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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Romney Won't Enter Presidential Race; Second Day of Hernandez Murder Trial; Rap Mogul Charged in Deadly Hit and Run

Aired January 30, 2015 - 12:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: With his ex-teammates two days away from the Super Bowl, former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez sweating through his second day of a murder trial. Prosecutors on the offensive, showing graphic photos that are just too much for the victim's family to take.

But also ahead, the guilty verdict in the Vanderbilt rape trial suddenly in question. Could the ex-football players convicted on that graphic video and graphic photos case actually get a break because of doubts about one of the jurors?

And, one of the biggest names in the music business arrested on suspicion of murder. Witnesses say they watched Death Row Records founder Suge Knight, a famous, famous person in the music industry, well, they say he ran down two men with his pick-up truck, killing one of them.

Hello, everyone. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. And welcome to LEGAL VIEW. I want to get you to some breaking news.

First up this hour, if you're just tuning in, expecting some big news from Mitt Romney on a possible re-run in the 2016 race for president, guess what, within the past hour, speculation has been rampant about a Romney announcement and all signs pointing to a presidential campaign kickoff. And the former GOP nominee said, nope, he's out. Here's what he actually said and how he said it in a phone call with his supporters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (voice-over): After putting considerable thought into making another run for president, I've decided it's best to give other leaders in the party the opportunity to become our next nominee.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Well, you just can't get more clearer than that, can you? Let's get the back story on today's big news from Wolf Blitzer, who's joining me now live from Washington, D.C.

You know, it's so strange because, for me, I don't live in your world, this isn't a surprise because all I've been hearing all the way along from him and from his family is, absolutely not. In fact, I think I heard him say no 12 times in a row once. And yet, to a lot of insiders, they are surprised.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Only because in the last month or month and a half he really was making some gestures out there that he was seriously interested in running for president for a third time. He was out there. He was trying to put together some sort of - at least initial staff. He was raising some money. He was certainly sounding, Ashleigh, you're absolutely right, earlier, he and his wife Ann Romney, they were absolutely, positively not going to run a third time. But in the last month or so, month and a half, he was showing some indications that he was seriously thinking about it. And he was seriously thinking about it.

This morning, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern, he decided - and you played the clip from that conference call of what he said. He's not going to run. Those are his words. He decided, when all is said and done, let someone else be the Republican nominee. Someone else -- he said if he doesn't get into this contest, maybe the Republican who eventually emerge as the party's nominee will have a better chance of beating the Democrat.

BANFIELD: OK, so what if - and this is just a what if -- the rest of the potential nominees really fare poorly? There is some talk, again among a lot of insiders, that he could still do a white knight and come back and rescue the race. Is that -- I hate to even ask because I'm so sick of asking when people are so definitive about not wanting to run, but is it still a possibility he'd come in to the rescue longer down the track?

BLITZER: I suppose, under that circumstance, it is a possibility. I'll read to you exactly what he said about that. He said, I've been asked and will certainly be asked again if there are any circumstances whatsoever that might development that could change my mind. And, Ashleigh, this is what he said, that seems unlikely. Accordingly, I'm not organizing a PAC or taking donations. I'm not hiring a campaign team. So unlikely, that's the word he used about any possibility of changing his mind down the road. That doesn't necessarily mean he's 100 percent closing the door. He says it's unlikely.

BANFIELD: I think I know what your lead story is today for your next show next hour, Wolf.

BLITZER: We're going to lead with this.

BANFIELD: I bet you are.

BLITZER: There's a lot going on. You didn't ask me who I think is the big winner among the Republicans from Romney's decision. Just --

BANFIELD: Let me guess, do you think it's Chris Christie?

BLITZER: I think it's Jeb Bush.

BANFIELD: OK.

BLITZER: I'll tell you why. Because Jeb Bush is that same sort of establishment, right of center, moderate Republican who's gone around, he's telling people he could potentially win Florida, a key battleground state. If he were to pick someone as a running mate, let's say like John Kasich of Ohio, in Ohio, that would be a formidable challenge presumably to the likely Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton. So a lot of establishment Republicans, big money Republicans, who were thinking of once again going with Romney, I think they probably would be inclined, some of them maybe for Chris Christie, but a lot of others would go for Jeb Bush. In the short term, my sense is, this is - this is a nice win for Jeb Bush, who is very seriously, obviously, thinking of running for the Republican nomination.

BANFIELD: I think of - I think of nice guy versus tough guy, if you think about Jeb versus Chris Christie.

Wolf, we'll be looking forward to your 1:00 show today. I want to make sure all our viewers know, this is going to be a big thing for Wolf, the 2016 races, and this new announcement.

Wolf, thank you.

BLITZER: Thank you.

BANFIELD: Always good to see you.

So another big story, the Aaron Hernandez trial. When the Patriots play the Seahawks in Sunday's Super Bowl, one of that team's former stars, who scored a touchdown the last time they were in the Super Bowl, is certainly not going to be watching. And how do I know that? Because Aaron Hernandez, instead, is in a high-security prison in a seven by 10-foot cell where there is no TV allowed and no football games that will be broadcast. He's going to probably have to rely on the kindness of prison guards for updates on the game, if they are so inclined.

Day two of this trial for the murder of semi-pro football player Oden Lloyd. And Lloyd's girlfriend of one year, Shaneah Jenkins, is currently sitting on the stand. And the drama of this particular story line is that her sister, Shayanna, it's a difficult connection here, but Shaneah on the stand and her sister Shayanna in the gallery, happens to be engaged to Aaron Hernandez and also happens to be the mother of their two-year-old daughter. And they are sitting on opposite sides of the courtroom because she lost the man of her love life.

So, Alexandra Field is outside the courthouse in Falls River, Massachusetts.

It is such a dramatic storyline to know that these two sisters are sitting on opposite sides of this story and physically opposite sides of the courtroom. And the mother of Oden Lloyd, who Shania has been sitting beside, actually had to leave the courtroom again today in tears. Can you explain what happened?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, actually, Ashleigh, this drama even goes up to a higher level now. I've had to step out here and talk to you. But earlier inside that courtroom, we did not see Shayanna Jenkins come in today. She was here all day yesterday sitting on the opposite side of the courtroom from her sister, Shaneah. This morning, she was not there and neither was Aaron Hernandez's mother. But his brother is sitting there right behind Aaron Hernandez.

Perhaps she didn't want to be here while her sister Shaneah testified. Shaneah has just taken the stand. We expect that this could be some very emotional testimony because, in fact, we already saw Shaneah become quite emotional earlier today at a number of times that we have seen very graphic images displayed to the courtroom and to the jury that is seated there, graphic images of the wounds that Oden Lloyd suffered when he was shot six times, execution style, in that industrial park.

The images were shown yesterday, but the close-ups of the wounds were shown today and it was simply too much for Oden Lloyd's mother. She got up, she was weeping, she was very much distraught. She left the courtroom, just like she did yesterday when those photos were shown. And today the judge actually said that from now on Ursula Ward will have to be warned when those images are going to be shown because it is a disruption and because she is so emotional about it. It is best for her to just step outside of the courtroom and not be there for the jury to see.

However, Shaneah, she is staying in the courtroom. She was weeping in her seat. And we're about to hear what she has to say now that she has been called by the prosecution to testify about the death of her boyfriend, Oden Lloyd.

BANFIELD: All right, thank you. They're just doing some foundational questions of her right now, so we're not getting to the meat of anything at this point. Alexandra Field, I'll let you get back to following this and we'll certainly update our viewers as soon as the testimony becomes critical to the actual question in the case, and that is the murder of her boyfriend. Thank you for that, Alexandra Field.

Things that people are hearing and seeing in the Aaron Hernandez trial, yes, they're graphic, but they're also seeing some really important facts. Facts like, there was a shoeprint, there was a tire print, there was mud that matched the defendant's car. There was a joint found on the scene with the defendant's DNA on it. Those are never good facts. And if you're a defense attorney, they make your job very, very hard.

So, after the break, you're going to find out what those defense attorneys are doing with all those what we call bad facts and how they're trying to climb out of that hole.

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BANFIELD: Welcome back.

We are covering the Aaron Hernandez murder trial live. And in this live picture inside the Fall River, Massachusetts, courtroom, on day two of the trial of Aaron -- the victim, Oden Lloyd, 27, had a girlfriend, and that is her. Shaneah Jenkins is testifying right now. She'd been dating him for about a year before he was shot six times and left for dead face-up in an industrial park. The odd part is that she is engaged -- her sister, rather, is engaged to Aaron Hernandez. So this is very, very uncomfortable to say the very least. And they have a two-year-old daughter together as well, so you can imagine the allegiances of her sister to the defendant and the allegiances of this woman, who's on the stand, to the victim. There can be no greater divide in a courtroom among families than that.

Now, at times, we've been watching as Shaneah holds the hand of the victim, Oden Lloyd's mom in the gallery of the courtroom. And on the other side of the courtroom, her sister, Shayanna, has been sitting beside the mother of the defendant. Again, it's hard to follow, but it's just a big divide and there is a hallway -- a hallway that goes down the middle in which witnesses are back and forth taking the stand and leaving court.

Joining me now, CNN legal analysts Danny Cevallos and Paul Callan, and Mel Robbins is with me, live in Boston.

So the first thing I want to ask you guys about is this notion of the victim's sister. She's taking the stand. Clearly she's going to be emotional about this. This is a very difficult thing to do. But there's a very specific thing that she is not going to be able to talk about. And, Mel, I'm going to have you lead off on this. That is that she got a text message - she got a text message from her brother shortly before he died saying, just in case, I'm with NFL, just so you know. I'm paraphrasing, but that's the essence of it. She's not going to be able to testify to that. So what on earth is she going to be able to testify to?

MEL ROBBINS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, she's probably going to testify - good afternoon, Ashleigh -- to the relationship between Aaron Hernandez and to her brother. And, listen, one of the huge outliers in this case is motive. You saw the defense in opening statements hammer the fact that these two we're friends. Aaron Hernandez and Oden Lloyd were friends. And so I think what you're going to see her talk about is perhaps maybe she'll give us some insight into the tension that was between these two or possibly some sort of fact pattern that none of us know about that would signal a reason why Aaron Hernandez might want to kill her brother, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: OK. And as we watch some of the live pictures from the courtroom, you're probably wondering, well, why aren't we listening to her? Oftentimes when a witness gets up on the stand, there's a lot of foundational things that you've got to question them about. What's your name? How old are you? Where did you go to school? All those kinds of things that aren't germane to the topic actually of the trail. And so as soon as she starts getting to the critical issues of why she's on that stand and why the prosecutors want her up there, we're going to get you in there live to hear her.

In the meantime, Paul and Danny, holy cow, if you sat through all of the testimony from yesterday and the openings, this looks really tough in terms of the very powerful circumstantial evidence that Aaron Hernandez's defense team is facing down. There is a shoe print of a Michael Jordan shoe that matches Aaron's at the murder scene. There is a tire print at the murder scene of a car matching his rental car. There is dirt from the murder scene on the belly of his rental car. There is a joint unlit at the murder scene with both the victim and the defendant, Aaron Hernandez's, DNA on it. Those are what you call bad facts in this industry.

Paul, have at her. If you're the defense attorney, what do you do to get out of that?

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, you'll do exactly what these defense attorneys are doing, they're poking holes in each individual piece of evidence. Now, the jogger who discovered the body was very carefully cross-examined about how many other people run through this path, how many other people might have been in a position to contaminate the homicide scene. And what you'll see I'm sure later on in the case is that this dirt that's on the bottom of the car is not some bizarre kind of dirt. It's all over this area. And, in fact, Aaron Hernandez only lives a half a mile from this site. It's probably the same kind of dirt that's on his street. So, boom, we can knock that part out.

I think the joint with the DNA is problematic. But you'll probably see an attack on the science of the analysis of that particular joint and whether it really does link back to Aaron Hernandez.

BANFIELD: And you know, quite frankly, if they were drug buddies, as the defense is alleging in its case, what's to say that Aaron Hernandez might not have actually put the joint together, licked it closed and handed it to his good friend who took it off and then sadly was murdered by other people? There's always something you can say.

CALLAN: Very true.

BANFIELD: But one of the things I noticed, Danny, in the questioning and the cross-examination by the defense, which seemed very skilled to me, was an effort to try to get to, how close did you get to the body? Did you trample all over the scene and wreck it? And how careful were police at preserving the forensics in this case? Because typically that's what knocks down all this arguments is sloppy police work or scenes that are messed up or transfer of, you know, the chain of custody of the items they actually take from a murder scene, that's usually how you can get all of these awful facts to seem not quite so awful.

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: You got it. And the defense attorneys in this case are doing a really good job of taking witnesses that are not necessarily hostile to them yet at least, they're just foundational type witnesses, and exploiting some facts that will be helpful to the jury and pointing out exactly what you talked about, that, hey, well, maybe there -- a lot of people did have access to this place. Maybe I saw a lot of things that the police did that didn't secure the place -- the crime scene properly. And if they can develop that -- it's a very good use of taking a witness that would otherwise be bad for them that the prosecution put up there and eliciting facts that may ultimately be helpful.

But make no mistake about it, the defense started fighting this war long before opening statements through the effective use of pre-trial motions. Some of that evidence that you talked about, if that text message had come in that tended to show some fear of the defendant, how devastating that would be. So this is a terrific example of the defense team fighting and winning many battles, not only during trial but before the jury was even impanelled.

BANFIELD: I also like the whole notion that the Air Jordan shoe, which is always such damming evidence when you bring in that shoe print and you say it matches the shoe that Aaron Hernandez had, the Air Jordan shoe. I could hear them hammering away at, how many people run through and walk through that area all the time? So we'll watch to see how they knock down the prosecution's case as they lay it out.

And once again, folks, you're not missing any of the critical testimony. Once again, the prosecutor, this is William McCauley, who's just been showing some pictures of the house, et cetera, to this witness. But we're going to keep you up to speed on everything she says that is critical to this actual question. There's the victim, again, Oden Lloyd, her boyfriend, up on the screen. Oh, that has not got to be easy for her to have to stare down that as she's already nervous on the witness stand.

I also want to let you know that tonight we've got a CNN special report that's airing, "Downward Spiral: Inside the Case Against Aaron Hernandez." You can imagine he probably never thought that he would be in a special two days before Super Bowl like this. Probably never expected it would be about that. Maybe he expected he'd be shown on television for his sports acumen. But he's not. It's about this case. It airs at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time right here on CNN.

And just ahead, one of the biggest names in hip-hop is right now locked up and he's being called a murder suspect. You probably recognize him right there. It's not Suge Knight's first go-round, however, with the legal system, but this is head and shoulders the most serious case he will ever face. What police and witnesses say he did, next.

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BANFIELD: Suge Knight has come a long way since his Death Row Records days of the early 1990s and mostly in the wrong direction. Today, though, a first. The former rap mogul has been arrested on suspicion of murder. In a hit-and-run yesterday in Compton, just east of Los Angeles, police say he ran over two men twice and killed one of them after an argument on a film set. Knight's lawyer says the whole thing was an accident. That's what he told the "L.A. Times."

Now if you're thinking, Suge who? Let me give you a bit of a primer and you might remember just how significant this person is. Suge Knight co-founded the first rap label to have big-time mainstream success. He helped make superstars of Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg and the man on the left and now the man on the right, Tupac Shakur. You'll remember that Tupac was a passenger in Suge Knight's BMW and that Suge was driving that night that he was shot to death, that Tupac was shot to death in 1996 in Vegas. I could go on and on about his list of accomplishments and list of

notoriety as well, but I want to bring in CNN correspondent Sara Sidner, who's in Los Angeles. And I'm also joined by CNN's legal analysts, Mel Robbins, Paul Callan and Danny Cevallos as well.

First to you, Sara Sidner. When I saw the news that he had turned himself in, in this hit and run, I did not expect that all of a sudden we were going to hear he's been arrested on suspicion of murder and that he's being held on $2 million. Did they really suspect this could be a first-degree murder or are they thinking more an accident and some kind of other homicide?

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They haven't said, but murder is murder and the worst charges that he has yet faced. And it's interesting, though, because when you see some of the video of him walking in, he's smoking a cigar. He's being very, very calm. And that was when he was walking in to be questioned. And then authorities booked him on suspicion of murder. Very serious charges indeed.

The trouble started yesterday afternoon, Ashleigh, when an argument broke out on the set of a biography that's being filmed called "Straight Out of Compton" about the once hugely popular '90s west coast rap group MWA. Now, the L.A. county sheriff says the argument ended outside a burger joint when Knight ran two people over with his truck, killing one of them and injuring the other person.

There are witnesses to this because this happened in the middle of the afternoon in broad daylight. Let's hear from one of the men who says he heard what happened and he was there when it all went down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All I hear is some arguing and loud sounds going on. So I turned to look out and I seen Suge Knight turn around and go to his car, backed his car up and then he put it in drive and then he hit Terry Carter (ph). He ran him over twice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: But Knight's attorney is telling us - we have just heard this come in now - he's sharing this information saying that Suge Knight was not trying to kill anyone. He was trying to escape for his life. That he was actually being beaten. Here is what his lawyer had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES BLATT, SUGE KNIGHT'S ATTORNEY: There are witnesses that indicate that Mr. Knight was being attacked by a number of men, that they were beating him through the car window, that he was making an effort to leave and tragically two individuals were run over and one has expired.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Clearly, so far, the sheriff's department has only charged one person in this case and that is - or not charged, excuse me, has arrested one person in this case and that is Suge Knight, as I said, on suspicion of murder. They don't seem to be buying the self-defense story so far. We're also just told that Knight has been moved to the jail in downtown Los Angeles.

Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Wow. I -- that's the first I'm hearing that he's suggesting that he was being beaten and that there may be actually witnesses who can back up the fact that he was being hit through the vehicle. That really changes the dynamic here.

Sara, stand by for one moment, if I can.

Guys, I want to bring you in on this, Paul and Danny and Mel.

Paul, I'm going to begin with you. There are witnesses who said that they saw him back up and then drive over. So that's a two-hit incident in that parking lot. But that same person who we just heard, a direct witness to the crime, didn't say anything about I saw some punching and hitting and all the rest beforehand.

CALLAN: Yes, that does kind of -- sounds kind of strange. Boy, I'll tell you, the street cred comes with a price, doesn't it, with a lot of these rap guys. They --

BANFIELD: But this is just a restaurant. I mean they - they weren't even on the --

CALLAN: They built enormous careers but boy they - the old feuds last.

BANFIELD: They left the set, though. No, it goes - I think it goes beyond that because they were at the film site --

CALLAN: Yes.

BANFIELD: And that's where the fight allegedly began, the argument.

CALLAN: Right.

ROBBINS: Correct.

BANFIELD: But then the incident happened at a restaurant parking lot. So, Danny, I guess the question here becomes, you're probably going to have to rely on a lot of surveillance video to see exactly what happened, if there is surveillance video. And then the other notion is, if you are in fear of your life and you do this, wouldn't your first inclination to be, call your lawyer, call the police, as opposed to just go home and hope for the best?

CEVALLOS: Yes. First, oh, how the criminal landscape has changed because of surveillance video. There likely -- more likely than not is some surveillance video of this going down, especially if any of it happened at a restaurant. Part two, as you can already see the defense circling their wagons. And I predict two distinct branches of the defense emerging. Number one is, I was being attacked and I had to get out of there and I had to drive away no matter what and those guys got in the way. And another prong might be that in California as in many state, if you are accused of a hit-and-run, the state has to prove that you were aware that you hit somebody. And it's often the case that defendants use the defense that I was backing out - if he's got a big car, maybe he didn't know he ran over someone. And, remember, as much as that may not pass the smell test, it's the state's burden to prove that beyond a reasonable doubt. So I will bet that you will hear both of those being raised. Number one, I had to get out of there, I was in fear of my life. Number two, I didn't even know that I hit anyone.

BANFIELD: So -- I'm with you on that, Danny Cevallos. I usually hear about that when you hit a deer on a highway.

Mel, bring yourself into this. Can you really say in a parking lot you back up and you drive over and you knock out two people and you didn't know anything happened? Is that - is it plausible?

ROBBINS: No, it's not plausible, particularly when you're claiming that you were the one being attacked and had to escape and then somebody expired.

Two things I want to point out, Ashleigh, and you pointed this out to begin with. Every account that I've read so far says the fight, as you stated, happened on the set. One of the people that was involved in this incident was actually part of the film crew. And so what they're saying is that the fight happened on the set and 20 minutes later, you've got Suge confronting these guys at a restaurant. That's huge.

Another thing that's huge, only one of the victims has died.