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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Hurricane Patricia Strongest Ever Recorded; Vincent Asaro Trial Examined; Sean Smith Talks about Accidentally Shooting His Sister. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired October 23, 2015 - 12:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:32:14] RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Now, back to our breaking news, the strongest hurricane ever recorded, just hours away from landfall in Southwestern Mexico.

Patricia is bigger and badder than any other hurricane that you can name. And that does include Andrew back in 1992 and Katrina in 2005.

Patricia is packing 200-mile-an-hour winds. The wind gusts we are told are even more powerful.

Meteorologist Jennifer Gray is live at the CNN weather center in Atlanta.

Jennifer, how strong is Patricia right now?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: This is the strongest hurricane ever, and it could also be number one on another list, the storm to intensify the most, the biggest, this fast and in fact, right now, winds are at 200 miles per hour with gusts up to 245 miles per hour. The wee hours of yesterday morning, this was a tropical storm, and just about 24 hours time, now it is a strong category 5 storm.

It is moving to the north at 10 miles per hour. And on this track, it is going to make landfall in between Puerto Vallarta as well as Manzanillo. And that is going to continue to push inland, could make landfall as either a strong category four or a category five even there are only been a handful or storms to ever make landfall at the strength.

Once it makes it inland it is going to start weakening considerably the terrain in Mexico, very mountainous. And so because of that, it's going to shred the storm apart. But we're also going to see possible major flooding, landslides as well as mudslides.

There's already hurricane warnings and tropical storm warnings in place as you can imagine. As far as the rainfall amounts go, we're talking anywhere from 10 to 20 inches possibly right along the coast.

We're also going to see incredible storm surge associated with this.

Words can't express how strong this storm is, Randi, and hopefully people have either evacuated or they are in a very, very sturdy building.

KAYE: Yeah, let's hope so, Jennifer Gray, thank you.

Meanwhile I want to bring in now Christopher Mignot he's a hotel owner and is evacuating with his family.

Christopher, so tell me what are the weather conditions right now where you are, and are you heading out with your own family?

CHRISTOPHER MIGNOT, OWNER OF PETIT HOTEL HAFA: Well, yes, we are heading out toward North of Sayulita and Bahia de Banderas includes that well, if all the warning we got everything and we just, you know, (inaudible) trying to get into a safer place.

KAYE: What is the weather like? Is it windy, is it raining yet?

MIGNOT: Well, from now, it is just, you know, very cloudy and very light rain for now here in the area. The weather is, it's not that windy at all or anything like this so far.

[12:35:07] KAYE: And what are the authorities telling people like yourself to evacuate or is it mandatory?

MIGNOT: Sorry I cannot hear you well.

KAYE: Is, are the authorities there, the officials telling people they must evacuate?

MIGNOT: Well, actually not yet. I haven't seen any -- I think in by in Puerto Vallarta, I have heard that people are evacuating. And Sayulita from now, you know, everybody like just protecting all of their houses and windows and the rest. But I have not seen any authority like evacuating anybody yet.

KAYE: All right, Christopher Mignot, we wish you luck.

MIGNOT: ... and you can see it and you can feel that a lot of people are just leaving by themselves, and they are not staying in the town.

KAYE: I'm sure they are, and that's probably a wise move, Christopher. We wish you luck and be safe with the family, thank you.

The Heist is enshrined in pop culture history. Decades later comes the trial, and the real drama is just getting started -- straight ahead, the alleged Mafioso, the family snitch and millions of dollars that never were seen again.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Actress and singer, Caitlin Crosby, says she just wants to help others.

CAITLYN CROSBY, FOUNDER THE GIVING KEYS: I just am obsessed with people and wanting to spread hope and encouragement, whether it be through a song or an Instagram post, like whatever it is.

PEREIRA: Like sharing inspiring words on old keys.

CROSBY: I had an old hotel key from New York that I thought was cool. Then I went to a locksmith and asked him to engrave inspiring words like love, hope, fearless.

So at first, it was just I wanted to create a cool, inspiring product that different people could buy on store. And these stories started pouring in like so-and-so has cancer. So I gave them a fight key.

So I thought to myself, I need to make a website where the stories are being shown. Then I started thegivingkeys.com.

PEREIRA: Crosby had no idea this would be the key to opening doors for those without a home.

CROSBY: We now hire people that are trying to transition out of homelessness to engrave keys. We've partnered up with Crisolis (ph). They screen the people for us to make sure we're hiring people that are really trying to change their lives and make sure that they're ready for this change.

PEREIRA: And giving people like Jabani a new beginning.

JABANI NANTAMBU, EMPLOYEE THE GIVING KEYS: Thank you for not judging me based on my past, but where I'm striving to go in my life.

CROSBY: High five.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:42:19] KAYE: How's this for defense, my client didn't do it, because all the people who did do it got murdered.

I'm talking about the so-called Goodfellas trial of Vincent Asaro an 80-year-old reputed mobster who persecutors say got a $750,000 cut in the infamous 1978 Lufthansa Heist at JFK International Airport you may remember from the movie, a band of robbers stole $5 million in cash and $1 million in jewels from the airlines cargo building.

Now, after years of going unnoticed Asaro is on trial for murder, racketeering and his alleged role in that heist.

And now, Jean Casarez explains jurors are hearing testimony that's fit for a sequel to Martin Scorsese's classic film.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It would be a good summer.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The blockbuster 1990 motion picture was Goodfellas, day-to-day life inside a New York Mafia crew, a crew that hit a criminal jackpot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A daring pre-dawn raid at the Lufthansa cargo terminal at Kennedy Airport. The FBI says $2 million or that already police say $4 million...

CASAREZ: It was one of the largest heists in this country's history, the multimillion dollar robbery of cash and jewels at Lufthansa's air cargo terminal at New York's JFK airport in 1978.

And now for the first time one of those fellas is being prosecuted in New York City for murder, racketeering and robbery.

80-year-old defendant Vincent Asaro an alleged captain in the Bonanno crime family isn't portrayed in the movie, because at the time, his identity wasn't known. But prosecutors are portraying Asaro as the mastermind of the crime, with now deceased Jimmy "the Gent" Burke, portrayed in the movie by Robert De Niro.

Star witness for this prosecution 37 years later the defendants own cousin, Gaspare Valenti who wore a wire and recorded Asaro.

A member of the crime family, too, who turned to help prosecutors after believing he didn't get enough of the loot. Valini was one of the masked gunmen who actually stormed into the airport warehouse and help take millions out of the vault in cash and jewelry and got away in this van.

As Asaro could be seen in court saying "Liar," Valini testified he remembers packages of money that contained $125,000 in $100 bills, burlap sacks of gold chains, crates of watches, diamonds, emeralds and stones. Total estimated value $6 million, and none of it was ever found.

Asaro's former defense attorney says "He didn't do it."

[12:45:02] GERALD MCMAHON, ASARO'S FORMER ATTORNEY: Pretty much all the people that did it, got murdered. So the fact that my client didn't get murdered would suggest that he didn't have anything to do with it.

CASAREZ: Prosecutors also, defendant Asaro conspired and murdered by strangling with a dog chain Paul Katz in 1969 after it was believed he was cooperating with law enforcement.

In June 2013, investigators found remnants of Katz remained embedded in a basement floor where prosecutors believe Asaro helped to hide the body. Four other defendant allegedly play in major roles including Asoro's son have already made deal with the government. But the good fellow prosecutors believe is the real deal is Asoro. And they hope to finally put him behind bars and at the same time bring justice to victims from generations of crimes never solved.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: And Jean Casarez joins me now along with CNN Legal Analyst Paul Callan, a Criminal Defense Attorney and Prosecutor, such a fascinating case, a fascinating story.

Jean, what did we heard from the witnesses so far? JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now and the trial is going on right now as we are speaking. They are starting to hear the wiretapped conversations between Asaro the defendant and his cousin who has been taping him since 2008. And in 2011 he tells his cousin remember (ph) Massino I remember when I was Jimmy office club but I want $37,000. That Randi to show who he is associated with.

And I think the eloquent in the room that came out of that reporting it's not necessarily for conviction at all, but the eloquent in the room. He said to his cousin, you know, I'm a captain in the family, the Bonanno in the family, and this is four years ago, just got rid of a couple of captain, I'm concerned I'm going to be next. So at least as for this conversation the Mafia is alive and well.

KAYE: That is interesting and juicy. Paul, so let me ask you about this cousin. I mean, Asaro's cousin one of two witnesses, cooperating with the government, breaking the principle of omerta as it called that's the code of silence. How unusual is something this?

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, back in the day violating the code for omerta, the punishment is death. And when I was Brooklyn district attorney in the homicide bureau, we were investigating all of these guys back in the late 70s and the early 80s. And we saw on many killings where people were, you know, garroted, strangle to death, dismembered. These guys were brutal, brutal, brutal criminal and they got away with it because of that code of omerta.

KAYE: So but when you have the governments witness and he certainly has a motive to lie. I mean, how do you get a conviction?

CALLAN: Well, prosecutors always say to the jury, you know, these are the people that bad guys hang out with other bad guy. So, prosecutions for years have been able to successfully make out cases against mob figures if there is corroboration and that, you can find corroboration on number of areas. Of course, a case like this is so interesting, because here it, these guys are in the 80s and it has taken that long to make a case against them out of this Lufthansa robbery which took place so many years ago.

KAYE: Yeah. And Jean, you said he's been recording his cousin for?

CASAREZ: Since 2008, and these are racketeering charge on the federal level obviously and so there is some leniency, you know, and the case is really going to be a lot of recordings that the jury is going to be using to determine if these crimes are committed and they're so many crimes, so many acts of racketeering that are alleged here and goes on and on.

KAYE: And so getting back to the code of silence though I'm just curious, Paul. I mean, when you say the punishment is death, I mean, I would imagine it's pretty brutal.

CALLAN: Well, it's literally death. And, you know, I can remember believe it or not the Brooklyn D.A.'s playing softball against the 10th homicide division detectives who were investigating the five families. Their chief player was missing at the Coney Island game and he showed up late with a box of cigars and he had removed them from the body of Carmine Galante who was slayed in a very famous scene in an Italian restaurant with a cigar on his mouth and those were smoked by the homicide detectives that night and later on that scene was mimic in the Godfather.

KAYE: Wow. All right, many thanks to both of you, it's a fascinating trial. We'll continue to watch it. Thank you.

[12:49:34] Just ahead a man shares his lingering scars of guilt and self hated in decades after he accidentally killed his sister.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Back here our Breaking News now. We are keeping an eye on Hurricane Patricia packing maximum sustained winds of more than 220 miles an hour with gust of more than 240 miles an hour. It is the strongest hurricane ever recorded and it supposed to make landfall in South Western Mexico as soon as 4:00 p.m. eastern as a catastrophic category five hurricane. We'll have an update for you at the top of the hour.

It's almost three years now since Georgia teenager was found dead in a rolled up gym mat. Kendrick Johnson death was ruled as accident, something his family never accepted. Now the justice department is asking a judge to put a hold on the families $100 million civil suit to make way for the federal investigation. Kendrick Johnson was 17 when he died on the property at his high school.

New information about the man who confessed to road rage killing in New Mexico Tony Torrez has faced many serious charges over the past ten years, including child abuse, assault and kidnapping.

[12:55:05] But all were dismissed or dropped. Torrez now faces a whole new slate of charges including murder for the death of four year old girl Lily Garcia. She died when he fired into her car on a New Mexico interstate.

Earlier this week, we told you the tragic story of a Chicago family shattered by gun violence, a 3-year-old Ian Santiago was shot dead by her 6-year-old brother after the boy found his father's loaded gun. The boy were playing cops and rubbers. Today, their father Michael Santiago returns to a Chicago court room facing charges, a felony child endangerment. On average 48 children or teens become victims of gun violence across the united states every day.

Sean Smith knows that agony all too well. The bullet he fired accidentally more than two decades ago took the life of his sister and very nearly ruined his own.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN SMITH, ACCIDENTALLY SHOT SISTER: It's definitely a remainder of that entire day, you know, it's bone chilling, it really is.

KAYE: Sean Smith is talking about the call he made to police 26 years ago after accidentally shooting his baby sister. SMITH: My sister is choking.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's choking?

SMITH: She's dead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's dead?

SMITH: Yes, please get my mom and dad. Oh, my god.

KAYE: It happened in an instant, a brother and sister and loaded gun.

SMITH: I didn't know my dad's gun was loaded.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

SMITH: And I shot her, and I didn't mean to.

KAYE: It was June 5th, 1989, Sean Smith was 10 years old and his sister Erin was only 8. The two were home alone after school. Sean was searching for his video games in his parents' bedroom when he came across his father's 38 caliber handgun in the dresser drawer. Sean didn't know that the gun was loaded.

SMITH: I, you know, was just waving it around one more time, and aimed it, you know, out the window, and as I pulled the trigger, she was running out of the room, and unfortunately, it did strike her in the shoulder.

KAYE: So you weren't aiming at your sister?

SMITH: No, god know.

KAYE: The bullet traveled to his sister Erin's heart.

SMITH: Immediately dropped the gun, immediately run and got the phone call 9111 and I pick picked her up and held her in any lap, you know, as she unfortunately passed away.

KAYE: Sean tried CPR even put pressure on the wound, but nothing could save her, she died in his lap.

SMITH: I never got to see her in the hospital after they had cleaned her up and everything like that, so unfortunately the last image I have of her is in my lap.

KAYE: It's become sadly commonplace to hear about a tragic gun accident like Sean and Erin's, so the world including the media moves on, but Sean, Sean's never been able to do that. He felt alone and had to answer painful questions at school.

SMITH: A kid that actually came up to me and literally asked me word- for-word, what was it like to kill your sister?

KAYE: By 16, he was deep into drug, mainly cocaine and he didn't care if it killed him, because he had zero self-worth. He was jailed for theft and eventually dropped out of high school. But when he was 20, Sean had a son it changed his life. He got clean and sober and started therapy.

SMITH: It was about 20 years later, you know, when I finally could truly and honestly forgive myself. I mean, it was an accident, and it was horrific, but, you know, I can't help but, you know, think that she's at peace and I'm OK with that today.

KAYE: More than two decades later, Sean misses his sister so much that he had her name tattooed on his arm, Erin with a halo above it. He says that he feels her with him every day.

SMITH: You know, I know she is with me always and she always watching over me and I thank her for, you know, giving me a good spirit, and making me stronger.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: And we talked to a psychologist after our interview with Sean Smith, and she told us that it's not uncommon for children like him to have repercussion throughout their lives after such a traumatic event. Also when it happens so young it's easy for child a make at their identity, they become sort of that kid who killed another child over the help of loves one. Our expert said that children can recover and I can tell you first hand that Sean certainly has.

Thank you so much for watching. I'm Randi Kaye. Wolf starts right now.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. Its 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 6:00 p.m. in London, 8:00 p.m. in Baghdad, wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

Right now, Hillary Clinton is back out there on the campaign trail after 11 hours of exhausting testimony up there on Capitol Hill.

[13:00:04] And at any moment now the Defense Secretary of the United States Ash Carter will address the military rescue operation in Iraq that left one American soldier dead.