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Bride Pleads Guilty in Cliff Death of Her Husband; FCC to Vote on Whether to Seek Public Comment on In-Flight Cell Phone Calls; Teens Host "Ghost Party" in Mansion; College Student Possibly Hazed to Death

Aired December 12, 2013 - 14:30   ET

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


BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up, here's a scenario for you. You're flying, sitting back, relaxing on the plane. Suddenly people to the right of you, to the left, to the front, to the back, start yapping on their cell phones. Annoying, right? Any moment now, a vote on whether that could soon become a reality.

Plus this, a fraternity pledge dies during some ritual. We now know what the brothers were allegedly doing to him. That's coming up. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Got some breaking news I want to pass along to you here. You have been watching and we have been reporting on this trial under way in Missoula, Montana, a trial in which this bride admitted to pushing her groom after the -- eight days after the "I dos" over a cliff. Was it self-defense? Was it murder? Here's the news.

Jordan Lynn Graham has agreed to plead guilty to second degree murder. The 21-year-old was charged with first and second degree murder. She agreed to take the second degree murder charge in exchange for dropping first degree murder as well as the charge of lying to investigators. That was the deal that has just been truck.

Prosecutors say the 21-year-old desperately wanted out of her marriage to Cody Johnson, so she deliberately pushed her husband off this cliff. This was in Glacier National Park after some kind of argument. Keep in mind, like I mentioned, Graham and Johnson had been married all of eight days.

Any moment now, the Federal Communications Commission will vote on whether to pursue a move that polls already show you don't want, allowing airline passengers to talk on their cell phones while in flight. Maybe some of you do, but many don't. Look at this poll from Quinnipiac University showing 59 percent of Americans do not want people yapping on their cell phones mid-flight. But 30 percent of people say, we're OK with it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I need to be in touch with people, and the hour and a half I spend flying between Atlanta and D.C., I lose that time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Aviation and government regulation correspondent, Rene Marsh is live in Washington. Just so we're crystal clear here as we're talking about this talking about a vote. The FCC isn't actually voting on whether or not to allow this, so what exactly are they voting on today?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Right, so the FCC, Brooke, is moving forward with its proposal to allow flyers to text and talk on their cell phones during flight. And they're about to vote on whether to consider lifting the ban on cell phone use above 10,000 feet. Now we know FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, he defended the proposal at an oversight hearing on Capitol Hill just this morning. He said technology is advanced enough to allow texting and cell calls mid-air without interfering with towers on the ground. He calls the ban out-dated. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM WHEELER, CHAIRMAN, FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION: I'm the last person in the world who wants to listen to somebody talking to me while I fly across the country. But we're the technical agency, and we will make the technical rules that reflect the way the new technology works.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARSH: All right, well, not everyone likes the idea. You saw those numbers there. Some airlines have already said that this is a no-go for them, and we know one congressman already introduced a bill to block phone calls in flight -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: What about the Department of Transportation? They may pre- empt this whole issue anyway, right?

MARSH: Absolutely. You know, on the same day that the FCC is talking about steps to allow cell phone calls on planes, the Department of Transportation just a short time ago, they say that they're taking steps to block them. Secretary Anthony Fox said in a statement to CNN, that they're beginning a process that will look at the possibility of banning phone calls in flight. So what does that mean? It means that you may not get to make those calls mid-flight after all, because ultimately, DOT decides aviation rules -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: I know we're supposed to be objective, Rene Marsh, but let me ask you, would you want someone on a phone next to you on a plane?

MARSH: No, I want to sleep and not be bothered. How do you feel about it?

BALDWIN: I am the same way. I love the quiet. I love the quiet. Rene Marsh, thank you very much.

Coming up next here, more than a dozen teens arrested for allegedly ghost partying. Have you heard of this term, ghost partying? Police say they went to this vacant home, partied and walked out with a $250,000 stuffed snow leopard? OK, also walked out with some medieval armor, Armani suits, but that didn't last very long. We'll tell you the one thing -- let's just say what it is, a dumb, dumb thing that led to their arrest, coming up.

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BALDWIN: If you are ever invited to a ghost party, here's some advice. Pass. A ghost party is thrown in an empty home that doesn't belong to anyone at the party and it often gets out of hand, as this one party did in Los Angeles. Police caught these partiers after some of them bragged online. Here's our Serene Branson from our affiliate KCBS on the case today.

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SERENE BRANSON, KCBS REPORTER (voice-over): This YouTube video shows this estate known for parties. But sheriff's deputies say the most recent one was what was called a ghost party, thrown by teens who cased unoccupied homes for sale.

CAPT. TIMOTHY MURAKAMI, LOS ANGELES COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: The suspect hosted a party, charged a fee, and probably 100 plus kids or so attended the party.

BRANSON: But then the party got out of control.

MURAKAMI: Somebody broke into the house, which caused a looting frenzy. They started looting can causing damage.

BRANSON: To the tune of $1 million. Sheriff served search warrants and recovered many of the items, Versace suits, medieval masks and a $250,000 stuffed snow leopard, a now extinct species. Deputy say pictures of many of the items were posted on Twitter by the thieves. One hundred teens made it into the house, 16 arrested, 13 of them juveniles.

MURAKAMI: They were bragging about the party, showing themselves within the residence, showing themselves carrying some of the stolen property.

BRANSON: We learned the house is owned by a trucking magnate. He was out of the country when the party and vandalism occurred. He pointed us to his Facebook pictures of the house. Neighbors told us there are often parties behind these gates and they didn't think much of the commotion the weekend before Thanksgiving.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Probably jumped the fence, not very hard because it's quiet. There are no street lights and everyone has large acreage.

BRANSON: Deputies say parents have been cooperative, but the teens face serious charges.

MURAKAMI: They're kids of means that shouldn't be doing these things, but they got caught up in doing something wrong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Serene Branson reporting for us in L.A. Next hour here on CNN, I'll talk to a member of the so-called "Bling Ring," this group of teenagers who threw parties in the homes of celebrities in L.A. and left with a lot of loot. We'll talk to him about what's going on with teenagers and taking selfies with the loot they take from these homes. Don't do it.

Coming up, "The Butler" completely shut out of the Golden Globes. That includes Oprah. We will tell you the three things to look for since the nominations have officially been revealed.

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BALDWIN: Welcome back. I'm Brooke Baldwin. He was supposed to bond with his brothers, but now a fraternity pledge is dead, and his brothers could be facing criminal charges for not acting fast enough when Chan Deng, people call him Michael, lost consciousness. The 19- year-old man died Monday. He was a student at Baruch College in New York City. Prosecutors say he was taking part in this ritual with the fraternity. It's called the glass ceiling and suffered a fatal blow to the head.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN WONG, BARUCH COLLEGE STUDENT: I'm surprised it's Pi Delta Si, because I heard good things about them. I am surprised one of their members got hurt or killed. It's shocking to me.

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BALDWIN: Let me bring in CNN Frederik Pleitgen, who is doing more on this, and glass ceiling, this fraternity ritual. What is that?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you sometimes wonder what these people are thinking. It's apparently some sort of gauntlet ritual, where the person who does this has to put a heavy object on their back, usually a bag or something, and then he gets blindfolded and someone essentially makes noises and he has to reach that person while blindfolded and other people try to tackle him along the way.

So this is apparently what Deng was doing, and in that process of that, he suffered a really bad head injury. Then what happened is they brought him inside. He was unconscious, and later, they drove him to the hospital, but they never called an ambulance. They never called an ambulance. You could get medical treatment inside the ambulance. This is one of the things that investigators are going to be looking into, was there some form of negligence.

BALDWIN: What about the fraternity? What are they saying?

PLEITGEN: Well, the fraternity has come forward. They say they're equally as shocked as all of us. They put out a statement. Our early understanding is this incident occurred at an unsanctioned event strictly prohibited by our organization. As a result of this incident, we are immediately suspending all new member education nationwide until further notice, and they said they're cooperating with law enforcement authorities. They say they're trying to get to the bottom of this as well, apparently, totally illegal event that was going on.

BALDWIN: I'm sure the kids feel horrible.

PLEITGEN: I'm sure they feel horrible.

BALDWIN: Fred Pleitgen, thank you very much.

Now this, coming up, much more on our breaking news, the newlywed, this bride accused of pushing her husband off this cliff. The deal has been reached. We'll discuss that. What does this mean, legally speaking, this deal that she's now agreed to?

Plus, that interpreter in Johannesburg who is signing at Nelson Mandela's memorial now says he suffers from a mental illness, admitted to hearing voices in his head while signing at the service. So how the heck did he get so close to President Obama? We'll talk to a former Secret Service agent coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: I want to begin with breaking news here. I'm Brooke Baldwin live here in New York. We have been following this murder trial playing out in Missoula, Montana. It involves a new bride and an incident that happened back in July in Glacier National Park. She had just said I do to her husband eight days prior and she ultimately admitted to pushing him off this cliff.

The question became, was this self defense or was this murder? Now, the prosecution had been out during the trial thus far, and they of course are arguing this was purposeful, that this was premeditated. She was charged with murder one, murder two, and lying to investigators. A deal was struck in which she has pleaded guilty to murder two, but it waives the other two charges.

Let's talk about the nitty-gritty of this trial. Let's talk about how this really was a gift, according to Sunny Hostin. Sunny Hostin is rejoining me. Jane Velez-Mitchell is joining me so the deal. First of all, is the deal a surprise?

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It's a surprise to me because prosecutors, once they have put in the resources to try a case like this, generally don't offer a plea after the case is closed and it's about to go to the jury. So this is a gift because remember she was looking at first degree murder, which is life in prison.

Second degree murder, I mean, under the federal sentencing guidelines, you could still get life, but it's more likely she'll get 19 to 25 years because she has a clean record. It's still significant, but it is a gift for a federal prosecutor, which is what I used to do, to give that kind of a gift in a trial like this.

BALDWIN: What do you think? JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HOST, HLN'S "JANE VELEZ MITCHELL": Here's the thing. I think that it was becoming more and more of a powerful circumstantial case. I think she felt that she could push him off the cliff and say it was an accident, big whoop, and walk away and not so fast because what she did after that was so self-incriminating.

BALDWIN: Let's walk through the steps.

MITCHELL: Instead of saying I was there with him, she said, some buddies picked him up and took him on a ride. Then she created a fake e-mail where someone named Tony said stop looking because he died. Then she tells a bunch of people, I don't know where my husband is. Have you seen him?

HOSTIN: Not to interrupt you, then what's interesting is she leads a group of people to the exact spot that he is found dead on the floor of this national park.

MITCHELL: And she says, well, I figured he'd be here because he always wanted to see this spot.

HOSTIN: Before he died.

MITCHELL: That's not good.

BALDWIN: The other piece that came out, they found some sort of piece of black felt, right? Going down the river, and this was a question of whether or not she had blindfolded him, thus perhaps premeditated murder.

MITCHELL: I thought they did. I thought this was the most incriminating piece of evidence because she was telling all he had said that she had told him there was a big surprise that she wanted to give him. All these people testified, yes, Cody said, that's the husband, I'm going to get a big surprise from my wife today. Yes, I'm going to going a big surprise. Then they find the blindfold. How do you deliver a surprise, you put the blindfold on and say, honey, I have a surprise for you, boom.

HOSTIN: She did admit to pushing him in the back with both hands, which cuts against the argument of mistake. I didn't even think the prosecution needed the blindfold. The judge wasn't inclined to let it in because there wasn't a real connection yet. I think this case was always about who does that? That's how juries look at these cases. I tried enough cases to know when juries go back in the jury room. They use their common sense and say, wow, what newlywed would behave this way after pushing her husband? She admitted to pushing her husband. The only question was whether or not she intended to do it or whether or not it was an accident.

BALDWIN: Let me ask you this, how does this even work? The prosecutor had been up and they had portrayed their side of things. The defense hadn't done that. They were going to say this was a frightened young woman. She didn't know what she was doing. This was self defense. Her name is Jordan. Did Jordan say, hang on. I'm sitting in this courtroom listening to this side of the story. I don't feel great about this. Let me plead guilty.

HOSTIN: Correct me if I'm wrong, Jane. I think the defense put on a case, and the prosecutor hadn't put on a rebuttal case. Oftentimes what happens when there's a plea deal after trial, which again is very looks really strong. This jury is looking at me in a funny way. I think I need to cut a deal and then that person going to go to the lawyers and say, you know, wow or the lawyers going to say to the defendant, this is where we're at.

MITCHELL: The reason why the prosecution did it is you never know. Look at Casey Anthony. You never know. Since there were no witnesses, only two people on the cliff, the husband and wife, that they thought, well, this is a gamble. We would rather get something that's firm than take a gamble and not get anything.

HOSTIN: And what I do wonder is whether or not the prosecutor spoke to the families of the victims because that's something I typically did before offering a plea because it's very much about how the victims will feel.