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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Airliner Slides off LaGuardia Runway, Injuring 16; Drivers Stuck on Highway in Kentucky; Jody Arias Sentencing Examined

Aired March 05, 2015 - 12:30   ET

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

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So it's almost as if it had been landed with great force and then take that left turn into that berm with great force.

Air traffic control instructed all other flights to go around, to climb. As you know, flights come in every couple of minutes here at LaGuardia, so they were all turned around. And then, they said that they try to get a hold of the -- somebody in the cabin, but they didn't hear back from hi. He said, "OK. I just heard back." He's leaking fuel on the left side of his aircraft heavily. "Leaking fuel," they said, "Yes."

We understand that fire officials have now broken down into three teams, one to deal specifically with that fuel leak, the other team to deal with the hydrants. This area is so far away from where the hydrants are on the airport property.

It is very difficult, especially in this weather to get water and the necessary chemicals to that area in order to take care of that fuel leak and to make sure that the plane is fine. The third team is there to deal with the passengers. All passengers are deplaned, light injuries, nothing very serious, but certainly a serious situation here.

Like I showed you, the American terminal where we are now, there were about 10 people in line earlier, and now it is expanded to 20 or 30 people in line here. Everything is shutdown, everything diverted for now, so at least 7 p.m. tonight.

And I will tell you this is the priority line here. So, you can imagine that lines across this airport, all terminals are just terrible, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Oh, and Miguel, so many people I'm seeing from your cameraman's lens on their phone, possibly trying to make alternate arrangement to get wherever is that they were supposed to be going.

If we can show that picture again of the runway and how it fits in relation to the water, there you go. This plane was coming in on the bottom of your screen, heading to the top of your screen along that long runway and it is nothing but a berm that separated that aircraft from veering to the left and going into that (inaudible) in the waterway, to the left of the runway.

So effectively, when that plane skidded and effectively fishtailed on that runway, it banged into that berm on the left and went up and over through that fence, but did not go further and into the water on the left-hand side of the screen.

So, if there is any good news it is that and also that there are no major injuries. We are told some minor injuries from the 125 people onboard and five crew members onboard, as well.

Chad Myers, if you are standing by, the water system I am just seeing right there on your radar, this is something we've all known. We were all told from 7:00 last night until 7:00 tonight here in the New York area, it is going to be disastrous, anywhere from four to eight inches depending on where you are. LaGuardia plays by these rules too.

And with that kind of circumstance water, surrounding runway, if you got a feel of those, they're making extra precaution when they keep that runway open.

CHAD MYERS, METEOROLOGIST: The weather went from 33 and raining this morning when I got on T.V. at New Day in 6:00 and then it went to 32. And it was still raining for a minute or two. So -- And it change the over the snow, Ashleigh. And it continued to snow, but the temperature is down to 25.

So all of that liquid that was rained is now still on the runway, in the grooves, and the snow is piling on top. So, were getting icy, not only on the runway but on the roadways as well. The roads are going to be an absolute mess today and tonight.

It's going to get down to 10 degrees in New York. Bergen County in New Jersey you might be four some like. So, even salted roads are going to freeze tonight.

And here is the issue, the issue is as the plane was coming one three, you're talking about this, as I point it out, the berm is right along here. There is nothing on the other side of the berm, but water.

And I fly into this, probably as much as you do as well. And it's a scary landing on a good day. And I bet it was petrifying, terrifying for the people that were on that plane.

We talked about the -- almost the people that were stock on the highway ice 65. Louisville, Nashville right through here. In this ban right here, we had 14 to 24 inches of snow in 24 hours. That snow is headed to the east won't be that heavy there's not much moisture left, but you're probably going to get 46 in New York, maybe 68 Philadelphia and also D.C. and Baltimore.

So, it's certainly not done. And that's what ice 65 look like. And there are spots right now. I know (inaudible) on 76. I've seen it one the park way, where cars have spanned out. Trucks have been -- just jack knifed and there are backups, five and 10 mile backups going on at least and where before I came down to talk about this airplane.

Please don't go on the road. And if you absolutely have to, don't go on the road about a full tank of gas, because it's going to be four degrees today. And you have to keep yourself warm in a stock car, that engine is the only thing that's going to keep you warm.

BANFIELD: Well -- and I'm glad you said that, because we're going to speak to someone who's been stock for 14 hours in Kentucky on the roadway that's closed down. So, it's an excellent advice. I always have plenty of advice from you. He's from Canada. You should have a candle in your glove box and you should have emergency equipment if you're going to go in any roadway. Chad, stand by for a moment.

Again, with the weather that we've been seeing, I also want to bring to light some of the developments from the airplane crash in LaGuardia. We're getting some pictures in from our fellow at WABC out in New York. And you're seeing some people who presumably were onboard that plane, being loaded into emergency vehicles.

We do have a report from the New York Fire Department that there are six minor injuries that resulted from that crash of the MD-80 flight 1086. Six minor injuries and that some of those will be transported to hospital. And what I'm seeing here can only -- we can only presume that maybe this is going to be one of the people who is being put into an emergency vehicle on a gurney. But there you have it.

The others are getting out of the emergency exit over the wing. You have seen the demonstrations of the flight attendant at the front of the aircraft tell you how to do it, where to go and what to do. This is what it looks like from the outside folks when they used the chute and get out of a plane that way.

Miles O'Brien is standing by live. He is our CNN Aviation Analyst, former CNN anchor, and just a remarkably smart person when it comes to all things aircraft.

You said it earlier and I'd like you to expound on it if you can. It takes varsity piloting to come into this airport on any given day let alone the day when the weather is like, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Yeah. There are few other airports like this in the country, Midway comes to mind. Short runways and not a lot of space for overrun. In the case of Midway, it's neighborhoods. In this case, it's water.

LaGuardia after all being largely (reclaimed) lands, 7000 feet on either runway. And on a good day, you got to really put it down right where you should and get on the breaks really hard and do your job without any mistakes, because there's not a lot of margin for error at a place like LaGuardia.

On a day like today, it gets even treachery, of course. Low visibility, low clouds and slipped runway, that's a bad combination here.

And in this case, Ashleigh, we need -- I'd like -- I hope Chad still listening. The winds at LaGuardia right now are about 60 knots, so getting close to 20 miles an hour as a tail wind. In other words, they would have been landing with the wind.

And so, the airspeed, of course, is the same always. But the ground speed of this case would have been pushing the plane a little bit faster than it would have been if it'll been flying into the wind.

And so, is it possible that exasperate the situation here? It could have, but I don't know the exact winds at the time of the insight. Right now, it's the tailwind for runway 13. Maybe at the time, it wasn't. Maybe, it was crosswind. Maybe, there was a wind shift, which could complicated matters in this case. Maybe, it was shifting around.

And you had a gusty crosswind, which could have sent the plane off side of the runway as we see.

I pointed out earlier, Ashleigh, the thrust reversers which are plane shell like devices on the engine are not deployed in this case. Now, that could be just -- because the way they shutdown the engines in an emergency situation or who knows.

I mean, if there was some difficulty with the thrust reversers, you know, could there have been one work and one that didn't. That certainly because of the plane veer or on top of the slippery runway was one break catching more than the other.

So there are a lot of factors just went into mix here. But the one to remember is where we started, this is 7000 feet runway and this is an airplane that needs at least 5000 feet on a good day. So there's not a lot of margin to play with.

BANFIELD: Yeah. There is a key on observation that you saw with those very quick pictures that the thrust reversers seemed not to be deployed. There was one other observations I want to throw into this as well, you can see people deplaning on the right hand side, right there on the wing. But you can't see anybody deplaning out of the cabin at the front of the aircraft. And as we swing over, there you can at the front of the aircraft is obstructed by that fence.

This is why your flight attendant tell you where all of the exits are because anybody who's sitting in those windows to the front of the wing, presumably would have either had to get off the other side if that would have been possible or comeback and join everyone from the back of the aircraft getting out those two exits over the wing.

But this is the reason why, believer or not, you may think we all know everything there is to know about those exits and the procedures, but read the card, you'll be amazed that how different they are for every single aircraft.

I want to switch gears for a moment if I can, still with the weather and still with the crisis but go a lot further south and New York sure look the same know courtesy of Wave T.V.

Look at these images of those roadways in Kentucky, just awful. Snow like they're not used too in Kentucky, inches upon, inches of snow falling, and a lot of vehicles moving at slow or no pace at all.

I am joined right now by Patrick Kilgallon. I hope I have your name right, Patrick. A motorist who -- if these numbers are right, you've been stock on one of these roadways for 14 hours, sir? PATRICK KILGALLON: Yes, right now I'm well over past 14 hours, Ashleigh. But we've kind of been sitting here the entire time.

BANFIELD: I'm so sorry to hear that. As I understand that you are traveling with your wife and two dogs in your vehicle. What is your circumstance and what looks to be the, you know, the resolution to this if someone going to come and help you is it just a factor that the roadways is shutdown and you have no options.

KILGALLON: Well at this point, no we don't have any options. Well I mean we're pretty much surrounded by some ice. You know, and we can see them off to the distance. A local guy here with fire department came through a lot while ago. There's several cars that have already run out of gas. But they are taking those piece at the warming centers. But even their concern was they didn't know how they're going to get back to their cars and what they would do with them

Behind us is two abandoned cars with the trucks right behind them. So, I don't know even when they do open it up, either behind us, how are they going to around those types of vehicles. And even if we have any truck going in front of us, the (inaudible) about 12 miles probably beginning of the bus, so we're not -- that as far is some people understand this whole (inaudible) about actually it's 50 miles.

So, it is a mess, the snow has stopped at least. But, you know, there's a lot of snow in the ground still. And we're just sitting here praying and just trying to get out, you know, from (inaudible) we're hoping. By evening would be more than what we can do, right now. But we'll just sit in, we've been trying to ration what water, some snack and pantries we have. And, but, you know, I heard about National Guard we haven't seen any.

Yeah, I'm told about different things but, right now, no we don't know what's going on other than sitting and waiting.

BANFIELD: We're going to talk to National Guard in just a moment, Patrick. But the pictures we're showing the lie, the real situation your dogs looks like they're having a blast. And inside the car you look like it's kind of fun being that, you know, in the close quarters with them too, although 14 hours of it I'm not sure how long ago the pictures were taken. But on a more serious note your wife is diabetic.

I know that you guys (inaudible) crackers et cetera and that you're rationing the water. But apart from that maybe the best news that you started off in your trip to Florida with a full tank of gas, my presumption is you're about 3 quarters of a tank now and you kept the engine running all night?

KILGALLON: Well no, we're -- we -- we're -- I actually in a brand new jeep, it has a fuel efficient engine in and we show that last night, right before we got stopped. Run all night used not even a quarter of a tank. So, we've sense that we were turning it on and off now. I ran almost of the night just because of the amount snow coming down. That probably just giving impressed with ice and we're just -- and we couldn't even open doors and things at times. Now, as the snow has stopped, you know, we're (inaudible) car we want to pursue (inaudible) until we get cold to turn it back on...

BANFIELD: Yeah.

KILGALLON: ... some vehicle behind us again that had run out of gas and didn't have that option either.

BANFIELD: Be careful of that exhaust pipes, it's one the number one lessons for those of us who grow in an intense weather conditions than it was from the north, Canada for me. Keep the exhaust pipe cleared if you are continuing to run that engine and very snowy and certainly drifting conditions. Oh, Patrick good luck to and your wife, I hope you get out of that circumstance soon. And good luck getting to Florida, hopefully it's going to be a lot better when you get their sir.

KILGALLON: Yeah, yeah and also to you. Sorry (Inaudible) but even if we get down (inaudible) 24 we got issues going forward so it's still if that looks (inaudible) have 75 down in the Florida. But I'm actually from Pennsylvania at Erie which is the snow capital of the world. So, we're used to snow and the car was doing well it was just, you know, the accident that kind of stopped everything up.

BANFIELD: Well I'll tell you what Patrick listen in if you've got the power and a charger in your car, this next interview may pertain to you. I want to talk to Lieutenant Colonel Kirk Hilbrecht who is at the Kentucky National Guard.

Sir, I don't know if you could hear that interview with Patrick Kilgallon and his wife. They're stucked 14 hours now on I-65. And they've heard that you're coming but what's the circumstance for them and for all the other drivers who were stucked like them?

LT. COL. KIRK HILBRECHT: All right, it really truly a -- it is a mess without a doubt. And this is actually a lot of people may not have known this is a second major winter event that we've had in less than a month. And so, in many ways we're just recovering from the first. And even though the emergency responders we're all on teleconference yesterday in preparation of the storm. We could not even prepare properly to (inaudible) road or whatever because of the rain that we had.

And then of course last night after it froze up, we add unprecedented amount of snow fall in such a short period of time. So, even though Kentucky transportation was plowing everything within two hours it would be up to another 2 to 4 inches in certain roadways. So...

BANFIELD: Lieutenant Colonel, I just want to ask about the people like, you know, the Kilgallon's and others. Look the Kilgallon's said they've got a little bit of food, they're conserving water and they've got 3 quarters of a tank of gas that you can (inaudible). There are a lot of people who don't have that right now. How are you getting to them and how are you dealing with rescues, how the rescues begun?

HILBRECHT: Sure, of course we actually started early this morning. We have obviously we have dispatch some folks from their homes. And once they've made it in to the armories and the -- Elizabethtown area, that quickly got in their humvees and have them making tracks both 10 miles north and 10 mile south of the Elizabethtown I-65.

And as you can imagine we're quickly taking trying the motorist from their vehicles and moving them to warming centers as they're called that have been setup in the area. So, we're now, like doing that though in the Elizabethtown area. We also have a similar situation in West of Kentucky along the I-24 roadway from miles marker 116, 266. So, it's specifically that Patrick and his folks hang tight we are coming.

BANFIELD: Oh, it's so hard to hear that. I think his actually listening in. Just quickly if you could at the last comment how much longer will some of these people have to wait before help arrive?

HILBRECHT: Well help is already there. So, Ashleigh I'm not sure where Patrick is in that congested area. It is vast expense obviously. So, we already have been removing folks from their vehicles and moving into the warming centers and we'll continue to do so until we've been relieved.

BANFIELD: OK. Well Lieutenant Colonel Kirk Hilbrecht I really appreciate you taking the time to speak with us obviously it's a very busy time for you as you mention. Second major winter event in less than a month, just hard to see all those people stuck like that and hear their circumstance inside their vehicles

We have a lot of breaking news folks not only the weather where you just thought in Kentucky but also the planes getting off the runway in LaGuardia Airport and finally some movement in the Jodi Arias case. In fact we now know exactly what happens to Jodi Arias and where she will spend the next few decades.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: We are following a lot of breaking news here at CNN. On the left-hand side of your screen, a plane that coming in for landing did not finish the landing. It crashed into a berm on the left-hand side of Runway 13 at LaGuardia. On the other side of that berm, water. All passengers evacuated, some with minor injuries, six of them in fact and some headed to the hospital.

On the right-hand side of your screen, the view from the helicopter over a state that does not normally look like that. That is Kentucky. A weather system spanning the eastern side of the United States and blanketing snow from the south right up to the northeast making them both look the same people trapped to their vehicles in Kentucky, hundreds waiting for rescue. We are not going far from the weather story, and we also have this.

It has been six years since Travis Alexander was murdered viciously, violently with a gun and a knife, and the woman who did it has been cooling her heels waiting to find out whether she will live or die for the crime. Found guilty long ago. A second jury had to be called in to decide whether she should get the death penalty. And after more than 24 hours of talking it over and hashing out the evidence, they came up with their justice. It may not be the justice that everybody wanted. It may not be the justice that even Jodi may want. Believe it or not, the justice says that they hung, they could not decide. And ultimately, the justice is that it will be life in prison. And the judge in this case, Judge Sherry Stephens made the announcement just moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDGE SHERRY STEPHENS, MARICOPA COUNTY ARIZONA: I have received two juror questions from you. The first juror question submitted late yesterday afternoon states that "We are not unanimous. Votes have been steady since last Thursday. Jurors have indicated minds are made up. Some have indicated we either let you know today or they want off this jury. In my assessment, we are hung and additional time will not change this. Submitted by the foreperson." This morning I received an additional juror question indicating the status is unchanged as of this morning. Is there anything from the foreperson to add at this time? Right, at this time the court is declaring a mistrial.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: A mistrial declared in Phoenix, Arizona. But make no mistake, a mistrial doesn't mean we're going to after this again, because the law in that state is that a hung jury, the second time around means it's over. Life in prison, it's automatic. We have to expert voices on this. Our Senior Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin is with me live. Nancy Grace, host of Nancy Grace on HLN at 8:00, weeknight also here.

First, Jeffrey Toobin to you, six years from the crime to this final result. Do you think this had anything to do with the prevailing wisdom about the death penalty in Arizona and elsewhere if it took two juries to finally get to (no) decision?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, this was a tough case on a death penalty. It wasn't a tough case on guilt. And it was quite obvious that Jodi Arias was guilty but I think it was a very questionable decision on the part of the prosecution to go back a second time for another very expensive trial in the death penalty to receive precisely the same result, a hung jury. And now, as you pointed out under Arizona law, she cannot be retried the third time on the death penalty. This was a life in prison case, all along it seemed to me and now, that's the result.

BANFIELD: OK. Nancy Grace, I want to bring you in. There are some reporting from USA Today, from reporters in the courtroom said that Travis Alexander's family, that is her victim who was so badly butchered to death. The family was leaving the courtroom and apparently walked by the media saying, "The real justice will be in the afterlife, when Jodi burns in hell." This family has been through hell. Will this be any kind of resolution for them, Nancy? NANCY GRACE, HOST, NANCY GRACE: Well I think today, and just the last moments, Ashleigh, the announcement came down that the jury was hung. You could have heard a pin drop in that courtroom and immediately you could hear it building the gasps from the victim's family on the front row. They immediately bent over, double in their seats. Physical bent over and begin crying out in pain.

And I always find it very interesting when pundits say, "Well, this cost a lot of money and it wasn't really a good decision." It's like they're buying a car or they're making some kind of an investment in their Fidelity Fund. Well you know what? Violent crime is not like that. We are talking about people's lives. We are talking about a family who lost Travis Alexander.

Now, when you are defending someone, those very same pundits, no, no expense in defending someone, but what I want to say right now is this family has been through hell and their hell is not over yet because the sentencing is not complete. That's set to go down April 13. When the jury left the courtroom Ashleigh, many of them walked by the Alexander family and actually gave them sympathetically, "I'm sorry" look and the family rushed out. They couldn't stand it one more minute to be in that courtroom.

So it was quite a scene in the courtroom just moments ago.

TOOBIN: Yeah. Ashleigh, can I jump in right here?

BANFIELD: So Jeffrey -- yes. Go ahead Jeffrey. Go.

TOOBIN: You know what, executing people is not the only form of justice in this country. In fact, it is a largely discredited form of justice in this country Nancy. And a lot of people on the left, on the right, the death penalty is in great decline in this country, because so many innocent people have been on death row, because so many inappropriate sentences have been read. So the idea that there is injustice because Jodi Arias is not going to be stuffed into a gas chamber or put in lethal injection is not necessarily the case. And it indicates no insensitivity to the victims who have suffered horribly in this case that she will not be executed.

BANFIELD: Nancy want to respond?

GRACE: Is that a question? I mean, I don't even know what that was. I'm happy to hear your opinion. But what I'm saying is today, there's a hung jury. It's our -- what we're hearing in the courtroom is that the split was 10 to 2 for the death penalty.

I think that ultimately, Arias is going to spend her life behind bars. I expect the judge to do this to sentence her to life without the possibility of parole. When she was telling the last jury why she should not get the death penalty, she says she intended to donate all of her hair to Locks of Love and that is why her life should be spared. That in contradiction comparison to Travis Alexander who was in the shower and had his head jerked back by Jodi Arias by his hair, stabbed 29 times and stabbed from ear to ear and then shot. And then in court, accused of all type of crimes he didn't commit to further drag him to the mud. That's what I lived through. I was in the courtroom. I saw what happened. I saw the crime scene photos. I know how he stumbled to the bathroom mirror, Ashleigh in death. And I know that from the forensic, the blood dripping from his face onto the bathroom counter. He looked to the mirror and he saw himself dying. He saw himself dying before he fell on the floor and was dragged back to the shower to hide his body. That's what I remember about the case.

BANFIELD: So, can I ask, you know, and I -- I'm not -- I just can't remember the statute, the Arizona statute when it comes to this automatic sentence once there's a double hung jury. And that is isn't it automatically life without the possibility of parole, the LWOP option? Or is there some shot down the road somewhere that she could get out, Nancy?

GRACE: I think there was a possibility that she can get out. And, you know, it depends on the law as well, because if you remember for instance back in the times of Manson (ph) and people could get the death penalty, then it was determined to be cruelty in inhumanity in our country. All those death penalty sentences were reversed. So, I mean, there's concept of evil in the area of law of death penalty proceedings.

BANFIELD: Yeah. Yeah.

GRACE: But I would be -- I'll go out on the limit and say she's going to do life behind bars.

BANFIELD: I think that's for a lot of people hope for. Quickly, Jeff I'm down...

TOOBIN: She's not going anywhere. She shouldn't go anywhere. And it's a very just resolution of this case.

BANFIELD: I'm going to go out on limb here and say she is just a terrible person. I've spent that time covering that case as well. And she's one of the worst to the worst.

Nancy, great to see you. Thank you so much Jeff.

GRACE: Thank you.

BANFIELD: Always great to see you both. I do appreciate it. And you can watch Nancy Show on HLN, weeknights at 8:00.

Wolf starts right now.