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Police Treating Bobbi Kristina's Death as Investigation; Did Escort Kill Serial Killer; Barack Obama's Half-Sister Introduces Him in Kenya. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired July 27, 2015 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:33:03] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.
Tragedy has hit the Houston family of the late songstress, Whitney Houston, and singer, Bobby Brown. The couple's 22-year-old daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, has died. Her family confirmed her passing. She had been on hospice for a number of months after being in a medically induced coma. Bobbi Kristina was found submerged and unresponsive in her Atlanta area bathtub last January. The family she had, quote, "global and irreversible brain damage." Police say they are treating this case as a criminal investigation. And possibly at the center of the probe is Bobbi Kristina's boyfriend, Nick Gordon, who, along with a friend, found her in that tub unresponsive. Let's be clear, we don't know the official cause of death. An autopsy is planned.
Let's discuss what we do know with CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, Sunny Hostin, who is also close to the family in this case; and Chris Witherspoon, CNN analyst and entertainment editor at thegrio.com.
Welcome to both of you.
CHRIS WITHERSPOON, CNN ANALYST & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR, THEGRIO.COM: Thank you.
BALDWIN: First, she was found unresponsive in this bathtub back in January. We're now in July when she passed away. That's quite a bit of time for this autopsy. How challenging will it be to determine cause of death?
SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I think it's going to be really challenging. My understanding is that her body is with the coroner now. It's something that the family wanted to do. That's what I was told. But I think it could be challenging certainly because of the length of time. Let's face it, this family has been clear from the very beginning that they suspected foul play. They were very uncomfortable with the circumstances surrounding her injuries and her death now. They've always maintained that it seemed odd to them that she was missing a tooth, that she had some injuries when she was taken to the hospital. And they still have those questions and I think that's pretty evident in the fact that Nick Gordon was not allowed to see her at the hospital, in hospice, even in her final days. And so I suspect this is an investigation that the family will certainly push forward and push on.
[14:35:11] BALDWIN: We'll loop back on the investigation.
But to you, sir, where is Nick Gordon now?
CHRIS WITHERSPOON, EDITOR, THEGRIO.COM: Well, we last saw Nick on "Dr. Phil. He tried to rehabilitate his life. He went to rehab. He talked about how he loved Bobbi Kristina and wanted to change his life for her. But as she said, he was banned from the hospital. He's been with his mom in Florida. He was slapped with a $10 million lawsuit from the family, the conservator of Bobbi Kristina's estate, claiming that he abused her and he knocked a tooth out and dragged her up the staircase. That was all Bobbi Kristina's estate claiming that. And also asking for $10 million from him. We haven't really seen him. He's a person of interest. He's the last person who was living with Bobbi Kristina and he probably has the clues that we all want to know.
BALDWIN: What happens next? Law enforcement is saying this is a problem criminal investigation. What are the next steps here?
HOSTIN: Certainly, one of the next steps is the M.E., the medical examiner report. They have been conducting this investigation for quite some time, since January. And so I think now it's sort of putting the pieces of the puzzle together. But again, this is going to be a very, very difficult case to investigate because of the length of time between her death and her -- the initial injuries and tragedy in January and because there seems to be perhaps not a bunch of cooperation with some of the witnesses. So I think it's going to be very difficult.
BALDWIN: Can you just take us back. Right before she was found in this bathtub, my executive producer, we were looking at her Twitter page. Nothing -- when you read some of her most recent postings, nothing really jumps out.
WITHERSPOON: No.
BALDWIN: Can you talk a little bit about the time?
WITHERSPOON: She seemed really happy. I followed her on Twitter and Instagram and she was always talking aspiring to be a singer like her mother. One of her friends said she was going to L.A. the next week to begin recording.
BALDWIN: There was something happening.
WITHERSPOON: Yes. She would be recording some music.
BALDWIN: Yeah.
WITHERSPOON: She wanted to be in this business. She had been on a couple of Tyler Perry shows, made some appearances on his show. She wanted to follow in her mother's footsteps in some form or another. We didn't see this coming. BALDWIN: Who was the other person in addition to Nick Gordon?
WITHERSPOON: Max Lomas. He's a good friend of the family of Bobbi Kristina and Nick Gordon. He's been photographed out with her numerous times, out running, just hanging out, being kids, if you will. And he was the person that came to the house that day. He had planned to be there. He came to the house and he's the one who found her in the bathtub facedown. It wasn't Nick Gordon. It was Max Lomas. He's already spoken to police and I think he's been cleared of any criminal --
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: He's cooperating?
WITHERSPOON: Yes, he cooperated back in January, so.
BALDWIN: OK.
We'll continue to follow it.
Sunny Hostin, Chris Witherspoon, thank you so much.
HOSTIN: Thank you.
BALDWIN: Next here on CNN, this West Virginia escort, this woman shot and killed a man who attacked her. And now, according to investigators, the man may be tied to multiple murders of prostitutes, not just in West Virginia, across multiple states.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I knew he was there to kill me. I could tell that he had already done something because he said that he was going to prison for a long time and that's when I knew that he was going to kill me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Could a possible serial killer now be dead? We'll talk to an investigator in the case, next.
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[14:42:46] BALDWIN: In a fight to save her own life, an escort in West Virginia says she believes she saved others from a serial killer.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know he was there to kill me. I could tell that he had already done something because he said that he was in prison for a long time and that's when I knew that he was going to kill me.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: So this woman goes by the name Heather. She seemed pretty calm there. But I want to play you something. This is the 911 call she made back from July 18th. This was moments after she shot and killed this man, Neil Falls. She arranged to meet him from a website called backpage.com.
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CALLER: There's a lady in an alley here. She's saying that some guy tried to rape her and she had to defend herself and he's on the kitchen floor.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He pulled a gun on me.
CALLER: He pulled a gun on her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
CALLER: She's got cuts and stuff all over her.
(CROSSTALK)
911 OPERATOR: Does she know who the guy is?
CALLER: Do you know who the guy is?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
CALLER: She said no.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I opened the door and he said, "Live or die," and the -- to me, and I wrestled him and he was going to kill me.
(CROSSTALK)
911 OPERATOR: Did he try to rape her?
CALLER: I'm not sure.
(CROSSTALK)
911: OPERATOR: Was she able to injure him in any way?
CALLER: Yeah, she shot him. She said he's on the kitchen floor.
(END AUDIO FEED)
BALDWIN: After police arrived, they found in his car what they called a kill kit. In it, some hand cuffs, shovels, bleach. You can see what they found.
Heather says she could tell Falls knew what he was doing as he tried to strangle her.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He had it down pat. He said, you're going to be quiet. I'm going to call the orders. He was saying everything. You could tell he was comfortable with what he was saying.
When he strangled me, he just wouldn't let me get any air and so I grabbed my rake and when he laid the gun down to get the rake out of my hands, I shot him. I just grabbed the gun and shot behind me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Well, investigators in West Virginia believe Falls could be connected to women's murders in Las Vegas, in Illinois, and in Ohio. In Ohio alone, six women have either vanished or turned up dead in the past year or so. And in Las Vegas, four escorts were found dismembered.
Joining me on the phone, I have Lieutenant Steve Cooper, who is leading the investigation in West Virginia.
Lieutenant, are you with me?
LT. STEVE COOPER, CHIEF OF DETECTIVES, CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA, POLICE DEPARTMENT (voice-over): Yes, I am.
[14:45:11] BALDWIN: Thank you, sir, for jumping on the line.
Before we get to this kill kit, can you just tell me, first, why you think these cases in Las Vegas and Illinois could be connected to this guy?
COOPER: They could be connected because the cases in Illinois and Nevada are connected. There was dismemberment involved in those cases. All of the victims were escort. In the case that happened in Charleston, the victim was an escort and the items that we found in the vehicle, that you have photographs of, included machetes, axes, box cutters, bleach, trash bags. And some of the body parts were found in trash bags in the Illinois and Las Vegas cases. Again, he had four sets of handcuffs in his pockets when he attacked our victim and, of course, the .9 millimeter firearm.
BALDWIN: Oh, my goodness. As you -- it's gruesome to talk about. But when you describe these items as a kill kit that was in his car, the kill kit for the purpose of dismembering, which then would be the key piece in tying a lot of these women together, correct?
COOPER: That's right. We are suspicious that it could be connected to a Las Vegas case. Certainly, at age 45, it's unlikely this is his first violent crime. And he brought four sets of handcuffs into the home. That's a pretty sinister combination when you take all of it into account.
BALDWIN: Lieutenant Cooper, I don't know how long you've been in law enforcement but have you ever come across this kind of discovery in someone's car? COOPER: No. We run across a lot of interesting and strange and scary
stuff. This one is right up there. The facts that he had so many knives and a machete and that many sets of handcuffs and the bleach and the trash bags, it all just -- taken it all together, again, it's pretty scary and we're glad that our victim survived and that Mr. Falls came out on the losing end.
BALDWIN: Let me end on Heather. How is she doing? I know she's not being charged with anything, acting there in self-defense. How is she?
COOPER: She had a broken vertebrae, a separated shoulder, and, of course, a lot of mental trauma. She's doing better. She's recovering mentally and physically and there are people trying to help her get into a new lifestyle.
BALDWIN: To think that she acted as quickly as she did. If this is the serial killer, she potentially saved a lot here. It's tremendous.
Lieutenant Steve Cooper, in Charleston, West Virginia, thank you. Appreciate it.
COOPER: Thank you. Thank you.
BALDWIN: Just ahead here, President Obama calling out Republican front-runner Donald Trump and also Mike Huckabee from his state visit to Africa. His stern words for the Republican presidential candidates, that's ahead.
While he was in Africa, the president spent a lot of time there with his sister, Dr. Auma Obama, who I happened to spend half a week with just recently in Kenya ahead of her brother's visit. What she remembers about the president's first visit to Kenya. That's next.
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[11:52:12] BALDWIN: Just horrifying moments showing a mother's heroism and her death in China. Be warned, this is a tough one to watch. The 30-year-old mother, you can see her coming up this department store's escalator. Here they are on the left side of your screen. She picks up and holds her oldest young son. They reach the top, take a step and, suddenly, it goes out. The mother instinctively pushes her son to safety. She falls through that opening there. We've paused it. I don't want to see that. I don't want you to see that. She falls to her death. Officials say maintenance had been done on the escalator and workers forgot to secure the access cover in place. But her son is OK.
President Barack Obama, his ancestral homecoming to Kenya has been family filled over the weekend. He spent time in a country where his father is buried, and mainly with two women, two women I had the pleasure of meeting just the week before last in Kenya. Here is Auma Obama, the president's half-sister. She invited me to their village, Kogilo, ahead of her brother's visit giving me unprecedented access there to the family, including 93-year-old Mama Sarah, who President Obama affectionately refers to as Granny. The president began his trip Friday, greeting his half-sister Auma Obama on the tarmac after Air Force One arrived in Nairobi.
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(SINGING)
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BALDWIN: And then he had his sister as his opening act, Auma Obama, introducing the commander-in-chief in front of 5,000 cheering Kenyans.
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DR. AUMA OBAMA, HALF-SISTER OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA; On behalf of my family and on behalf of all of us as Kenyans, I want to thank the American people for trusting Barack to be up for what I consider most of us would agree is the most difficult job in the world.
Standing here as his sister, it makes me think of when he first came to Kenya, the first experience. And now I'm going to go Kenyan on you. The guy slept in a camping bed behind my couch in a tiny living room in a tiny flat. That's how he came to Kenya, yeah. So, in the words of Jeff Krenandi (ph), "What a man."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: The president followed with an impassioned speech calling on Kenyans to reject the oppression of women and government corruption, and later, at a state dinner, making this joke about the purpose of his trip.
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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I suspect some of my critics back home are suggesting that I'm back here to look for my birth certificate.
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: That is not the case.
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[14:55:05] BALDWIN: The president capped off the evening with a dance that he shared with his sister, Auma, and making a toast to his family about his very first trip many years ago to Kenya.
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OBAMA: Part of what makes this a special evening for me is the presence of my family members who are here. My grandmother, Mama Sarah, who told me I had to come back to Kenya. And when she says you should do something, generally, you have to do it.
(LAUGHTER) I have told this story before. The first time that I visited Kogilo, Auma and I -- my brothers were there -- Mama Sarah speaks a different language, and I speak neither.
(LAUGHTER)
And so Auma was serving as a translator. And I think about half a day had passed before suddenly she turns to Auma and says something. And Auma starts laughing. And I said, what did she say? She said, he goes to Harvard, if he's so smart, how come he can't talk to his grandmother?
(LAUGHTER)
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BALDWIN: I talked to Auma and Grandma Sarah about a week and a half ago when I first went to Kenya. They told me how proud they are of President Obama. You heard Auma refer to him "as our son," Kenya's son. Take a look.
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BALDWIN: Just reading your book and writing about the moment you brought your brother, Barack Obama, here for the first time, what does she remember about the first few moments?
SARAH OBAMA, STEP-GRANDMOTHER OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
AUMA OBAMA: OK. It was a Sunday.
BALDWIN: It was a Sunday?
(LAUGHTER)
SARAH OBAMA: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
AUMA OBAMA: Her memory is that she had gone to the market to shop and from there and Barack carried a bag full of beans and she had bought them and she was going to take them to market so that's when he helped her carry them.
BALDWIN: But does she know when she locked eyes with Barack Obama, with you, did she know who he was?
SARAH OBAMA: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
AUMA OBAMA: She says that she knew him because we always got pictures. We have pictures of Barack.
BALDWIN: I'm wondering, what were some of the questions he wanted to know about his ancestral family and specifically about his dad?
AUMA OBAMA: It was easy talking to my brother. We kind of hit it off. All of the questions he asked, I kind of anticipated. He wanted to know everything about us, about my father, everything about our family. My brother just wanted to know everything. I can't answer that question any other way. And I think it's normal because it was part of finding out about his own identity.
BALDWIN: What do you think the one thing your father would say to his son?
AUMA OBAMA: He would be extremely proud and say, "Well done." But then he'd add, "But obviously, you're an Obama."
(LAUGHTER)
He was very proud.
(LAUGHTER)
BALDWIN (voice-over): Auma has only become closer with her brother through the years.
(on camera): You are fiercely protective of your brother and your nieces and your sister-in-law, and I'm just wondering where that comes from.
AUMA OBAMA: A sense of self-preservation.
BALDWIN (voice-over): And even though they grew up half a world away, they share a passion for helping young people.
AUMA OBAMA: I'm proud of my name because my brother has carried out name out there and made it really -- what can I say? It's made its mark in the world and that is special. And it's special for us and for our children and for our community because it tells every child that if you work hard, you can do whatever you want in this world. You know, you can make your future. So what I'm trying to do here, he has done.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Auma runs a foundation in western Kenya in Kogilo, called Sauti Kuu, helping empower young people there. I asked her if her brother Barack Obama were to come to Sauti Kuu, where would she take him first. Here's her response.
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BALDWIN (on camera): If your brother were to come to Sauti Kuu, what is the first thing you'd want to show him?
AUMA OBAMA: That this is a labor of love doing this work. And, you know, with regards to the kids, I find that's like a win-win situation. When you're around the kids, they swallow you up. You disappear because there's so much energy. It's so easy.
BALDWIN: They do.
AUMA OBAMA: They do more for us than we do for them. They do more for us than we do for them.
(SINGING)
AUMA OBAMA: People come here and I get excited and they have to tag along with us.
(SINGING)
AUMA OBAMA: I just have to wait and see and hope that he understands that the core of this work is about getting people really to make their own features and maintain the dignity and also improve their lives and be able to say, I did it, it's my life, it's my future. That's what we're trying to achieve. And if he can see that, and I hope he can see without too much (INAUDIBLE).
(SINGING)
AUMA OBAMA: But, yeah, I just turn around things. That's what I do.
