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American Morning

Former Schoolteacher Confesses to Murder of JonBenet Ramsey; Deployment of Lebanese Troops Picks Up Pace; Pension Overhaul

Aired August 17, 2006 - 08:59   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN MARK KARR, CONFESSED TO JONBENET RAMSEY'S MURDER: Her death was -- was an accident.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAMELA PAUGH, AUNT OF JONBENET RAMSEY: We were just waiting for this day, for this to come to light.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A chilling overnight confession. A former schoolteacher admits he killed JonBenet Ramsey.

Family members reacting on this AMERICAN MORNING.

Good morning to you. I'm Miles O'Brien.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Carol Costello, in for Soledad.

O'BRIEN: After 10 years of questions, finally some answers this morning. A 41-year-old American schoolteacher in Thailand openly confessing before reporters and cameras to killing 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey in December of '96.

CNN's Atika Shubert with more from Bangkok.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Paraded before the international media, John Mark Karr, the 41-year-old schoolteacher now accused of murder, kidnap and sexual abuse on JonBenet Ramsey.

As he was led into police headquarters, Karr made a stunning admission.

KARR: I loved JonBenet very much.

SHUBERT: He then sat emphatically (ph) as Thai officials tried to control the media scrum before speaking again.

QUESTION: What happened? KARR: Her death was -- was an accident.

QUESTION: So you were in the basement?

KARR: Yes.

QUESTION: Could you clarify your connection to the Ramsey family?

KARR: No comment.

QUESTION: How did you -- how did you get into the basement?

KARR: No comment.

QUESTION: And how -- how do you feel now?

KARR: I'm being treated OK.

QUESTION: How long had you known JonBenet?

KARR: No comment on that.

SHUBERT: At a sometimes chaotic news conference, a U.S. official outlined the charges against Karr.

ANN HURST, U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS: He has been charged by the state of California -- I'm sorry, Colorado, for first-degree murder after deliberation; first-degree murder, felony murder; first degree kidnapping; second-degree kidnapping; and sexual assault on a child.

SHUBERT: Thai police said that when informed of the charges, Karr had insisted he had not meant to kill JonBenet.

GEN. SUWAT THAMRONGSRISAKUL, CHIEF OF THAI IMMIGRATION POLICE: He said not intentionally.

SHUBERT: U.S. officials say Karr has cooperated with investigators. Thai police say he was detained on Wednesday at The Blooms apartment building in Bangkok. FBI officers were present when he was arrested on a federal warrant. He had been followed for several weeks.

Thai officials say Karr had been in the country several times in recent years and had recently arrived from Malaysia. Karr was reportedly looking for work as a teacher in Bangkok. U.S. officials say Karr will be extradited within a week.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SHUBERT: Miles, as you can see from that video footage, it was a quite chaotic almost casual way that they presented him before the press. But according to authorities, he is cooperating, and they are hoping the fact that he's been put under custody of immigration and not police here we'll be able to expedite his extradition back to the U.S. -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right. We are told that should happen within the week.

Atika Shubert reporting from Bangkok.

Thank you -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And more revealing remarks from this suspect, John Karr, this morning. He talked with The Associated Press, saying again that he's sorry. He also says he wrote letters to JonBenet's mother Patsy before she died in June.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

KARR: I contacted the Ramsey family, especially before Patricia passed away, and I conveyed to her many things. Among them, that I am so very sorry for what happened to JonBenet and it's very important for me that everyone knows that I love her very much and that her death was unintentional and it was an accident. And I made several efforts to communicate with Patricia before she passed away, and it's my understanding that she did read my letters and she was aware of me before she passed away.

QUESTION: What happened in the basement?

KARR: It would take several hours to describe that -- to describe that.

QUESTION: If you could be brief.

KARR: There's no way I could be brief about -- there's no way I could be brief about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: It just keeps getting stranger and stranger.

Ed Lavandera is in Boulder, Colorado. He has that side of the story.

What can you say, Ed?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I don't think anybody waking up in Boulder, Colorado, this morning could imagine the bizarre sensational twist this story has taken overnight.

John Ramsey, the father of JonBenet, gave a brief interview, a telephone interview yesterday. He never alluded to anything like that. In fact, when asked if he knew John Mark Karr, he said in the interview that he didn't think he knew him. But they were still looking into, you know, if there might have been some sort of contact.

Of course, this is an incredibly bizarre twist to this story for an experience this Ramsey family has had to endure for the last 10 years. And it hasn't always been pleasant for them. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LIN WOOD, RAMSEY ATTORNEY: They have always had confidence that this day would occur. Knowing the evidence and knowing them, I have shared that confidence.

LAVANDERA (voice over): If, in fact, the suspect, John Mark Karr, proves to be the mysterious intruder the Ramseys said entered their Boulder home in 1996, murdered their daughter, and left a bizarre ransom note, the family may finally be vindicated.

PAUGH: In my mind there was never any need for vindication, because I knew from the depths of my heart that Patsy, John, Burke, no one in my family ever harmed JonBenet. We've lived on that truth. We've stood on that truth. And now the facts are going to bear that out.

LAVANDERA: The break in the decade-old case comes too late for Patsy Ramsey. JonBenet's mother died of ovarian cancer in June, but John Ramsey says his wife was aware before she died that investigators were closing in on a suspect.

JOHN RAMSEY, JONBENET'S FATHER: She knew that they were working very diligently on it and that they had a suspect, and that they were in the process of locating him.

LAVANDERA: For years, the Ramseys themselves were suspected in the sensational child murder case, subject to intense public scrutiny. At one point, living under an umbrella of suspicion.

J. RAMSEY: Let me address very directly. I did not kill my daughter JonBenet.

PATSY RAMSEY, JONBENET'S MOTHER: I'm appalled that anyone would think that John or I would be involved in such a hideous, heinous crime. But let me assure you that I did not kill JonBenet.

WOOD: They understood why they were going to be investigated. I'm not sure they ever understood how the investigation could have initially been handled by such inexperienced investigators. And I'm not sure that anyone was prepared for the media frenzy that really consumed not only the public, but actually at the time consumed members of the law enforcement group that was initially in charge of the investigation.

LAVANDERA: Now the arrest of a suspect in JonBenet's murder could bring the family a degree of closure.

WOOD: I know that he feels some sense of relief. I know that he feels that this is a major step potentially in the final resolution of the case.

LAVANDERA: But John Ramsey, after years of trying to clear his family's name, is being cautious.

J. RAMSEY: Based on what happened to us, I don't think it's proper that we speculate or discuss the case. I think it's important that justice be allowed to run its course and do its job.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: And as you might imagine, prosecutors here in Boulder, Colorado, are probably watching very closely every word that John Mark Karr has to say out of Thailand and will be trying to use that against him once he arrives here.

Prosecutors will hold a press conference at 10:00 a.m. Mountain Time, noon Eastern, and we will, of course, carry that live. Trying to keep up with this fast-moving story as best we can -- Carol.

COSTELLO: It will be interesting when you find out later today how the people of Boulder are reacting to this and if this John Karr went around and got to know other children.

LAVANDERA: Yes, of course. That's going to be really what we spend a lot of time reporting on here in Boulder today, exactly just what kind of history he might have had here in the Boulder area. And that will take some time to weed through, but we're working on it.

COSTELLO: All right. Thank you, Ed.

And as Ed mentioned, at noon Eastern we are expecting that news conference with the Boulder, Colorado, district attorney. Of course CNN will carry that live for you.

O'BRIEN: Israeli troops heading south, Lebanese troops doing the same, pouring into southern Lebanon as part of that Mideast cease-fire today. Fifteen thousand troops in all, Lebanese troops, should be on turf formerly held by the Israelis in about 24 hours.

And check out this picture. For the first time since Israeli fighters targeted the Beirut airport at the outset of the month-long war, a commercial airliner arrived there today with paying passengers.

Live now to Anthony Mills in Beirut, where there are signs of normalcy and signs of anything but -- Anthony.

ANTHONY MILLS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

That deployment of Lebanese troops southward is really picking up pace now. We're told by a high-ranking army source that three brigades between 1,800 and 2,000 troops each have already crossed the Litani River into the south of the country, into that swathe of territory about 15 miles deep that they are going to take control of from Hezbollah.

Also, by the end of the day we're expecting another brigade to cross that river, and also one to land at the port city of Tyre by the end of the day. We understand, according to that source, that within 24 hours the full 15,000 Lebanese army troops pledged by the government will be in position down there in the south of the country.

Questions, Miles, do remain, though. What exactly is going to happen to Hezbollah? Is it simply going to lay down its arms? Is it going to move northwards out of territory that it spent years liberating from Israeli control? Or is it, as some analysts suggest, simply going to blend back into a civilian population from which it draws much of its support -- many of the Hezbollah fighters stem from villages down there in the south. Hide its weapons, keep them out of sight, possibly to take them out one day in the future to fight again?

Miles.

O'BRIEN: Anthony Mills in Beirut.

Thank you very much.

In Iraq, another market bombing today. Three dead. More than 30 injured. It happened in Sadr City. That is Baghdad's largest Shiite neighborhood.

In all, more than 3,500 Iraqi civilians were killed in July, making last month the deadliest month for Iraqi civilians since the U.S. invaded in March of 2003 -- Carol.

COSTELLO: New rules for your 401(k). This afternoon, President Bush is going to sign the most sweeping changes to pensions in more than 30 years, and you can bet it's going to affect your pension plan.

CNN's Ed Henry outside the White House to tell us more.

Good morning, Ed.

ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Part of the president's election year push on the economy this afternoon. He heads to Camp David with top economic advisors, a day and a half of meetings.

Yesterday, as you know, he was in Pennsylvania at the Harley- Davidson plant talking about jobs. He even hammed it up for the cameras a little bit by hopping aboard a Harley.

Today he hopes to rev up Americans' retirement savings by signing into law this sweeping reform, as you noted. Right now employees have to opt into 401(k)s. Many don't bother to do that. This will allow employers to automatically sign up employees, try to encourage savings.

You will also hear from the president as part of his sales pitch that this new law will tighten funding requirements to guarantee that employers fully fund their pensions for workers; close loopholes, and allow underfunded plans to scich cash pension payments; restrict the golden parachute executives get when their retirement funds for the rank and file employees are at risk; and also give workers new access to face-to-face professional, personally tailored investment advice.

But what you will not hear from the president is that a lot of independent experts feel this is really a Band-Aid. It will do nothing -- it could help a little bit in the short term, but will do nothing from stopping companies who are in trouble from filing for bankruptcy, pushing off their pensions on the government agency that can fund them. But right now, that government agency is $23 billion in debt.

A lot of people saying that until you put a dent into that shortfall, the pension plans in America still in a lot of danger -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I guess we won't hear anything about Social Security, either?

HENRY: Oh, no. That was a big -- you know, a push before the election. It went nowhere last year. The president has given that up, at least for now.

COSTELLO: Ed Henry, live at the White House this morning.

Let's head to Atlanta now to check in with Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MYERS: Back to you guys.

COSTELLO: Thank you, Chad.

MYERS: Sure.

COSTELLO: Still to come, more on the confession in the JonBenet Ramsey case. We'll hear from JonBenet's aunt and find out how the family is dealing with this news.

O'BRIEN: Also, should everyone -- and we mean everyone -- be tested for HIV? Dr. Sanjay Gupta tells us why some people think that is a good idea.

COSTELLO: And later, a huge legal victory for a teenage cancer patient who refused chemotherapy. We'll talk to him.

That's just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The man accused of killing JonBenet Ramsey says he loved her and that her death was an accident. The chilling confession coming this morning. And now the family is reacting.

Pamela Paugh is the sister of Patsy Ramsey. She joined us from Roswell, Georgia.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Thanks for joining us this morning. PAUGH: You're welcome. Good morning.

COSTELLO: You know, the tabloid headlines surrounding this case has been awful for your family, intimating that John or Patsy Ramsey may have had some part in their daughter's death.

Do you feel vindicated by this?

PAUGH: First, I'd like to say that the tabloids were awful before JonBenet's death, let's just get that straight. I'm not really certain that there is a need for vindication, because in my mind, Patsy and John were never guilty of anything, and those who know them, who knew them, who have stood by them knew the truth, and we were just waiting for this day, for this to come to light, and we always knew that this day would come.

COSTELLO: The suspect in this case, you know, after his arrest in Thailand, he said he loved JonBenet very much, and her death was an accident. As you were watching that, what was your reaction?

PAUGH: I didn't actually watch it, but I heard it this morning, and to that, I would say a couple things. One, no, you didn't love JonBenet. I loved JonBenet.

Second of all, it sickens me that this person has paraded as a school teacher. I am a school teacher. There is a difference between yearning to help children learn and yearning to make them sex toys.

And saying it was an accident? Well, by what accident were you even in her home? By what accident did you tie something around her neck and choke her? By what accident did you put an eight-inch crack in her skull?

These things are not accidents. Accidents are falling off the couch and bumping your head when you're a toddler. So that's some of the questions I have.

COSTELLO: And we have to say, he has not been tried and found guilty as of yet.

PAUGH: That's correct.

COSTELLO: Your family doesn't really know this man. Is it possible that JonBenet could have come into contact with someone her parents weren't aware of?

PAUGH: Well, in these years, I'm sure many parents have done this, you try to determine when is it that my child is not in my eyeshot, and about the only time I can come up with, or we've been able to come up with, is when they're safely asleep in their beds. When they're with playmates, when they're with friends, you know they're under the supervision of other known adults, but you're not quite sure who is catching their eye while playing in a rock park out in the middle of Boulder or, you know, walking down the street or doing whatever. So there are lots of opportunities for other unknown adults to come into contact with children, and children are so vulnerable emotionally, they don't know to keep a wall up, to keep these people out.

COSTELLO: Right. The other curious thing -- your sister and brother-in-law lived in a very large home in Boulder, and some people have described the inside of that house as a maze. If this man was unknown to your family, is it little curious that he was able to find JonBenet's bedroom and take her down to this basement area?

PAUGH: Well, the house was quite a maze, and I think that was because it had been reconstructed, as it were, so many times. I think over the various years different families that had owned the residence had added on, made new additions, changed this wall, knocked this one out, put another one in, so you understand the maze concept.

If you go from JonBenet's room down a spiral staircase, through the kitchen, through another hallway, down the stairs into the basement, it's not that difficult.

But what I would say is that it was quite a large house, and that was a long way to traverse. So it seems logical that you would have to answer the question, was the person who committed this crime in the house on prior occasions to the night of JonBenet's death?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: If the suspect, John Mark Karr, did not have a relationship with the Ramseys before JonBenet's death, he certainly tried to develop one later. This morning he says he wrote letters to Patsy Ramsey right before she died in June.

O'BRIEN: More on the JonBenet Ramsey case in a moment.

Now that there's an arrest, where does this case go? CNN's Jeffrey Toobin will talk about the remarkable confession we saw play out. It's admissible.

And next, a closer look at whether HIV testing should be standard for everyone. Dr. Sanjay Gupta will tell us about that.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Here is a scary number. More than a million Americans are infected with HIV. What makes that even scarier is about a quarter of them don't even know they have the virus that causes AIDS.

So, should everyone be tested? Some say that's a good idea.

Here's Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): When you go to the doctor for a check-up, in addition to testing your blood pressure and cholesterol you might have been offered an HIV test. And if the government has its way, HIV testing will become the norm for most Americans.

LAWRENCE GOSTIN, GEORGETOWN UNIV. LAW CENTER: I can foresee not more than maybe a year to five years from now where you will go to your doctor's office and, unless you specifically say, "No, I don't want to be tested for HIV," you may very well be tested.

GUPTA: But some people don't want to be tested. Perhaps it's a stigma that AIDS carries. Perhaps they don't know anyone who has HIV, someone like Tom Donohue. Tom was only 24 years old when his doctor told him the news.

TOM DONOHUE, WHO'S POSITIVE: All I knew was that I was HIV positive and I thought I was going to die.

GUPTA: But then he realized there was potentially a bigger problem that few in his small town of State College, Pennsylvania, were addressing.

DONOHUE: I walked down the street today and I walk among people that I look like, and I'm doing the same things like everyone else is doing, ride the city bus like everyone else. No one that passed me by would have known that I was HIV positive.

GUPTA: And that's the catch. In the early stage of the disease, even without treatment, people who have HIV look healthy. So they could be passing it on to other people without even knowing it.

So Tom launched a group called Who's Positive and targeted people his age, college students, challenging them to get tested.

DONOHUE: I may look like you, dress like you, act like you. I might be the same age as some of you. But could any of you ever tell that I am HIV positive?

GUPTA: Now he's recruiting more young people to help him take the message across the country. The goal: to help get thousands of students tested for the disease.

He, like the U.S. government, want to make testing the norm. And there are good reasons to be tested.

If someone is positive and they get treatment, it will lower the amount of virus in their blood. That not only makes them healthier, but it also reduces the chance they will pass the disease to their partners. The less virus you have in your blood, the less likely you are to infect someone else.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: You can catch Sanjay's ful report on "AC 360" tonight at 10:00 Eastern, right here on CNN.

COSTELLO: And still ahead, an update on that teenage cancer patient who has been refusing chemotherapy. He just had a big win in court.

He will join us, along with his father.

That's just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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