in and he saw me reaching and he pushed me and started hitting it and -

PEREIRA: Just pounding on it.

D. HAMBY: Started hitting it.

PEREIRA: And did it eventually let go?

K. HAMBY: It did.

D. HAMBY: By two guys punching it, you know -

K. HAMBY: It finally - it finally let go of --

D. HAMBY: Around the snout and the head.

K. HAMBY: Right there at the shore line. So that --

D. HAMBY: They were wonderful.

K. HAMBY: Yes, they were.

PEREIRA: And then you grabbed him and you just head for the hospital, I'm sure.

K. HAMBY: I grabbed him, found my t-shirt and wrapped his little leg up and -

PEREIRA: He was bleeding pretty profusely by that point, I can imagine.

K. HAMBY: He was bleeding pretty good, yes, ma'am.

PEREIRA: Leah, tell me what you were thinking. You thought this shark's got my little brother.

LEAH HAMBY: Yes, ma'am. PEREIRA: What did you want to have happen? What did you want to do?

LEAH HAMBY: What I was going to do is my dad picked him up and if I was old enough to where they wouldn't push me back out of the water, I would just get something and kill that thing.

PEREIRA: You were so scared for your little brother, weren't you?

LEAH HAMBY: Yes, ma'am.

PEREIRA: Now, do you understand, Mr. Logan, how lucky you are? How does your leg feel today?

LOGAN HAMBY: Good.

PEREIRA: Does it? Do you have - do you have scars on it? A little bit? Is there a mark?

LEAH HAMBY: Mostly scabs.

PEREIRA: Mostly scabs. Because this was a couple weeks ago now. But you're - are you able -- are you feeling any pain? No?

LEAH HAMBY: A little bit when he walks a lot.

PEREIRA: Yes.

LOGAN HAMBY: (INAUDIBLE) my foot?

PEREIRA: Oh, I see your foot, brother.

D. HAMBY: Daddy still has to carry him sometimes.

PEREIRA: Yes.

So, obviously -

D. HAMBY: He had to carry him for the first three days of the trip.

PEREIRA: For the first few days. He wasn't in the hospital a terribly long time. They obviously did some stitches and what other kind of treatment did they give him?

K. HAMBY: They -- they had to put him to sleep the wash the wounds out.

PEREIRA: Right.

D. HAMBY: Gave him morphine twice.

K. HAMBY: Gave him morphine twice. And -

PEREIRA: A lot of pain.

K. HAMBY: X-rays to check for sharks teeth. And after that, he was -- a few hours later, he finally woke up and he was coming back to normal and we -

PEREIRA: Precocious and normal too, I'm betting. Now, he's a fisherman. We see this big bass he caught behind him. Are you concerned he's going to want to stay out of the water now?

D. HAMBY: No, he's ready to go.

K. HAMBY: Oh, definitely not.

LOGAN HAMBY: Mostly sad (ph).

LEAH HAMBY: (INAUDIBLE).

PEREIRA: Yeah, you're not afraid of the water any more, Logan?

LOGAN HAMBY: No.

PEREIRA: No.

D. HAMBY: He was wanting to fish. We wanted to pack it in and go home, bring our babies home, and Logan, no, please let me go on the cruise.

PEREIRA: He wanted the rest of the vacation.

D. HAMBY: We were leaving on a cruise for the Caribbean. Please --

PEREIRA: Did you go on the cruise?

K. HAMBY: We did.

PEREIRA: You sure did.

K. HAMBY: Yes, we did.

PEREIRA: And now, Leah, how about you? Are you - how are you feeling about the water and the beach right now?

LEAH HAMBY: I'm doing a little bit better, but I was scared at first. And by the time we got to an island called Saint Martin, I got in and started looking for seashells.

D. HAMBY: That's our girl.

PEREIRA: I am so proud of you. That's what you do, you go right back in you tell that shark you're not afraid.

LOGAN HAMBY: And I caught a tiger fish and a yellow (INAUDIBLE).

PEREIRA: You caught a fish - you caught two fish while you were on vacation?

LOGAN HAMBY: Three fish.

PEREIRA: Three?

D. HAMBY: Tell her about the third. PEREIRA: Tell me about the third one. Was it a big one?

LOGAN HAMBY: It was a -

LEAH HAMBY: (INAUDIBLE).

D. HAMBY: A two foot -- about two-foot sea bass.

PEREIRA: That's about the same size of you, fella.

D. HAMBY: It broke his line but everybody saw it.

LOGAN HAMBY: (INAUDIBLE).

PEREIRA: You caught a fish almost the same size at you.

LOGAN HAMBY: Leah. (INAUDIBLE) fish, Leah.

PEREIRA: He even said to us that he wanted to try and go swimming while he was here in New York and I had to try and convince him it might be a little cold.

Hambys, I am so grateful to you for coming all this way to talk to us.

K. HAMBY: Thank you.

PEREIRA: And I know how grateful you are to those good Samaritans.

D. HAMBY: We are.

PEREIRA: Have you had a chance to talk to them afterwards and say thank you to them?

D. HAMBY: The next morning we got to speak to all of them and we're still looking forward to seeing them again. We just got back from the Caribbean a few days ago.

K. HAMBY: Yes.

PEREIRA: Well, I hope you had some part of your honeymoon.

K. HAMBY: We feel blessed.

PEREIRA: You really are. We all are. And this little guy right here, he's going to keep you on your toes for a while. And thank you, big sister, for taking such good care of your brother for us. OK. Leah, Logan, Ken, Donna, thanks so much. The Hambys.

D. HAMBY: Thank you.

K. HAMBY: Thank you.

PEREIRA: What an incredible story they have to tell.

Chris and Kate.

K. HAMBY: Thank you for having us.

BOLDUAN: No kidding.

CUOMO: Every fisherman needs a good story about when he was attacked by a shark. Most of us make them up. Logan's got a real one. Good for him.

Coming up on NEW DAY, it is the biggest movie in the country. "Ender's Game." A brand new sci-fi spectacle. There he is, Harrison Ford, here to tell us about the movie and relate it to another sci-fi space action movie you may have heard about.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Harrison Ford has starred in some of the most successful and critically acclaimed films in history, and his latest sci-fi thriller, "Ender's Game", is in theaters right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN KINGSLEY, ACTOR: You still think he's the one?

HARRISON FORD, ACTOR: This boy had the empathy to think like a formics, understand them, anticipate them.

KINGSLEY: He's not ready.

FORD: You're never ready. You go when you're ready enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: You go when you're ready enough. Too true. Harrison Ford, here with us on the set of NEW DAY. Great to have you.

FORD: Nice to be here. Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Gives us chills, that line. "You go when you're ready enough." That's one of the best lines in the --

CUOMO: We live that.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

FORD: Yes. You're never ready. I lived that.

CUOMO: Children of our future, we say it all the time in so many different ways. This film looks at the proposition in a new way. Tell us about it.

FORD: Well, the world -- the imaginary world in which the story takes place is the future when earth has been visited by an invasion of another life form and creating devastation on Planet Earth. We have now a world government formulated for that reason and others.

And I am the commander of a training station, which trains young people to fight this threat through drone warfare. And it is proposed that young people have the capacity to correlate and to manipulate the vast, implicit information more quickly than older people. Therefore, they have a strategic advantage in this kind of warfare. And they have these gaming skills to manage the drone warfare.

So we have found this young man and he's proposed to be the brightest and most capable to be trained. And my job is to both manipulate and mentor him and get him ready for this coming invasion.

CUOMO: So he's kind of like the EP (ph) of the movie.

FORD: Yes.

BOLDUAN: You've done so many films. I think everyone can just tick off their favorites. Not your first science fiction film, that we well know, but you've done many other films.

When you think, with regards to "Star Wars", do you think of your time with that film differently today than maybe what it was like when you were kind of in the throes of it? Does it mean different to you today being part of that?

FORD: Well, what it has always meant to me was a fantastic opportunity. The success of that film really gave me opportunities I would never have had. And I'm forever grateful for that.

And so I look back on it with great fondness. While it was going on, we shot in England and the English crew were walking around going --

PEREIRA: Really?

FORD: Oh, yes, I'm walking away with a guy in a dog suit that's seven feet tall -- the guy in a dog suit. There's Alec Guinness in his bath robe, Carrie Fisher with two bagels on her head.

BOLDUAN: That's how I dressed up for Halloween. I wore bagels.

FORD: You did. That's good. But you look at the story and you say what is this? And you say, "Ah, I get it; it's a fairy tale." It's a fairy tale. And so, that gave me a certain sense of what my job was, because there was the callow youth, there was a beautiful princess, the sage old warrior and then there was the smart ass. And that was my job.

CUOMO: We wish you good luck with this.

FORD: Thank you so much.

CUOMO: "Ender's Game" -- that's the name of the movie. It is in theaters right now.

And we'll be right back. .

BOLDUAN: All right. Still ahead, we've been talking today about bullying and what it means to be a man. Well, one little boy is proving it with a pair of pink shoes. It's today's good stuff coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Welcome back to NEW DAY. We want to give you a quick check of your headlines for this hour.

Houston Texans coach Gary Kubiak is said to be alert and stable in the hospital after collapsing on the field at half-time last night, the team saying coach did not have heart attack.

The alleged shooter at Los Angeles International Airport may have plotted his crime days in advance. A woman who knows Paul Ciancia tells CNN that he demanded a ride to the airport at the last minute and then police showed up looking for him shortly afterwards.

The judge adjourning the trial of Mohamed Morsi after a courtroom disruption by the defendants. Morsi and 14 other senior figures in the Muslim Brotherhood began chanting calling that court invalid. They're facing charges in connection with deadly clashes outside the presidential palace last year.

Just in, Blackberry abandoning plans to sell the company and the CEO is stepping down. Earlier this year, the mobile phone maker announced it will allow itself to be acquired, but now it is apparently planning to raise its own funding in order to stay in business -- so that's a bit of a change.

CUOMO: Time for the "Good Stuff". In today's edition, middle school student, Ryan Marotta. Here's the story. Ryan's mother, breast cancer survivor, so in honor and in honor of breast cancer awareness month which just went by as you may note, he wore pink sneakers to school. The NFL does it, so why can't Ryan, right? Of course the dopes of the world united and Ryan got bullied.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN MAROTTA, WORE PINK FOR CANCER SURVIVORS: Made me feel a little bit like depressed and like sad because I knew that my mom had it and it really made me, like, doubt getting the shoes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: It got so bad Ryan stopped wearing the shoes. Here's the good part. His classmates found out why he was wearing pink in the first place and why he stopped. They felt stupid, ashamed and rightly so. So the next day, at school, there was pink everywhere -- pink shirts, pink shoes, pink hats, even pink socks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody should be made fun of for doing that because he was supporting his mom and that's not very kind.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at all this pink around you now. How does that make you feel?

MAROTTA: It makes me feel really happy. I remember my mom last night crying with tears of joy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Beautiful. It was right because of the cause and it was right because it was wrong to begin with to bully the kid. So they did the right thing. Ryan had the strength to send the message. Good on --

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: Atta boy.

BOLDUAN: And Ryan was trying to make a statement with just his own shoes. But in a strange way, he made a bigger statement by proving to everybody what the pink really meant.

PEREIRA: Standing up to cancer and standing up to bullies.

CUOMO: Very nice.

PEREIRA: Well done.

CUOMO: These stories come from you, my friends. so we want more of them. CNN iReport campaign -- catch all of your good stuff, logon to CNNireport.com/good stuff. Go to our website so you can get that address for yourself.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

CUOMO: And you can figure out how to do it.

PEREIRA: I love picture when we were doing math, remember? First grade math?

BOLDUAN: Yes. And I feel like they were teaching us math rather than the other way around. We're still working on that.

All right. Hope you had a good morning with us. Thanks for being with us.

Time now for "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello. Hello, my dear friend. Hope you had a good weekend.

(CROSSTALK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Hi. I did. I had a terrific weekend. And happy Monday to you if that's possible.

PEREIRA: Always.

COSTELLO: Thanks guys.

"NEWSROOM" starts now. Happening now in the "NEWSROOM", coach collapses.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He went down to his knee and couldn't get back up. Looked like he was having trouble breathing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Fifty-two-year-old Houston Texans coach, Gary Kubiak falling to his knees, carried off in a gurney, now in the hospital. What could have happened?

Also the accused LAX shooter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he ever express any hatred toward the government or toward the TSA?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All the NSA findings that came out, you know, this year that he was very upset about it and he also thought that TSA abused their power.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Brand new exclusive information, a friend of Paul Ciancia speaking out -- hatred toward the TSA and how police missed him by just hours.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has the bag, gets in the car, off they go and a short time later a knock at the door.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The police.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The police.