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Helicopter Lands Near Capitol; Aaron Hernandez Verdict. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired April 15, 2015 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:06] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Here we go. Top of the hour. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Let's talk about this breaking news here. This is just absolutely odd. This is out of Washington, D.C. These are live pictures here of this manned aircraft that has landed on the west front of the Capitol building. We're getting some new details here as far as maybe who was flying it, why this could be there, what the heck happened.

Athena Jones, I've got you joining me on the phone. Also, I have CNN's senior media correspondent Brian Stelter with some of the who. But first the what.

Athena, let me just bring you in first. I've been looking at some of these live pictures. It looks like potentially maybe one of those bomb disposal robots perhaps from Capitol Police or some other law enforcement jurisdiction sort of, you know, checking this thing out first and foremost. Tell me what you know.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Hi, Brooke.

Well, I can tell you that we were standing outside of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting. This is where the Iraqi prime minister, Haider al Abadi is meeting with senators. This is over half an hour ago when we saw commotion begin. Several uniformed police officers running through the hallways, speaking into their radios. We asked what was going on and they said we were told that a helicopter of indeterminate size had landed on the west part of the Capitol.

Of course, this is highly unusual. This is restricted air space. You need special permission to fly in this area. They did not know why this person had landed an aircraft on the west front. And so that was the commotion that was going on.

After a few minutes, the situation was under control. Police ran over to the man, got -- brought him into custody. He's now undergoing questioning. They're trying to figure out why he decided to land here, if there was some sort of mechanical issue. But I am told by the Senate sergeant at arms here that the situation is under control. The man is no threat.

But there was a good deal of commotion, if you can imagine, earlier, with folks around here not knowing why the person had landed. There was discussion amongst police about a lockdown. So the Capitol was briefly locked down, but it's not evacuated. There was also discussion among the security outside of this meeting where the prime minister is about how to possibly get the Iraqi prime minister out of the building in a safe way if that had been necessary. But in the end, after a few minutes, the man who landed what police here are calling a gyrocopter has been taken into custody for questioning. So that's what we know now, Brooke.

BALDWIN: A gyrocopter. OK. Athena, I'm not finished with you. Stay with me on the phone there from your perch.

Brian Stelter, to you. And obviously the other big question is, who was flying this thing? What are you hearing?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Of course. And in this Internet age, it appears as if this man really orchestrated this media stunt, even by reaching out to his local newspaper ahead of time. We should say with the caveat that other news organizations have not yet independently confirmed this man's identity. So I'm going to leave his name out of it for now. But it would be an extraordinary coincidence --

BALDWIN: Yes.

STELTER: If two people took off with choppers today and -- gyrocopters and landed there on the front -- west front of the Capitol. This man talked to "The Tampa Bay Times" well ahead of time. They taped a video with him. They interviewed him in detail --

BALDWIN: Well ahead of time as in days ago, hours ago?

STELTER: Days ago. And actually the reporter from "The Tampa Bay Times" then went to Washington today to watch this happen. Now he wrote on Twitter ahead of time, "this is one of the craziest stories I've ever done. I hope nobody gets hurt." Because this man was apparently concerned about the police or the Secret Service or the Capitol Police or some other entity taking action against him. According to "The Tampa Bay Times," this man actually alerted authorities before he took off. We don't know if that's the case or not but that's what he told the newspaper ahead of time that he was --

BALDWIN: What's his beef?

STELTER: Well, he says he wants to bring 535 letters to 535 representatives on Capitol Hill. And you can see on the gyrocopter, we see the logo --

BALDWIN: The U.S. Post Office.

STELTER: The United States Postal Service. He is said to be a mailman in Florida. Unclear if he's still a mailman or not. He says he had letters to deliver speaking about campaign finance reform and the corrupting influence of money in Washington. Obviously, we'll learn more about him and his identity will be confirmed in the hours to come, but that reporter wrote on Twitter, "he made it down safe. I can't believe he made it." BALDWIN: So was this something -- and, Athena, this is really, I guess, to you or to Brian, but if you're telling me, Brian Stelter, that this -- this mailman gave somebody a heads up --

STELTER: Right.

BALDWIN: That he was taking off in this helicopter, do you know, Athena Jones, if, you know, Capitol Hill Police or some other law enforcement were -- they were aware, they were waiting for this? Do we know?

JONES: It certainly does not seem as though anyone here was made aware ahead of time about this person's planned flight. We know that this is restricted air space. We know from my colleague Rene Marsh, through the FAA -- who spoke with the FAA, that you have to get special permission to fly in air space like this and that person -- this person did not get any sort of special permission.

BALDWIN: Restricted air space, as you pointed out.

STELTER: I used to be a page in the Capitol a long time ago. I used to be one of those Senate pages. We practiced for all sorts of emergency situations, but never for a helicopter landing on the west front.

[14:05:04] BALDWIN: Never for a gyrocopter, Brian Stelter.

STELTER: No. No. But it sure does sounds like a media stunt. He's a guy trying to seek out attention if it is, in fact, this man that spoke to "The Tampa Bay Times" ahead of time. He had it all planned, he said. He contacted media outlets ahead of time. So he was trying to make people aware of his beliefs and of his issues. Obviously, though, now that he's been taken into custody, now that he's been arrested, a lot of that is going to be overshadowed.

BALDWIN: Athena, what's the sense from where you are? Again, remind us the -- where are you right now? And as you were reporting, the lockdown is now lifted, although it appears, in this general area around this gyrocopter there, there is some machinery examining it, just looking for, you know, potential explosives, just being out of an abundance of caution. But is there a sense of calm where you are?

JONES: There is a sense of calm now. In fact, I just saw the Iraqi prime minister leave the Senate Foreign Relations Committee room. This is where we were when we saw the alarm go out around here. The people beginning to run around. The police officers heading outside. We didn't know then, of course, that it was a small gyrocopter. We were told at the time that they had been told it was a helicopter. And so there was a great deal of alarm.

Now, though, the (INAUDIBLE), as we've said, is entirely under control. The person is in custody. And I just saw the prime minister leave that room.

BALDWIN: OK.

JONES: So now things -- things are relatively calm. But, I mean, that's -- if Brian Stelter and "The Tampa Bay Times" is correct, it's a heck of a way for a person to deliver a message to Congress.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: Ah, you think? I agree with you, Athena Jones. Thank you very much. Keep your eyes and ears on this, and, Brian Stelter, you do the same. If we can talk to that reporter from "The Tampa Bay," that would be most excellent.

STELTER: Yes we are trying.

BALDWIN: Excellent.

Let's move on.

The fall from grace of Aaron Hernandez is now complete. His murder trial, over. The former NFL star shook his head after a jury convicted him just hours ago. There was no murder weapon, there was no motive, but a mountain of circumstantial evidence against him. Want to play you the moment the verdict was read and you will see the reaction of Hernandez's mother and his fiancee and then the response from loved ones of the murder victim, Hernandez's friend Odin Lloyd.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Charging the defendant, Aaron Hernandez, with murder, what say you, madam foreperson, is the defendant not guilty, guilty of murder in the first degree, or guilty of murder in the second degree?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Guilty of murder in the first degree.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Madam foreperson, by which theory or theories, deliberate premeditation and/or extreme atrocity or cruelty?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Extreme atrocity or cruelty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) 2013-983-B, charging the defendant, Aaron Hernandez, with unlawful possession of a firearm while not at home or work, what say you, madam foreperson?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The man who was once under a $40 million NFL contract will now be under a prison guard's watch for the rest of his life. A mandatory sentence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're charged with the crime of murder. The jury returning a verdict of murder in the first degree. And in consideration of the crime for which you now stand committed, you are sentenced by order of the court as follows. You're committed to the NCI Cedar Junction for the term of your natural life without the possibility of parole.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: Eleven weeks of testimony, 135 witnesses. A juror said he ended up with eight notebooks, just detail after detail on this case. It was back in June of 2013 Odin Lloyd's body was found in an industrial field shot six times. Surveillance video showed hours before Lloyd got into a car with Hernandez and some of his friends.

Let's go first to Susan Candiotti, who has been all over the story since it broke back in 2013. She has been in that courtroom every single day. You were there in Fall River this morning when the verdict was read. Walk me through what you saw, who you saw today.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, what a moment. The first thing was the jury walking into the room before they issued their verdict. They did not look at Aaron Hernandez. That didn't seem like it would bode well for him. And it did not.

At the moment when Aaron Hernandez was read the verdict, his legs were shackled. But the moment that the jury said guilty to first degree murder, the court officers walk over and put the handcuffs on him and surrounded him. His lawyers putting their hand on his back. He looked stunned.

[14:09:51] And at that moment, I immediately looked over to the victim's mother, Ursula Ward, who has been in this courtroom day in and day out. She put her arms up into the air and looked up to the sky saying, "thank God." And that family broke down in tears of relief. While on opposite end of the aisle, you saw Terry Hernandez, Aaron's mother, and his fiancee, crying, weeping in each other's arms. Aaron Hernandez's eyes didn't leave them. He kept looking over to them, looking over to them, whispering a couple times, "be strong, I'm OK." Tremendous amount of emotion and drama in that courtroom as he learned that he will be spending the rest of his life in jail. And he's only 27 years old.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: Do you have any idea -- I know we heard them -- we're going to get into this in just a moment because we did hear from the jurors after the fact. But do you have any idea what took them -- it was 35 and a half hours, seven days of deliberations, Susan.

CANDIOTTI: This jury talked about being very deliberate about their deliberations. They were very careful. They had a lot to consider, just as you said. And they took their time doing it because they knew this was a very important task ahead of them. And so, to them, it didn't take long. They had to look over the important evidence. Was that a gun in his hand? What about the testimony of key witnesses, including his fiancee, including Bob Kraft, Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots? A lot of things to consider. And even pointing out one of the most important witnesses for them was the best friend of the victim, Odin Lloyd, toward the very end of the trial, and he wasn't on the stand very long at all, but they talked about being struck by his emotion at losing his friend. All of these things put together took them seven days. And then they made a decision, they said, that they felt was the right one.

BALDWIN: Susan Candiotti in Fall River, Massachusetts, thank you so much.

We're not going far from this at all. Coming up next, we'll break down what happened with a legal panel, including what the jurors said moments after the sentencing.

Plus, much more on our breaking news out of Washington, D.C. A small gyrocopter lands near Capitol Hill. The pilot's in custody being questioned as I speak. We'll talk live with someone who witnessed the landing there live. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:16:40] BALDWIN: All right, want to come up -- back up live here on this gyrocopter. Let's be precise. This is this manned aircraft that has landed here on Capitol Hill. Still not entirely clear on the who, who exactly was in this chopper or why. We're working on that. I can assure you of that. But bottom line, this is a no-no. This is restricted air space. And I can tell you the person who was in this thing is now in custody, being questioned.

So putting that aside, let me bring in Rachel Jackman. She is a nursing student who happened to be on Capitol Hill today lobbying for her cause and sees this whole thing play out.

Rachel, what exactly did you see?

RACHEL JACKMAN, WITNESSED GYROCOPTER LAND ON CAPITOL LAWN: So I saw the craft flying over The Mall. It kind of looked almost like something from "E.T." with the bicycle. It has kind of like propeller and then something that said U.S. Postal Service on the back. And it landed on the lawn in front of the Capitol, bounced a couple of times, and that was pretty much it. And then, of course, all the police came in and told us that we needed to kind of get back.

BALDWIN: How close were you? How many yards would you -- would you guess?

JACKMAN: Probably half a football field, maybe less.

BALDWIN: So as you were watching --

JACKSON: We were pretty -- we were pretty close.

BALDWIN: OK. OK. So as you're watching this thing landing, did it appear to be a normal landing? And then once it landed, who got out and how quickly did police grab him?

JACKMAN: You know, I -- we just kind of noticed a single person sitting there. He really didn't get out. He just kind of sat. He didn't -- you know, there was no -- he really didn't do anything. It was scary. I didn't really know what was going on but --

BALDWIN: So he sat there, and how many -- how many police officers did you see him -- approach him and did he appear to resist being taken away or not at all? JACKMAN: He -- I didn't actually see him taken away, but within

minutes the entire area was shut down. I mean there were probably over 30 or 40 of the Capitol Police there, a few (ph) cars. There were some black SUVs as well.

BALDWIN: How entirely bizarre. Rachel Jackman, a nursing student, happened to be on The Hill when she saw this whole thing play out.

I've got Rene Marsh. Rene Marsh. There you are. Let me bring you in. You've got some new details. What happened here?

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we do know, as you mentioned there, Brooke, this gyrocopter, as it's called, and just a little bit about this thing. We know that essentially it's different from a helicopter in the sense that the blade that you're looking at there, that, as it turns, getting momentum from the wind is what allows it to get the lift. It cannot hover. We know that.

But as far as what happened, essentially this is restricted air space and this individual flew this thing into restricted air space. And the way it's set up here in the Washington, D.C. area, there's quite a bit of restricted air space just simply because of all of the federal buildings that we have here. We have the White House. We have the Capitol building. So if you draw a circle, a radius around Reagan National Airport, 15 nautical miles, that is what the restricted air space is. And that would include this area that we are looking at here.

[14:20:00] I did speak to the FAA, and essentially they tell me at this point they did not give special permission for anyone to fly into this air space. So, obviously, this individual in violation of this restricted air space.

The FAA, right now, is working on getting more information. I can tell you that they don't really at this point know a lot more than what we know. So they are actively gathering information. But we do know when it comes to this sort of air space, it's not just the FAA and air traffic control monitoring, there are several people who have their eyes on this particular area. So it will be interesting to see at what point did they realize that this gyrocopter was heading to the Capitol building and what sort of actions were taken when they noticed that.

BALDWIN: Yes. And, again, the who. I was just talking to Brian Stelter. Learning some newspaper reporter -- reports about who this could be. But I don't want to get ahead of it because we haven't confirmed it here at CNN. We're working the phones, I know, on that as well.

But for now, Rene Marsh, thank you so much. Keep in close contact with us. As soon as you get more -- and Rachel Jackman, now on a bus, nursing student, heading back to West Virginia, thank you so much for hopping on the phone with me. I really appreciate it.

Let's get you back to our other breaking story of the day, this ex-NFL star found guilty of murder, including the victim's family today, their reaction to this verdict. Plus, hear the -- let's call it what it was -- it was kind of a

bizarre news conference that these jurors gave moments after the sentencing.

Stay here. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:25:56] BALDWIN: You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

The jury in the Aaron Hernandez trial took seven days to agree on this guilty verdict. They agreed not to comment on what happened in the deliberation room but that they could speak to media right after the trial. And right after Hernandez was escorted out of that Massachusetts courtroom, all 13 of them did. Here they were.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did Aaron coming to the basement, did that thing in his hand look like a gun to you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At which time?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, which one are you talking about? What video?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would it have made a difference to you had he taken the witness stand?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It depends on what -- what he had to say.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It depends on what he --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were you hoping he might?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think we ever expected him to, to be honest.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What did you think of Shaneah Jenkins' testimony?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Emotional.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You could see she cared about him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pardon?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You could see that she cared about Odin.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did any of you hold back tears at any time in the past couple of months?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, yes. Absolutely.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) the jury, it was very hard to read your emotions. It was -- you were very straight faced. Was that hard to do just --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Out of --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, out of respect --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Out of -- out of respect for all parties, it's -- it's something that had to be done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's bring in our panel here. I've got criminal defense attorney Linda Kenney Baden. She was also the attorney for Casey Anthony. I've got attorney Jonathan Moore and also CNN legal analyst Mark Geragos.

And, Mark Geragos, let me just hop to you first. Just -- I don't know if you were watching that live. You may have been on TV. But watching all those jurors, you know, you commend these people for taking a chunk out of their lives to help decide this, but I found it entirely bizarre that, you know, they find this man, you know, guilty of murder, but they're -- I don't know if it's nervous laughter. How did you read that?

MARK GERAGOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I've stopped trying to figure out in these high-profile cases how jurors react because it's usually kind of a theater of the bizarre or the absurd afterwards to have these press conferences, to be giggling or to be laughing and you could be right, I give them the benefit of the doubt that it was nervousness. But I don't -- I don't quite understand it and I get -- I get that the media likes it, but I think it would have been better if they had just waited a little bit before they did it. It seems a little ghoulish.

BALDWIN: Linda, to you. You know, you thought, watching this whole trial play out, either not guilty or hung.

LINDA KENNEY BADEN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Hung, correct.

BALDWIN: You were surprised?

BADEN: I was surprised until I heard the defense attorney's closing. And what changed me there is he said that Aaron Hernandez could have been holding a gun in his house. Well, if he could have been holding a gun, well that gives the jury room to say it. And then he was -- he -- then he said to the jury, he was there, but he watched it. If that's going to be your defense, Brooke, you've got to start with that from the beginning because you know what the defense for the other two guys is going to be? BALDWIN: Yes.

BADEN: We didn't know that Aaron Hernandez was going to shoot Odin Lloyd. And that should have -- if that was going to be Aaron Hernandez's defense, that had to be from day one, not the way the defense has portrayed it.

BALDWIN: We have just -- I want to get to you, Jonathan, but we have -- we have a quick sound bite where he was talking about it, saying flat out, you know, he was there. You're saying he should have done this from the get go. Let's watch that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When Mr. Sultan (ph) acknowledged he was there, you said you were shocked. I mean was that an important moment for you as you -- was it -- was it an important admission? Did that affect your decision making?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More corroboration, I would think.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. And everyone definitely discussed it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: You're nodding.

JONATHAN MOORE, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Yes, well, that's a -- it's a -- it was a surprising development in such a long trial. And I agree with the prior comment that if that's your strategy, you should have had it out there much sooner. But it seemed to tie up all the evidence, the circumstantial evidence, and the footprint and the tire print and the marijuana cigarette with his DNA on it. I didn't understand it.

BALDWIN: Mark Geragos, what about, you know, we were all really watching through the arc of this trial, watching Aaron Hernandez. And you would see him smacking gum and smiling and laughing. And then you juxtapose that with the Aaron Hernandez of today, hearing guilty, you know, smacks him emotionally. He sits down. At points he's turning around to his mother and to his fiancee saying, "be strong, I love you." Was he coached?