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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Odin Lloyd's Mother Testifies Against Aaron Hernandez Today; Bobbi Kristina Brown Moved To Emory Hospital, Sources Tell CNN; Mysterious Death Of Argentinean Prosecutor May Involve Argentina's President And Iranian Government; Lance Armstrong Busted With Drunk Driving And Lying About It

Aired February 04, 2015 - 12:30   ET

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

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ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN HOST: There was quite a moment inside the courtroom at Fall River, Massachusetts today, where Aaron Hernandez is being tried for murder. This woman is the mother of the dead man. This is the murder victim's mother, Ursula Ward, and she is on the stand testifying live as we speak.

But, and this is a very big caveat. The judge needed to have a word with Ms. Ward before any testimony could get underway before she had a chance to say anything to this jury. Have a look.

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SUSAN GARSH, SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE: You are going to be recalled in a moment or two. It's very, very important. I understand that this is very emotional for you. But it's very important that you manage during this time you are testifying to retain control of your emotions and not to cry while you're looking at any photo that maybe shown to you. Do you understand that?

URSULA WARD, ODIN LLOYD'S MOTHER: Yes, Your Honor.

GARSH: Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: That is heartbreaking. That is a mother who lost her son to murder. That's the mother who has already twice had to walk out of that court just during openings in testimony when images of her son's death body were broadcast to the court and over to the television airwave.

Joining me now to talk about this morning's testimony is Miguel Marquez. I have heard that admonition before. I have heard it several times and every time I hear it I still can't believe it that someone has to tell a mother, you're not allowed to cry. But, Miguel, how has she been managing through her testimony.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's -- it was an extraordinary moment for them bring out the photo of the murder victim, Odin Lloyd, show it to her before the jury got in the room. She was forced to identify his body. She looked down and could barely bring herself to look at the prosecutor as he did. The judge (inaudible) the sound that you played there. And then both the defense and the prosecutor fought for quite some time before the jury was brought in over whether or not that picture would be use in court.

So far she is answering questions, just establishing the facts, who she is, where she from, what's her relationship to Odin Lloyd, and how they got to be here in the U.S. It is going to be a tough day for her. As you mentioned, she had has tough time all the way along so far and we expect that she have been hard time holding back emotions in this court much as the girlfriend of Odin Lloyd did when she (inaudible) stand earlier today, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: And that Shaneah Jenkins. And if people don't know this, it's an amazing story. Shaneah Jenkins, who was dating Odin Lloyd, she's on the screen now. This is from her prior testimony today.

Her sister is engaged to the defendant in this courtroom and sitting over on his side and there she is, Shayanna Jenkins. It's just -- it's remarkable tale. And it looks as, though, they will -- effectively testify against one another, and it sort of the highest drama that you can see.

MARQUEZ: This case is split. This family split these two sisters. Shaneah is talking about how they were very, very close before this and now that they are very far apart. They sit on separate sides of the courtroom when they are in there. Basically, her testimony was trying to establish just how close her relationship Aaron Hernandez had to Odin Lloyd. It wasn't clear that either side came off very well on that testimony. Ashleigh?

BANFIELD: And just quickly, isn't she effectively pointing the finger? We just saw her pointing over and identifying what seems either to be the defendant or his fiance. But isn't she saying "I think I saw my sister getting rid of the murder weapon," effectively, is that what she saying?

MARQUEZ: It is -- It is not clear. The prosecution basically saying that she saw her with -- she saw her sister taking out a black plastic bag, what was in that bag, they didn't get to. The defense basically saying it could have been anything. Ashleigh?

BANFIELD: All right, Miguel Marquez reporting live for us. Pretty dramatic trial in Fall River, Massachusetts.

We have another story that sealed a lot like the top twist from a Hollywood trailer, a prosecutor's found dead in Argentina. Was it suicide or murder? Because he was about to drop a massive bombshell about a cover up involving a decade's old terror attack at least that's the prevailing wisdom.

Drew Griffin investigating this deadly mystery, next.

(COMMERICAL BREAK) BANFIELD: At last check, Bobbi Kristina Brown was still in her family's words "fighting for her life" in a coma that her doctors induced to try to control brain swelling. But sources tell CNN, the 21-year-old daughter of Whitney Houston is no longer in the suburban Atlanta Hospital that she was rushed to on Saturday, that instead we're told that she's been moved to Emory University Hospital downtown.

The family lawyer says "investigating the events" that led Ms. Brown being discovered face down and unresponsive in her bathtub. They also say that she is "not and never has been married to Nick Gordon." The man, Brown and herself, had been calling him her husband on social media.

So if you've not been following the intrigue that is now boiling over in Argentina, it is definitely time to start because this story begins with the mysterious death of prosecutor who believed that he was on trail of a huge coverup arising from a terror attack 20 years ago.

A terror attack though involving no less that the president of Argentina and the government of Iran and the word is that prosecutor wanted to arrest his own president. That's right before he was found dead. Here's our senior investigative correspondent, Drew Griffin.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Slumped inside of bathroom of his 13th floor Buenos Aires apartment, 51-year-old Alberto Nisman was found dead. A bullet to his head, a 22 caliber pistol at his side. Initial accounts say it's suicide. But in a country were politics are as intriguing and complicated as the national dance, the conspiracy theories begin to twirl at newsstands at cafes, the conclusion is simple, murder.

Lead in part by a controversial 61-year-old president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner who implies she knows it was no suicide. It's murder. And all part of a plot against her. But the question lingers who would do that?

PATRICIA BULLRICH, DEPUTY ARGENTINA CONGRESS: He had very (inaudible) crisis -- institutional crisis because a prosecutor have been killed, murder, suicide. But he's dead.

GRIFFIN: Nisman was scheduled to testify in front of Congresswoman Patricia Bullrich's committee, the very next day after he was found dead. His report details alligations that she says if proven true would reveal a bombshell about the worst terrorist attack in Argentina's history. Pointing to a massive coverup between Iran and Argentina's ruling administration lead by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. On Saturday night, Bullrich talked to Nisman calm and working by phone.

BULLRICH: 15 hours later, he was dead.

GRIFFIN: Since his death, Nisman's nearly 300-page report has been released.

BULLRICH: The most important information in the investigation of Nisman is that the Argentina government wants to take away the responsibility of Iran in the bombing of AMIA. They want to destroy the investigation of the Argentina justice. That is the most --

GRIFFIN: Do you believe that's the core of what he found out?

BULLRICH: That is the core of the investigation of Nisman.

GRIFFIN: To understand the magnitude of the charge you have to go back 20 years to one of the darkest days in the history of Argentina's Jewish community. On July 18th, 1994 a van loaded with 600 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer parked on this Buenos Aires street in front of Argentina's Jewish mutual aide society known here by its initials, AMIA. At 9:53 in the morning, the van exploded, killing 85 and wounding hundreds.

Over the years the investigation has been mired and intrigue in alligations of corrupt and incompetent police work. And finally, in 2006, one prosecutor issues arrest warrants for eight Iranian nationals all by now believed who have fled back to Iran. But after 20 years no one has ever been brought to trial or even arrested.

It was the prosecutor Nisman who first accused Iran and Iran's former president of being behind the attack. And on the eve of his death it was the prosecutor now alleging his government and Iran were conspiring to cover it all up. The alligation, has tripped Argentina would get Iranian oil. Iran would get Argentinian grain and conveniently, this country's worst terrorist attack would remain unsolved.

For Louis Chavesky (ph) Nisman's death, suicide or murder and news of possible cover up by his own government is yet another blow in his 20 year search for justice.

This must have come as a complete shock?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking in Spanish)

GRIFFIN: His daughter Paula died in the bombing, she was just 21.

Are they willing to tell the truth? You don't know?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking in Spanish)

GRIFFIN: The truth, the facts and the investigation into the prosecutor's death are hard to find. Nisman was under protection of Federal police surrounded by bodyguards, but on the day before his death, he reportedly told those bodyguards take the weekend off.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking in Spanish)

GRIFFIN: The investigating prosecutor's office mobbed daily by Arabic press has issued only tidbits of information on the killing, but those tidbits have fueled endless media speculation. One report that says no gun powder was found on Nisman's hands. It was has most Argentinians convinced this was a suicide may too look like a suicide. A murder. Suicidado is the new term. Suicide, no matter how impractical that maybe.

The would-be assassin would first need to get through the security of the building, then get into the building itself, finally getting in a coded elevator and up to the apartment, where you would have to get inside the apartment kill Nisman in his bathroom and then back out while locking the door from the inside. Sounds implausible, yes, but this is Argentina, nothing gets in the way of a good conspiracy.

Last week, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner appeared on television in a wheelchair from her home to propose yet another conspiracy. She believes the prosecutor's death was caused by rouge agents in Argentina's own spy community, and the rouge agents are trying to create a murder mystery to incriminate her. She has announced plans to dissolve the nation's spy agency.

But suspicions here took another leap this weekend when it was revealed Alberto Nisman drafted an arrest warrant with the President and her Foreign Ministry dated last July, it was found in his garbage can.

Congresswoman Bullrich says "All fate in Argentina's justice system has been destroyed with one bullet."

BULLRICH: If the judge and the prosecutor, they are investigating Nisman death says that it was a suicide, nobody will believe it.

GRIFFIN: Drew Griffin, CNN, Buenos Aires.

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BANFIELD: So, he lied about using performance enhancing drugs. He was stripped (inaudible) to the front titles and his Olympics cycling medals. Do you think that's it for Lance Armstrong? Oh no, no, because now there's a brand new low for Lance.

Yes, police say that Lance let his girlfriend take the wrap for something that he did himself. Wait till you hear what this tell us and up to.

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BANFIELD: Welcome back now for some top stories that we're following former rap mogul Marion Suge Knight suffered chest pains in court, that after he pleaded guilty yesterday to murder charges in a fatal hit and run. And he had to be taken to the hospital too for this.

Knight was accused of running over two men, killing one of them following an argument and he's facing up to life in prison if he's convicted. Right now, we don't have any word in Suge Knight's condition.

A potential juror on the movie theater shooting trial in Aurora, Colorado was kicked out of the jury pool. And this is strange, it happened after she ripped her hair in court.

All of these details according to our affiliate KBVR. Apparently the woman showed up Tuesday morning with her grandchild who she claimed was not vaccinated. She said she needed daycare but daycare wouldn't accept the child. And at one point, she fell to her knees and ripped out large chunk of her hair saying the trial had brought up traumatic memories. I'll remind you, she was kicked out of the jury pool.

Lance Armstrong is in trouble again. And guess what? It's for not telling the truth again. And this time, it's got nothing to do with running bicycles. He's already the donkey (ph) of a cycling world for the whole doping and steroids thing, but now -- and this is really going to endear him to the ladies out there -- according to a police report, Armstrong and his girlfriend, yup, he's got one. They were out partying driving home and they hit a couple of parked cars. Lance is behind the wheel but he decided to tell the police that it was his girlfriend driving. Yeah, he let his girlfriend take the rap for the crash. Let me repeat, he lied.

He threw his girlfriend under the bus. And now, he's busted. Oh, Lance Armstrong.

Paul Callan and Danny Cevallos are here. You're looking, Dan, pleased with this whole story. I suppose I should say should we expect anything different from a guy who was able to lie to the world and then get angry at people who suggested that he lied?

But ultimately the question I have is why is he not charged with something far more serious than just two misdemeanors for duty to report accidents and exceeding with safety conditions?

PAUL CALLAN, CNN ANALYST: Well, he still could be charged, I suppose if this thing blows up in the press as it is now. But it's hard to charge him with driving under the influence because by the time he's apprehended, he can't take an alcohol level. He is charged with leaving the scene.

BANFIELD: What about obstruction of justice? I mean, lying to the police. Now look, it was his girlfriend who admittedly lied, Danny, at the beginning.

She says she did it because, you know, she's not famous and it wouldn't hit the papers if she wreck out two parked cars. But for him, it could be destructive.

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: First, she is the one who more likely could face those obstruction charges and false reporting to police. You know, the old rule is that you don't have any constitutional duty to speak to the police but if you do and you lie then you can be held criminally liable.

And look, on another note, you know, you talk about the criminal defense attorneys, the world of getting your girlfriend to take responsibility or put this in your name or use your credit card and I'll pay you back, this is nothing new. This happens all the time in the world of criminal defense. It is --

BANFIELD: There's lots of gentlemen out there, huh. CEVALLOS: -- full of sad tales of, yes, very persuasive men convincing their girlfriends to put something in their name that later on gets them in trouble. So this I hate to say does not come as much of a surprise to me.

CALLAN: You know, those who were following the Hernandez case now that Danny has raised that. Think about Hernandez, you know, one of the big pieces of evidence to that case is that the fiancee remove allegedly the murder weapon in a trash bag on orders from her boyfriend.

So what's going to happen to her? She got indicted for perjury so these women standing up for their men and they're paying the price for it.

BANFIELD: Well, she's not facing any charges at this point. I know you said she could ultimately. But I'm still going back to Lance and the fact that he was behind the wheel. She admitted he had been drinking, she then change her story (inaudible). We brought that whole drinking thing up to, you know, as a red herring, that's why I was driving.

Now then she admitted, no, I wasn't driving. But at the same time, if he was driving and he didn't report that and he allow this to happen and he left the scene of accident, why is that not obstruction? And I've got only couple of seconds left.

CALLAN: Well, it is the crime of leaving the scene of an accident without reporting. And it's not obstruction because the crime itself. It's a crime to leave an accident scene without reporting it. So -- that he's guilty of that.

BANFIELD: For leaving with your girlfriend and tell them it's her?

CALLAN: Well, you know, it's (inaudible).

BANFIELD: Men oh men.

CEVALLOS: Ladies, stop dating these guys. Just knock it off or don't take -- don't put anything on your credit card. Don't put the house in your name.

BANFIELD: And as I said, he has a girlfriend, seriously? Danny Cevallos, Paul Callan, I got to leave it there. Thank you gentlemen.

CALLAN: OK, thank you.

BANFIELD: And like we said, warning, warning. Hey, thanks for watching everybody. Wolf starts right after this quick break.

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