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ISIS Attacks; Aaron Hernandez Found Guilty. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired April 15, 2015 - 15:00   ET

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


[15:00:03] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: These are not forgotten girls. That is why I wanted to make sure this was in the show today one year later. We will not forget.

Saa, my best to you. Thank you so much for sharing your story. I really admire your bravery. And, Emmanuel Ogebe, keep doing it. Thank you both very much.

SAA, SCHOOLGIRL ABDUCTED BY BOKO HARAM: Thank you.

EMMANUEL OGEBE, INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER: Thanks, Brooke.

SAA: You're welcome.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BALDWIN: All right, let's continue on here, hour two. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

A lot of the like about, beginning with this breaking news, this bizarre story out of Washington, D.C. Here's what we know now. You see these pictures. This is a small manned aircraft. Technically, it's called a gyrocopter. It landed near the Capitol Building just a short time ago.

I can tell you this pilot of this gyrocopter, he's in custody. A friend of the pilot tells CNN this was a protest flight. That friend, Michael Shanahan, is joining me on the phone right now. Also with me, former Secret Service Dan Bongino. He's with me on the phone.

CNN's Brian Stelter here in New York. Also with me, former Secret Service agent on the phone.

But, Michael, to you first. Can you please tell me who your friend is and why the heck he did this?

MICHAEL SHANAHAN, FRIEND OF PILOT: His name is Doug, Douglas Hughes,.

The purpose of it was to call attention to the United States concerning our campaign finance laws, or the lack thereof. And he wanted to deliver -- at least his original plan -- I haven't actually talked over this for a long time with him, but his original plan was to deliver letters to every member of Congress complaining about the campaign finance and the fact that it needs to be changed.

BALDWIN: OK. Couple ways I need to follow up with you. One, if he wanted to deliver letters, what about the good old-fashioned mail system, as opposed to violating restricted airspace, landing on Capitol Hill in a gyrocopter?

SHANAHAN: The main purpose there was not so much to alert Congress to something they already know, but to make a statement, so that America would take notice, so they could see what the problem is.

Him and I together have been working on this together for some time. We have a Web page, Civilist Papers. And in that, we were talking about campaign finance. We have gotten pretty much nowhere in several years. And he felt that something need to be done to make an outstanding statement.

BALDWIN: I think he was successful in making a statement by doing it this way.

Do you know, Michael, how long he'd been planning on doing this, how long this had been in the works?

SHANAHAN: It started a couple of years ago. Him and I were just sitting around brainstorming. And he came up with the plan. I, myself, was born and raised in D.C., and I told him that, no, that was an insane plan because the chances are he was going to get killed.

BALDWIN: You did tell him it was insane? All right. So what was his response to that?

SHANAHAN: Oh, yes.

He listens to me -- unfortunately, Doug is like a pit bull when he gets an idea. He's very stubborn. And he finds ways around it. And we were in a -- the word got out because he was telling people of his idea. And the Secret Service heard of it. So, they interviewed the two of us.

And after that, he said he was going to sell his copter and figure out something else to do. But then I noticed he did not sell this copter.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: So this is a surprise to you that we're showing live pictures of your friend's gyrocopter on the lawn here in front of the Capitol? The fact that he carried it out, this is a surprise? This is news to you.

SHANAHAN: He called me this morning.

BALDWIN: Aha.

SHANAHAN: And he told me that he was in D.C., and that I needed to go to the Web site The Democracy Club.

I did go to that Web site, but it -- all I got was something for England, the United Kingdom. And I was unable to find anything. I was starting to panic because, even though he didn't tell me he was doing this specifically, I was pretty sure that's what he was doing because there's no other reason for him to be in D.C., and so I called --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Did you try to talk him out of it, putting two and two together, Michael?

SHANAHAN: No.

[15:05:00]

At the time, he was talking real quick, and I didn't know exactly what he meant by a lot of things. And I said, OK, fine, I will go look. And he hung up, and when I tried to call him back, I couldn't get him.

BALDWIN: OK. Michael Shanahan, stay with me.

Brian Stelter, let me just bring you in to sort of corroborate some of what you were reporting at the top of the last hour, individual out of Florida. It's interesting to me to hear his friend say that he had been interviewed by the Secret Service, which tells me they had this heads up that this guy may be trying to fly his gyrocopter into restricted airspace, which obviously his friend knew was a no-no, told this guy it was insane. Obviously didn't listen to him.

How can you add to this?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: This was a surprise to a lot of people in Washington around 1:20 p.m.

BALDWIN: Hello. Yes, it was.

(CROSSTALK)

STELTER: You don't see helicopters flying over downtown. People tweeted about it, actually. You saw people writing about seeing this sighting.

But it not a surprise to one reporter, a reporter for "The Tampa Bay Times," Ben Montgomery, who actually had spoken to this man a year and many months ago. So the Secret Service visited last April, spring. Then this man, the pilot here, called "The Tampa Bay Times" because he wanted his story to be out there. He actually thought if he spoke to a newspaper reporter, it would put him in a safer position, make his chopper here less likely to be shot down.

So, Ben Montgomery tweeted after all this ended: "He made it down safe, arrested safely. Witnesses moved way back. I can't believe he made it." Even this reporter, who was frankly all but along for the ride here, because the reporter came to Washington to witness this all happening, said he can't believe he made it. Of course, there's an ethical issue here about whether a journalist has to alert the authorities ahead of time.

"The Tampa Bay Times" is saying it actually did call the local authorities to let them know, to give them a heads up this man was about to fly a gyrocopter on to the lawn of the Capitol. This man on his Web site says he tried to alert the authorities in advance as well.

What we don't know, Brooke, is whether the authorities received those messages or not. We don't know if they actually were expecting this helicopter, this gyrocopter to land.

BALDWIN: This is, for lack of a better phrase, a total head- scratcher.

STELTER: A total media stunt.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Total stunt.

Dan Bongino, former Secret Service, put yourself in the shoes of current Secret Service here. If you had the heads up, and it sounds like they did, that this guy was going to try to pull this stunt, how would you handle this? What are they doing right now?

DAN BONGINO, FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT: Well, I'm wondering -- yes.

Well, I'm wondering how much detail they had. We get a lot of these threats, as you could imagine, in the Secret Service every day, a lot of them from individuals with various psychopathologies who say everything we're going to land a Martian spacecraft on the White House. So I'm sure exactly how much information they had.

But I'm sure that they will be going through the files now. From what I'm hearing, and the information is coming out in little pieces here, the story wasn't as clear as everybody seems to think it was, that this plan was in detail laid out for them and they knew.

But it seems the Capitol Police had some advance information, because they were there, it looks like, immediately waiting for him when the copter there landed.

STELTER: You even see the man himself quoted by "The Tampa Bay Times" saying -- quote -- "No sane person would do what I'm doing."

BALDWIN: His own friend, you heard Michael Shanahan saying, listen, buddy, this is insane. And he obviously didn't listen to him. I have a feeling we will get lots of details.

(CROSSTALK)

STELTER: But they did take all his letters out of the chopper. There were 300-some letters, 500-some letters.

(CROSSTALK)

STELTER: Well, yes, well, thankfully, the newspaper has already published the letter in full. It's all about campaign finance reform.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Michael Shanahan, a friend of this pilot, thank you for calling in. Dan Bongino, former Secret Service.

Brian Stelter, keep working it for us. Thank you very, very much.

Let's move along. The fall from grace of Aaron Hernandez is now complete. His murder trial over. The ex-NFL star shook his head after a jury convicted him today. There was no murder weapon. There was no motive, but a mountain of circumstantial evidence. Want to play the moment for you this verdict was read. You will see the reaction of Hernandez's mother, his fiancee, and then the response from the loved ones of the murder victim here, Odin Lloyd, his friends, his family.

(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: Indictment 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.

[15:10:03]

(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 MCI Cedar Junction for the term of your natural life without the possibility of parole.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: It was June of 2013 that a jogger found Odin Lloyd's body in an industrial park shot six times.

CNN's Susan Candiotti has been reporting every single detail of this case since June of 2013. She's been in the courtroom throughout this whole ordeal. We saw the video, but you were in there. You saw it. You felt it.

Tell me everything.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I will tell you, Brooke, what a stunning turnaround and a fall from grace for this once-risings football star for the New England Patriots. And consider this, this new information we have.

We understand that he's currently on his way, if he isn't there already, to a state prison that is located literally a few miles away from Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, where he played with the New England Patriots. That's where he's beginning his life sentence. Something to think about. In court today, something to think about as well, what must have been going through his mind when he had that blank look on his face, looking as sober as we have seen him on any day of this trial.

What a contrast from when he would walk in appearing at least on the outside to look confident. Not this day. When he heard that verdict of guilty of first-degree murder, he looked around to his family, his mother and his fiancee, who were weeping in each other's arms. In fact, they started to cry even before the verdict was read.

And he appeared to mouth to them, "Be strong, I'm OK." But when the victim's impact witnesses began to speak and his mother and fiancee were gone, that is when Aaron Hernandez kept looking at the opposite side of the courtroom, where the family of Odin Lloyd was seated and where they were crying tears of joy and comforting each other. And he had to listen to them say how much they would miss Odin Lloyd, a young life lost -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: So much today from those victim impact statements. We will play more of that. But, for now, I thank you, Susan Candiotti in Fall River, Massachusetts. Do not miss Susan's special tonight inside the case against Aaron Hernandez. It airs at 9:00 Eastern and Pacific.

Next, our legal panel talks about the jury and why this took so long. 35-and-a-half-hours, seven days to figure this one out. Also, Nancy Grace weighs in. She will talk about what will happen to Aaron Hernandez behind bars.

Also, on the brink, ISIS right now closing in on a major Iraqi town. Hundreds of people on the run. We have a CNN crew on the ground. They join me live straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:17:16]

BALDWIN: We're back now to talk more about the Aaron Hernandez trial. He's just been found guilty of first-degree murder and has been sentenced, as mandatory in Massachusetts, life without parole.

The 12 jurors decided his fate. They spoke to members of the media right after Hernandez was escorted out of that Massachusetts courtroom, and they were seemingly eager to stand behind their verdict. Here they were.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that for me, Judge Garsh said keep your mind suspended. And for me, and I know that lot of other people did, we went in there every day with open minds. We listened to the evidence. We heard what they had to say. We got to go into a room and look and see what and feel and touch all the evidence. And that's when we came to our conclusion.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Did you piece it together sort of from the beginning of the trial when you reflected back on it for deliberations, did you go from the start and follow it all the way through?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You consider everything.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everything.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Did that thing in his hand look like a gun to you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At which time?

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Which video?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Joining me now, defense attorney Robert Schalk, CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Sunny Hostin, and Larry Seidlin, who was the judge in the Anna Nicole Smith trial.

Welcome to all of you.

Let me just begin, Bob and Sunny, with the two you. I was asking you in commercial break, because I thought it was a little off-putting. If we're talking about murder and sending someone away for the rest of his life in prison and then you have members of the jury, I'm going to think maybe it's nervous laughter now that they finally have been able to leave this entire ordeal. I found the giggling though a little odd.

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: So many people found it odd. It was really off-putting for many.

I actually saw it very differently. I saw a very cohesive jury that had just been through it together. They stood all together supporting their verdict. Maybe we saw a little bit of maybe relief, maybe releasing tension. But what we really saw, I think, was a jury that came together in a difficult case, listened to the law, applied the facts in a circumstantial evidence case, and came up with what I believe is the right verdict. That's the type of jury you want, whether or not you're a prosecutor

or a defense attorney. You want that jury in what we saw today.

BALDWIN: I have talked to so many people though who are also surprised by the verdict. They thought it would either be hung or not guilty. It was the closings that really hit it home.

ROBERT SCHALK, ATTORNEY: Right.

Yes, usually -- a wise man once told me when I first became a lawyer that jurors take their time to convict. They rush to acquit.

BALDWIN: And 35-and-a-half-hours, seven days.

(CROSSTALK)

SCHALK: Correct. When it went this long, I was of the opinion, as most were, that it was either going to be hung or guilty. I didn't think they were going to walk him on this case.

BALDWIN: Yes.

HOSTIN: Yes.

[15:20:00]

SCHALK: And I think obviously a lot of talk has been made about how the defense attorney waited until his summation to admit that he was there.

If you want to gain credibility with a jury, and you're going to admit that he was there, the first words out of his mouth should have been, he is going to there. No one is going to lie to you.

(CROSSTALK)

HOSTIN: Which is what we saw in Tsarnaev. Right? We saw Judy Clarke gain that credibility right away by saying, this is not a whodunit. He did it.

(CROSSTALK)

HOSTIN: And I wish we would have seen that.

SCHALK: His would been, right, he was there, but he didn't do it. These other two guys did it. He could have planted that seed early. He waited. And it was almost like he wanted to see, can the prosecution prove their case?

And then it was like fear, like, oh, man, they did a really nice job. Now I have to admit it to gain some semblance of credibility. And it may have all been lost.

HOSTIN: It was too late.

BALDWIN: I think it's also really though as we're talking about all this to talk about the victim, Odin Lloyd. Not enough attention has been paid to him and all these victim impact statements.

Nancy Grace is also with us.

Nancy, I'm sure you were watching the mother, Odin Lloyd's sister talking about the 10 miles in each direction that Odin Lloyd would bike just to get to his job. The mother speaking about forgiveness. How did all of that sit with you, and why is it important to even have the victim impact statements when in the state of Massachusetts, if you're guilty of murder one, you're going away for the rest of your life?

NANCY GRACE, HOST, "NANCY GRACE": You know what, what you just said is true. The sentencing is mandatory.

But if you look at our Constitution, it's all about the rights of the defendant, the victim. I know as a crime victim has no rights under the Constitution. Today we finally heard from the victim through his family. When his mother -- I mean, I think of my son. He's only 7, and my daughter, just 7, that mother put her whole life into raising him, loving him, all her dreams, all her hopes.

And then she said, when they buried my boy, I wanted to crawl in that hole with him. She wanted to be buried with him. And that brings the reality of what this crime is, the death of her child that can never, never be brought back.

Now, he, Hernandez, is going to be behind bars. He will be on Facebook and Twitter. He will get to play basketball, have friends. Women will probably want to marry him behind bars, like the Menendez brothers. What about Odin Lloyd? And Odin Lloyd, mark my words, tip of the iceberg. Tip of the iceberg.

BALDWIN: Let me stay with you and just ask you this follow-up with regard to Aaron Hernandez's life behind bars for the rest of his life. When you have this superstar, this is a guy who was making $40 million playing ball, is he the kind of guy who will be revered by fellow inmates?

GRACE: Totally.

BALDWIN: Will he be isolated? What will his life be like?

GRACE: He will be totally revered. Look at O.J. Simpson. He's the king behind bars. He has people making up his bed, cleaning up his room. And he pays them. He gives them money, food, whatever amenities you can give behind bars.

Hernandez is going to have the same thing. But it's not over yet for Hernandez because many court watchers believe that the reason Odin Lloyd was murdered is because he knew, Lloyd knew about --

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: -- the other double murder committed by Hernandez.

BALDWIN: Which, by the way, the prosecution is continuing on that. Apparently, the trial date has been moved, but it will be set. That's still on.

Judge, let me move to you.

And, Larry, my question is, what did you make of the judge in this trial, the decisions the judge made? Maybe I have heard other attorneys saying more conservative decisions, perhaps maybe lessening the ability of any kind of appeal results in the future.

LARRY SEIDLIN, FORMER BROWARD COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE: I thought the judge did an excellent job.

BALDWIN: He did.

SEIDLIN: The judge moved the case through very quickly, and the judge really heard all the evidence and couldn't wait to hammer Hernandez.

The judge could have waited for sentencing a few more days, but decided to sentence Hernandez the same day. I disagree with the speakers beforehand. That jail is an absolutely ugly experience. There's violent people there. They commit crimes upon one another. They're given the worst food there is. It's not a trip to Disney World. It's an ugly place to be. And you have no freedom.

He's there. He's the living dead. He will be there for the rest of his life with no right of parole.

GRACE: Good.

SEIDLIN: And it's an ugly life he has to look forward to.

BALDWIN: Go ahead, Sunny.

HOSTIN: And I want to weigh in on the victim impact statements, Brooke, because many people are tweeting me and saying, you know, the victims shouldn't have been allowed to make those impact statements and perhaps sway the judge.

One thing is the judge really had no discretion, because when you get convicted of first-degree murder in Massachusetts, you're going to get life without parole. But having prosecuted cases and having met with so many victims, I can tell you that is one of the most important times for them.

Yes, there really is no closure when you're the victim of a violent crime like this, but it brings them some peace. So those people that are asking about why the victim impact statements were necessary, it really is necessary not only for, I think, the judge and also for the attorneys and the defendant, but most importantly for the victims.

[15:25:18]

BALDWIN: Judge, here's my question for you, just looking at Aaron Hernandez. What did you make of his behavior during the trial, the smacking of gum, the sort of smiling? We saw a very different Aaron Hernandez today and how it hit him emotionally when the verdict was read. He just -- he sat down. How did you see that? SEIDLIN: Unfortunately, he's a gangster. He brought his gang members

with him to college when he was a University of Florida Gator. He brought the same crew with him when he became an NFL star with the New England Patriots.

He continued to surround himself with lowlifes, with violent, aggressive people. I think the NFL, the NBA, the baseball league, they need to put quality people around these young kids. They're taking these kids from tough socioeconomic positions in life and then handing them millions of dollars. These players need people around them.

You look at a team like the Miami Heat, Riley surrounds these kids with mentors. These kids need mentors. You can't hand them all this money and expect them to live life differently than they did prior to when they became a star. We have to focus in on that.

He's a bad guy, Hernandez. He's a killer. It's in his DNA. And his lifestyle from the beginning of a young age to today is a violent lifestyle. He's lived an ugly life and he has deserved what he received in his punishment. But, unfortunately, he destroyed an innocent family and he's also destroyed the family members around him. We need to do better as a society.

We need to improve what we're doing with these young athletes and entertainers. We saw it with my own case, Anna Nicole. She had bad people around her. We need to put good mentors around these vulnerable souls.

BALDWIN: OK. Judge Larry Seidlin, thank you.

GRACE: Well, that's one thing I never heard of, Aaron Hernandez being a vulnerable soul. OK. That's a first.

HOSTIN: And people do need to take responsibility for their actions.

BALDWIN: Amen to all of that.

Nancy Grace, Sunny Hostin, Rob Schalk, thank you, all, very much. Judge, thanks again.

And of course Nancy will have much more on the verdict on her show tonight, 8:00 eastern on HLN.

Next, a just absolutely stunning story unfolding from spring break, Panama City Beach, Florida, an alleged gang rape caught on camera on a crowded beach, broad daylight, people all around. No one did a darn thing. We're going to talk about that.

Plus, new video of ISIS targeting Iraq's largest oil refinery, this as another key city could be minutes away from an ISIS takeover. We have a live report from Iraq straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)