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Closing Arguments Begin in "American Sniper" Trial; Lawmakers Work on Solution to Fund DHS; 5 Drones Fly Close to Paris Landmarks Overnight; Attempted Robbery Used Fake Bomb; News Conference on California Train Derailment.

Aired February 24, 2015 - 14:30   ET

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

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: You want the however point?

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: However. Here we go. And cue Joey.

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, I was going to say, how do you - how do you defend against that argument?

JACKSON: OK. Here's the however. Number one, the prosecution's expert that says he was intoxicated, he was drunk, and all the other stuff, contradicts directly the defense expert who says, number one, he wasn't, and, number two, the event that he is, it would have had no effect upon this. His intoxication state had no effect upon his psychosis.

Number two, I don't recall any testimony in terms of his toxicology. I don't recall the police doing a breathalyzer or anything else upon him. If I'm wrong, please let me know.

I additionally don't recall, Ana, any police testimony where they showed intoxication, bloodshot eyes, blurred speech, odor of alcohol on the breath. For them to suggest he was intoxicated because of what he was doing that morning was having marijuana and drinking alcohol has nothing to do with at the time that this occurred, which was hours later.

Moving forward, the reality is this. You can make the argument that in the event that he did use alcohol or did smoke pot or anything else, he was using it to self medicate. That is, he was doing it and he engaged in this act not because he was intoxicated but he was mentally ill. As a result of that mental state, he was using it as a crutch to pull him up. So that's what the defense will focus in on. They will say, this is not about intoxication --

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: That it just ties into his mental state.

JACKSON: It ties into his mental case, his mental state. He didn't know right from wrong. As a result, you jurors have to find him not guilty.

CABRERA: So today, before these closing arguments taking place, there had been one more witness, analyst on the stand, at least crime scene analyst, who said that both the victims were shot quickly and at close range. Also testified that Chris Kyle, quote, "never saw it coming."

Why is it important, Danny, to present those details of the deaths when the question isn't about who did it?

CEVALLOS: I'm speculating as to the prosecution's tactics, but I think we can reasonably assume it's this. Number one, they're showing how deliberate these actions were and that these two people, these victims, never posed a threat to anybody. But part two, also it's really sort of a picture for the jury that this was a summery execution and nothing more, and that leaves them going into the jury room realizing these two poor victims never had a chance to defend themselves and never, ever posed a threat to the defendant.

JACKSON: Defense will say he was hallucinating, he was paranoid, he was schizophrenic, he was seeing things, he had to do this and he had to get them before they got him. These are the two competing arguments, Ana, that are going to play out in that courtroom. What the jury ultimately decides is the big question. And remember, what's the burden of proof? Is it more likely than not he was insane than he was sane? The burden is on the defense.

CABRERA: Ultimately, it goes back to motive. Why? Why did this all happen?

JACKSON: Yes.

CABRERA: Joey Jackson, Danny Cevallos, thank you very much.

JACKSON: Thank you, Ana.

CABRERA: Up next, lawmakers working on a solution to fund the Department of Homeland Security. What compromises could be in the works? We'll discuss.

Plus, we're expecting an update to our top story, that train derailment in southern California. A news conference should happen any moment now. We'll bring it to you. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Welcome back. The man in charge of keeping America safe from terrorists says his agency would have trouble protecting the country if Congress fails to pass a funding bill that's currently caught up in the battle over immigration. Homeland Security money runs out on Friday. And Senate Republicans have tied new funding to a bill that rolls back President Obama's controversial executive order granting amnesty to millions of undocumented immigrants. After four failed votes to pass this bill, to move it forward to debate in the Senate, Senate leader, Mitch McConnell, says he's going to try a new tactic, splitting DHS funding and the immigration rollback into separate bills so the Senators can vote on each one separately. But it's still not clear if that strategy will work either. Meantime, the clock ticks toward Friday's deadline.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JEH JOHNSON, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: If our headquarter staff is cut back to a skeleton, that inhibits our ability to stay on top of a lot of the existing situations and challenges to homeland security right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Gloria Borger, CNN's chief political analyst, is joining me now.

Gloria, you discussed all this with Jeh Johnson on Sunday here on CNN. Mitch McConnell can't seem to get anything moving in the Senate. He's sort of in a tight spot. His own party isn't even completely united on this one. Will his new plan to separate the DHS funds and the immigration legislation work?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Let's just say he's trying as hard as he can, and the problem might not be in the Senate as much as it would be in the House. Today, McConnell, as you said, said, look, let's just separate these two things. This is an apple, this is an orange. Let's talk about funding Homeland Security separately. He even indicated there might be a possibility that he would fund Homeland Security through, say, the end of the fiscal year, through the end of September. Then we could look at the issue again. And he's telling Republicans, you know what, the courts are on our side because, as you know, a federal judge ruled against the president's executive order. He said, look, the courts are on our side. Let's vote on immigration separately, but it won't look good for the Republican Party if we mess up the DHS over immigration. We should not do that because now we run the Congress and our job is to lead.

CABRERA: What's the argument against separating those two out? Why wouldn't that be where they started?

BORGER: Well, the argument against it is, first of all, a lot of Republicans are saying, look, the court are on our side, the courts are going to do what we ought to do, which is legislate this and we need to have our vote on this, and this is too important. The judge has stayed this processing. Now we've got to let our votes be known on this. They also believe, some of them will tell you, that, look, people aren't going to be completely laid off. You'll have about 30,000 people furloughed, but the rest will have to work without pay and eventually this will get worked out.

I mean, the argument on the other side, particularly by the Republican leadership, is, look, we have to show the people if we want to win a presidential election that we can run the Congress before we can convince them we can actually run the country. And this is a very important point to them. They believe they've made a lot of progress. They passed the Keystone Pipeline bill, which is important to Republicans. The president is going to veto it. So Mitch McConnell's argument to recalcitrant Republicans is, hold your fire, we're making progress, don't make it look like we can't run the Congress.

CABRERA: You talked about vetoing the Keystone Pipeline bill. This is another one. Even if it got through the Senate, President Obama has said he will veto this because of the rollback on his executive action. So what is the end game?

BORGER: He's going to veto it any moment. Look, this is one of these issues that Republicans took up early. They took it up early because they got some support from Democrats on the Keystone Pipeline as well as Republicans. There are lots of Democrats from red states who are for building the pipeline so they could get a bipartisan vote. They passed it. They sent it up to the president. He's going to veto it. And it's just -- it'll be on the docket for the next election. What Republicans want to do is show that what their agenda is. Passing Keystone is part of their agenda.

Defunding the Department of Homeland Security that is responsible for our security -- you all heard about the potential terror threat at the Mall of America in Minneapolis over the weekend. Jeh Johnson, the head of Homeland Security, said to me, and I quote, "It's absurd that we're even having this conversation at all at this particular period in our nation's history." Republicans are worried about that as well.

CABRERA: All right. Lots of threats, no doubt about it.

Gloria Borger, thank you.

BORGER: Thanks.

CABRERA: We know you'll be watching closely for us.

Five drones flying close to Paris landmarks overnight, including over the U.S. embassy there. French investigators are still searching for the pilots of those small unmanned planes that were spotted above the Eiffel Tower, the interior ministry, and a couple of other places. This is a city still reeling from last month's terror attacks.

Let's bring in CNN's Isa Soares.

Isa, do investigators have any leads as to whether these drones were linked, first of all, and do know why they were there?

ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Ana. Good to see you. Yes, the question, the very short answer is they don't, unfortunately. These five drones were spotted between 1:00 a.m. Paris time to about 6:00 a.m. By the time the police got there, the people manning these drones had already left. But these were drones flying over very sensitive areas of Paris, close to the U.S. embassy, many saying as well the Eiffel Tower, also, the military museum as well as the Louvre. These are concerns, of course. Paris is still at maximum alert security given the fact of the "Charlie Hebdo" and the kosher store attacks about seven weeks ago. Still a city on edge. But what authorities are telling us is they got there, didn't find anyone. They are trying to investigate. They've started an inquiry with 10 aviation police officers. They'll be in charge, responsible for looking into these drones, who exactly they were, were these militias, or simply drone enthusiasts. That's the crucial question.

CABRERA: It certainly seems suspicious given the timing of everything.

Isa Soares, thank you.

SOARES: Thank you.

CABRERA: Up next, a bizarre story out of Connecticut. A home invasion turned forced robbery. And police responding to a man with an explosive device strapped to his body outside a credit union. New information about the suspects in this case, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Now to a bizarre story out of Connecticut. Police are searching for two suspects, they say, involved in an apparent home invasion. That turned out to be the first step in the attempt to rob a credit union using what turned out to be a phony bomb. This all started before daylight on Monday. Two suspects allegedly broke into the home of the credit union's CFO. They attached what they claimed was an explosive device to him and his mother. He was then ordered to go to work and clean out the vault, but he managed to alert someone who then called police. And this device turned out to be fake. No one was hurt, but police are still wondering who done it.

Now, Alexandra Field joining me now.

An amazing twisted tale. Sounds like out of a movie. What do we know about the suspects?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that kind of plot, right? And how did this man end up in this device? He had told police two people broke into his home while he and his mother were there. Today, police are releasing information about the suspects they're looking for. They say they're after two men who are wearing dark clothing and also ski masks and goggles. That might not give the public all that much to go on, so police are looking for a car, which could be related to the suspects. That's a white, four-door, older-model Mazda.

They're asking people in the Farmington area of Connecticut to get in touch with police if they saw a car fitting that description in their area yesterday morning. In fact, they want people to take a look and see if they have surveillance cameras or cameras outside their house that could have picked up images of this car moving through the streets because they're still after these suspects.

At the same time, they're investigating what went on in this home, this story from this credit union worker who shows up outside wearing this device. He apparently believes this is a bomb. Authorities do meet him outside of the credit union. He had to actually sit in his car without the heat on while they remove it and test the device. They say the only injuries that the man had was some exposure from sitting in the cold car. They checked out the house. His mother is doing fine. They've also taken away the car he was in because they wanted to test that for any explosive residue.

CABRERA: So he, indeed, was in a car? They think that's the suspects care or -- (CROSSTALK)

FIELD: -- at the credit union wearing this devise. The men gave him this device and he goes to the credit union and he's met by the police outside the credit union --

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: Oh, so the suspects weren't with him when he got to the credit union?

FIELD: It seems that the suspects would not have been with him because he had the opportunity to get in contact with police. So many layers to this.

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: So many holes in the story to figure out.

FIELD: This is the sort of thing where you scratch your head and say, yeah, it sounds like a movie plot. Just a very bizarre twist. But a very serious thing if this turns out to be the story that this man who's identified as the victim, all this happened. Police want help certainly tracking down these suspects.

CABRERA: We'll see where this ends up.

Alexandra, thank you.

We're awaiting that news conference on a couple big stories. The train derailment we brought you at the top of the hour.

Also, as the V.A. secretary is getting ready to speak, we'll talk about the latest -- I don't know if it's a scandal, but he did misspeak. That's raising a lot of questions and at least raising a lot of eyebrows here today. He's expected to address his comments in a news conference any minute. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Let's get straight out to Oxnard, California. Officials are giving us an update into the passenger train derailment this morning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- get clear information so everybody has a chance to ask a question. Thank you.

TIM FLYNN, MAYOR OF OXNARD, CALIFORNIA: Good afternoon. My name is Tim Flynn. I'm the mayor of the city of Oxnard.

First and foremost, our thoughts and prayers are with the victims in this accident and their families. If it wasn't for the immediate response of the Oxnard Fire Department, our police department, and supporting agencies, there could have been more casualties. We are especially focused on making sure that the families of those that were affected by this accident are also taken care of. And as mayor of the city of Oxnard, our thoughts again and prayers are to the victims and their speedy recovery.

So we have a line of speakers. Please just hold your questions until after all the comments are made. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Next, we will have Oxnard Fire Department's chief, James Williams.

JAMES WILLIAMS, CHIEF, OXNARD FIRE DEPARTMENT: Good afternoon. This morning at 5:43 a.m., the Oxnard Fire Department was summoned to a response at Rice Avenue and 5th Street for a vehicle that was hit by a Metro Link train traveling towards Los Angeles. Our crews quickly arrived on the scene in about five minutes, started actions to extinguish the fire and to start EMS operations on the individuals that required that particular need.

One of the things about this incident was great collaboration today. We recently held some drills in collaboration with AMR as well as Metro Link to prepare for these types of events. That coordination and preparation certainly made things go very well this afternoon.

So with that, we want to thank the assisting agencies as well, and hope everything works out for those individuals that were victims as a result of this particular incident.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Next from the Ventura County Emergency Medical Service, Steve Carroll.

STEVE CARROLL, VENTURA COUNTY EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES: Good afternoon. We had a total of 50 patients involved in this incident this morning. Of those, 28 patients were transported to five of our area hospitals. Various injuries include spinal injuries, multiple fractures, head injuries, pulmonary contusions, neck and back injuries, and various other injuries. Those patients were treated at five area hospitals, including two of our trauma centers by 13 ambulances from our Gold Coast and American Medical Response providers.

So far, seven of those patients have been admitted to the local hospitals. 13 are still being treated in the emergency rooms. Eight of the patients have been treated and discharged from the emergency rooms.

That's all I have at this point. Thank you.

FLYNN: Next would be assistant police chief from the Oxnard Police Department, Jason Benites.

JASON BENITES, ASSISTANT POLICE CHIEF, OXNARD POLICE DEPARTMENT: Good morning, everyone. I'm Jason Benites, assistant chief, Oxnard P.D.

As you can see, we have a very complicated scene back here. So I would first like to thank you for joining us here to get the correct information out to our community, as well as thank the numerous agencies here to support us in this operation, which we can anticipate will be here for quite some time. What I can tell you to clarify a number of issues are some facts we do

know. Is that at 5:44 this morning, we received a call that a vehicle had collided with a train at 5th Street and Rice Avenue. Police units were the first units to respond. The first unit arrived three minutes later at 5:48 a.m.