Return to Transcripts main page
New Day
Defense Rests In Zimmerman Murder Trial; Wild Weather Across The Nation; "We're Trying To Keep Her Alive"; Snowden Escape Route; Train Disaster Death Toll At 20; Randy Davis Has Stroke; Arizona Fire 100 Percent Contained; Stroller Hit And Run; Boston Bombing Suspect Arraigned
Aired July 11, 2013 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We're going to have much more on that coming up, but understandably, terrifying scene.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Absolutely. Plus a very intense day in court, the Boston bombing suspect in public for the first time facing his victims. We're going to hear from some of those victim's voices this morning. What do you think it would be like face-to-face with a killer?
MICHAEL PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: It might seem counterintuitive to some, are diet sodas actually bad for you? A new study out says they may actually cause you to gain weight. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta will join us to break down what it all means.
CUOMO: We are going to begin this morning though with this, closing arguments on tap today after a testy final day in the George Zimmerman trial. There were fireworks involving the judge who pressed Zimmerman to say he would not testify. The jury is expected to get this powder keg of a case tomorrow. Question, could there be any last second surprises.
George Howell is live in Sanford, Florida this morning. Good morning, George.
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris. So just as the defense team rested its case, prosecutors opened the possibility that George Zimmerman could have been underneath Trayvon Martin as initially suggested and John Guy went to great lengths to prove it in court and we saw Defense Attorney Mark O'Mara jump right on that argument.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL (voice-over): George Zimmerman answered the question on everyone's mind, would he testify?
JUDGE DEBRA NELSON: Have you made a decision as to whether or not you want to testify in this case?
GEORGE ZIMMERMAN: No, not at this time.
DON WEST, ZIMMERMAN'S DEFENSE LAWYER: I object to the court inquiring of Mr. Zimmerman as to his decision about whether or not to testify.
NELSON: Your objection is overruled.
HOWELL: But after a tense exchange between Judge Debra Nelson and Zimmerman's lawyers, he made his choice.
ZIMMERMAN: After consulting with counsel, not to testify, your honor.
HOWELL: There was also proof in court Wednesday you can learn a lot from a dummy. During one of the most surreal moments in court, both sides straddled a foam dummy in attempts to illustrate the conflicting arguments as to what happened the night Trayvon Martin was killed. Prosecuting Attorney John Guy argued that it would have been difficult for Zimmerman to shoot at a 90-degree angle had Trayvon Martin been on top as presented by the defense.
JOHN GUY, PROSECUTOR: Would it be consistent the 90 degrees if Trayvon Martin had been backing up and the defendant raised his gun and shot at 90 degrees.
HOWELL: Then Defense Attorney Mark O'Mara grabbed the dummy to support his argument.
MARK O'MARA, ZIMMERMAN'S DEFENSE LAWYER: The injuries on Mr. Zimmerman's back of his head consistent with someone doing this?
HOWELL: And on the final day of testimony, George Zimmerman's father, Robert Zimmerman, returned to the stand to address the screams heard on the 911 tape.
ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, GEORGE ZIMMERMAN'S FATHER: Absolutely, it's my son, George.
O'MARA: Is that an opinion that you still have through today?
ROBERT ZIMMERMAN: Surely.
HOWELL: In another important ruling today, Judge Debra Nelson will decide whether or not to grant the prosecution's request to apply lesser charges of manslaughter and aggravated assault.
O'MARA: Self-defense is self-defense to everything. There shouldn't be a second-degree murder charge and there shouldn't be any lessers.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL: So we know that jurors will be back here in the courtroom today at 1:00 p.m. Prosecutors will make their closing arguments and we expect that they should take about two hours, then we will see the defense team make closing arguments on Friday, they should take three hours and prosecutors will then again get a one-hour rebuttal, that's all on Friday.
CUOMO: All right thanks, George. Coming up later in the show, there are some big questions remaining about how this will all end. We're going to have an all star panel for you, CNN's senior legal analyst Jeff Toobin, Defense Attorney Danny Cevallos and CNN analyst Sunny Hostin to break it all down for us -- Kate.
BOLDUAN: All right, a lot coming up. Now from extreme heat to extreme rain, wild weather hitting the country from really coast to coast. I mean, people are talking about -- people are dealing with mudslides, wildfires, funnel clouds, flash flooding, there's just some of the video you can see of what people are dealing with.
Chad Myers is here in the weather center with a closer look of what's going on. It continues to be extremes no matter where you are.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, I think 2013 might go down. We've only started as the year of extremes and yesterday was no exception. Literally it was coast to coast.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MYERS (voice-over): Residents in Pennsylvania caught in a rush of turbulent weather from a funnel cloud touching down north of Pittsburgh to the flash flood submerging the city. Residents are braving what some say could be the worst flooding they've seen in a decade, rising waters drowning the city, leaving buildings, cars and people at a standstill, looking for a way out of the muck. Emergency crews were wading waist deep to check out businesses and homes. Residents like Debbie Williams trying to cope with what's left of her basement.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Devastated, absolutely devastated. The Harley- Davidson is still covered with water, water tank, furnace, everything down here is just completely devastated.
MYERS: To the west, a swift mudslide in Colorado, sweeping away cars in its wake. No injuries were reported. And the massive Carpenter One wildfire continues to rage in the mountains near the dry and hot Las Vegas strip.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What you are currently seeing is not dawn. It's all fire.
MYERS: The widespread smoke a sign of destruction, the wildfire already destroying structures and injuring several firefighters.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MYERS: Maybe a little bit of help for the fires today. A chance of showers out there, a big chance of showers and thunderstorms across the eastern part of the country as a cold front is going to continue to move to the east. Now that cold front is going to make an absolutely perfect weekend for the northeast, but we are going to have to deal with a day of maybe even some wind damage even here in the city.
It's going to be a day where the rain continues, afternoon thunderstorms popping up. So if you have an afternoon flight, you may want to try to get a little bit earlier. Those afternoon flights will certainly be delayed as the storms pop up around the cities. We had a couple of showers near Atlanta. I expected some morning delays right now it looks OK.
Cooler and less humid for the weekend, absolutely unbelievable weekend in the northeast, still flooding across the southeast and those monsoon rains, the mudslides were incredible across parts of the west, they continue today. Lots of rainfall in just a couple of hours, warm across the southeast for the rest of the week and Chantal, Chantal is dead. It's over.
BOLDUAN: So it's over.
MYERS: It's over. It couldn't keep up, it couldn't do anything right, it couldn't get out of its own way so that's good news.
CUOMO: You were making all the lines and trajectories and this rainbow of possibility. Bubkus.
MYERS: Hurricane season is not over.
BOLDUAN: Are you asking for a tropical storm?
COUMO: Watch what you ask for.
MYERS: That's true.
BOLDUAN: Plenty of time dealing with that. Thank you so much, Chad. My family in Indiana was saying those storms were nasty.
CUOMO: That's right. I was e-mailing yesterday and making sure everybody was OK. Next thing because I said that I'm going to be in a slicker in some place tied to a stop sign.
BOLDUAN: How does it feel, Chris?
CUOMO: It's wet, Kate, I can't hear you.
Also new this morning, for the first time we are hearing the frantic 911 calls made by passengers of Flight 214 just moments after the plane crashed on the runway, this comes as new questions surround the flight crews. We're learning it took pilots 90 seconds before they ordered passengers to evacuate the burning aircraft.
Let's get to CNN's Miguel Marquez. He is live at San Francisco International Airport with the latest this morning. Good morning, Miguel.
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning there, Chris. Perhaps the most amazing of those calls is when a caller says look I've just crash landed at San Francisco Airport and the 911 operator says, what runway are you on? Unbelievable. We're also learning a lot more about the final seconds of this plane before it crashed.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: I just got in a plane crash and there are a lot of people that need help.
UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: We have people over here who weren't found and they're burned really badly.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): A chilling description of the traumatic scene as passengers escaped the burning aircraft in a desperate plea for emergency medical assistance.
UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: We've been on the ground I don't know, 20 minutes, a half hour, there are people laying on the tarmac with critical injuries, we're almost losing a woman over here, we're trying to keep her alive.
MARQUEZ: And overnight, a somber moment on an airport runway, family members of the two girls who died and others who were injured on Asiana Flight 214 visit the crash scene. And for the first time, six members of the Asiana flight crew make a stand of solidarity with six of their colleagues still in the hospital, emotion and anguish is written in their faces.
YOON HYE LEE, ASIANA FLIGHT ATTENDANT (through translator): We are putting our best efforts to recover from this accident.
MARQUEZ: Many crediting the heroic actions of the flight crew for saving so many lives. Investigators now say three flight attendants were ejected from the plane, still in their seats. Fourth injured by an emergency slide that deployed inside the cabin, they also pulled out extinguishers and fought fires as passengers escape. Investigators say it took a minute and a half for that evacuation to begin, this as we are learning more about the investigation itself.
NTSB saying 2.5 minutes before impact there were several changes to autopilot and autothrottle modes. It's not clear whether the pilots themselves were making the changes. The pilot of the aircraft told investigators at 500 feet he was temporarily blinded by a light.
DEBORAH HERSMAN, NTSB CHAIRWOMAN: He did talk to us about the approaching landing, but it was a temporary issue.
MARQUEZ: Airports and airline officials eager to get back to full operations as arrangements are made to move the charred remains of Flight 214.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARQUEZ: Now authorities here say that there was a very large triage going on near the plane, but we also know many individuals ended up near the sea wall and that's where a lot of the issues came with them not realizing for some minutes that there were people who need assistance as well -- Kate.
BOLDUAN: All right, Miguel, thanks so much. You can really hear the desperation in their voices in those 911 calls. We'll be tracking it all.
All right, now to Moscow, it takes nearly 13 hours to fly if you ever wondered from Moscow to Caracas, Venezuela. But if NSA leaker Edward Snowden decides to accept Venezuela's offer of asylum, it will likely take him quite a bit longer. CNN's Phil Black is here on Snowden's roundabout route to safe haven. He's live in Moscow with us this morning. So it seems no matter what path Snowden wants to take it's going to come with quite a bit of risk, right, Phil?
PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kate. Venezuela's protection would give some comfort to Edward Snowden. It is a country with a history of standing up to the United States, but if you look at the logistical challenge he faces to travel from Moscow, you could he has no easy option that guarantees his continued freedom.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLACK (voice-over): The direct route isn't an option, that would mean flying through Europe, the same countries that recently refused access to the plane carrying Bolivia's president because they suspected Edward Snowden was also on board. There's only one path that guaranties avoiding the sovereign air space of countries that might be willing to help the United States get Snowden back.
And it's a long journey via the Arctic and the Atlantic, around 6,800 miles, a potentially risky flight, almost entirely over water on one tank of fuel. Without an aircraft capable of making that journey, Snowden's options become much more complicated. He could head south through the Middle East. It's possible a Russian friendly country like Syria would allow him to transit its air space or even land but where to from there?
He'd have to pick a path across Africa, around countries which receive substantial foreign aid from the United States. There is no obvious or easy course but if successful, he could then make the final jump across the Atlantic to Venezuela. All of this assumes Edward Snowden has the money to hire a private aircraft and a willing crew or the backing and resources of a country that is determined to defy the United States.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLACK: At the moment, Venezuela's offer to help only kicks in one territory. It has not shown any willingness to send an aircraft or the money he would need to escape Moscow. Back to you, Kate and Chris.
BOLDUAN: All right, Phil, thank you so much. It is very interesting to see the potential routes, but also all the risk that comes with almost every option that he's got.
CUOMO: At the end of the day all those routes will wind up leading in the same place.
About 12 minutes past the hour. A lot of news going on today, let's get to Michaela for the latest, the more they look into that train crash in Canada, the worse it seems to get.
PEREIRA: New developments by the day. Chris, Kate, good morning. Good morning to you at home. Twenty people are now confirmed dead in the Quebec train disaster. Many, many more are still missing, but investigators say they were likely incinerated in that inferno. We want to show you new aerial images showing the before and after damage, you can see that explosion leveled the town. This as the railway CEO places blame on an employee, casting doubt on the engineer's story that he said 11 handbrakes on train cars before they broke three.
For the first time attorneys for James Holmes admits he killed 12 people and wounded dozens more, but they say he was in the throes of a psychotic episode when he committed the aurora movie theatre massacre. That admission came in a court motion filed this week. Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to 166 counts of attempted murder and other charges.
A setback for country singer, Randy Travis, he's out of surgery to relieve pressure on his brain after suffering a stroke. He remains in critical condition. Doctors say the stroke was a complication from his congestive heart failure. Earlier, they implanted a device in his heart to help with blood flow.
Fire crews in Arizona can finally turn the page. Officials say the Yarnell Hill fire is 100 percent contained. Nineteen members of the elite Granite Mountain Hotshots were killed battling that blaze last month. It marked the deadliest day for firefighters since 9/11. Officials say the Yarnell Hill fire began with a dry lightning strike and burned some 8,400 acres.
We have to show you some heart-stopping video. You can see a minivan backing out of a parking spot, slamming into a mother and her 1-year- old. The stroller got stock in the car and was dragged a short distance as the guy drove off. Incredibly we have to tell you the baby was not hurt. Mom only suffered a scraped knee. This is a photo of the driver because he took off. They're asking for the public's help in identifying him.
CUOMO: So he stopped.
PEREIRA: He stopped, they were able to get the stroller loose, mom stood up, grabbed the baby.
BOLDUAN: He did not wait to find out if that child was OK?
PEREIRA: No.
CUOMO: But did he know he hit the child?
PEREIRA: He must to because he paused. That's a question, too, or if he paused because he felt something back there and took off.
BOLDUAN: You could imagine they'd be screaming at him to stop.
CUOMO: You hope although sometimes in shock people aren't that vocal. It's amazing how you see the worst situations and these babies live. It always amazes me, you know, especially when you have kids and you see how they get hurt over nothing. And then you see something like this, what a blessing. That was a good one. Thank you for that. You heard Michaela say the police are trying to find that man. We showed you the picture. If you know that face please try and help out.
We're going to take a break now.
Coming up on NEW DAY: the Boston marathon bombing suspect in court, face-to-face with his alleged victims, including the mom whose son lost two legs in the violence.
BOLDUAN: Plus, Justin Bieber is making headlines for all the wrong reasons again. Why does it involve former President Bill Clinton this time?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CUOMO: Welcome back to NEW DAY, everybody.
An emotional day in court at the arraignment of the Boston bombing suspect. He pleaded not guilty to all 30 counts against him, including murdering four people and wounding more than 200 others. The hearing was packed with dozens of survivors and family members.
CNN's Deborah Feyerick was inside the court Wednesday and she's in Boston for us this morning.
Good morning, Deborah.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning there, Chris.
Well, some of the people that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev allegedly wanted to kill, they were in court yesterday. But if he was aware that they were sitting there watching him, he certainly didn't acknowledge it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(SIREN WAILING)
FEYERICK (voice-over): Under heavy guard, armed security and police divers searching the harbor outside the courthouse, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was arraigned Wednesday. As police outside lined up to honor slain MIT officer Sean Collier, inside, some 30 victims and family members sat shoulder to shoulder, watching, listening -- and for mom Liz Norden, hoping for any sense of remorse.
LIZ NORDEN, VICTIM MOTHER: No remorse, like he smirked at people in the courtroom.
FEYERICK: Speaking in a thick Russian accent, Tsarnaev pleaded not guilty to 30 charges against him, including use of a weapon of mass destruction to kill people.
Tsarnaev's two sisters sobbed when they saw their brother. His feet were shackled, his hand was in a cast and it appeared he suffered some nerve damage to his face. He looked back at his sisters and smiled repeatedly, seeming to ignore both the judge and the seriousness of the situation.
Norden whose two sons lost a leg during the attack had a hard time watching the women.
NORDEN: I mean, it bothered me when they cried. I wanted them to come to my house and see what my boys go through every day and see how we feel.
FEYERICK: The hearing took less than 10 minutes. Tsarnaev returned to prison where he will celebrate his 20th birthday this month.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK: Now, also in court were some of the Tsarnaev's old high school wrestling buddies, and they said two things stood out. First, the Russian accent. They said that when they knew him, he never had any sort of hint of a Russian accident.
The second thing, his body language. They say he was fidgeting and nervous and looking around and sort of hunched over, not the Tsarnaev that they knew. Even his coach said that he came because he wanted to see whether there was any of the old Dzhokhar there, somebody now accused of what he called these diabolical acts -- Chris, Kate.
BOLDUAN: All right. Thanks so much. Deborah Feyerick in Boston for us.
Coming up next on NEW DAY: your political gut check, everyone. Immigration reform grinding to a halt on Capitol Hill, even though the Senate has already passed a bipartisan bill. So much to follow on this. John King is at the magic wall this morning for a very special edition of your political gut check, that's for sure. So --
CUOMO: And check this out -- being hailed as the largest building in the world just opened in China. Wait until you see what's inside.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CUOMO: Nothing says 6:25 in the morning like White Snake. That's what I always say.
BOLDUAN: Yes.
CUOMO: Welcome back to NEW DAY, everybody. It's Thursday, July 11th. I'm Chris Cuomo.
BOLDUAN: I feel like we should be head banging for some reason.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. We're joined by news anchor Michaela Pereira.
PEREIRA: Good morning.
BOLDUAN: Coming up this morning -- a custody battle spanning half way across the world at this point, why one Indiana mother struggling to get her kids back from Cyprus and now, she even faces arrest. CUOMO: It's a wild case.
BOLDUAN: Yes.
CUOMO: Plus, we have today's must-see moment for you. I'll call it really far out. This is an astronaut showing us how she shampoos her hair in outer space. Mickey is going to give new definition to hair- raising.
PEREIRA: This is why I'm a news anchor, not an astronaut. Can you imagine all this? Up that way?
BOLDUAN: Too much.
CUOMO: This I could do with a little baby powder and handheld.
PEREIRA: It's fascinating watching what they do.
BOLDUAN: They asked very good question.
PEREIRA: We'll talk about that coming up.
All right. Let's take a look at our headlines this hour.
In Sanford, Florida, the prosecution in the George Zimmerman murder trial begins closing arguments today. The defense is expected to deliver its closing tomorrow, meaning the jury could begin deciding Zimmerman's fate late in the day Friday.
The defense rested Wednesday without Zimmerman taking the stand. We're going to hear from former Sanford police chief Bill Lee in a matter of moments.
For the first time, we're hearing 911 calls made right after Asiana flight 214 crashed, including this one from a man who just evacuated the plane.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
911 CALLER: Hi. We just left the San Francisco airport and our airplane crashed upon landing and I think you need to come here as soon as possible.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
PEREIRA: Remarkably calm.
The family of the two Chinese girls who died in the crash visited the scene Wednesday. Their parents wanted to see where they died.
Also, the NTSB says the pilot who was flying the plane told them a flash of light blinded him temporarily and it happened at the same time the pilots realized the plane was flying too low and too slow.
The FAA meanwhile is increasing requirements for airline co-pilots, first officer also now have to log at least 1,500 hours of flight time before heading to work in the cockpit. Current regulations allow co- pilots to have 250 hours under their belt. These are rules also call for co-pilots to be rated for the aircraft they are flying, which will require additional training and testing.
The defense has rested in the trial of Army Private Bradley Manning. Manning admits leaking hundreds of thousands of pages of classified material to WikiLeaks, claiming he did it to expose the U.S. military's bloodlust in Afghanistan and Iraq. His defense team argues it didn't harm national security. The rebuttal phase of the trial starts Monday with both sides expected to call witnesses.
Justin Bieber behaving badly again. This time, apparently, it got him a phone call from former President Bill Clinton. TMZ has released a video of the pop star relieving himself in a restaurant's mop bucket. He also sprayed a photo of Clinton with some sort of cleaning product while cursing at the picture of the former president.
Bieber later tweeted that he spoke with Clinton on the phone. He called the former president a, quote, "good guy" and said his words mean a lot.
We should point out Nischelle Turner will have a lot more on this story coming up later in the show. The whole situation is a problem.
BOLDUAN: Who was following him with a camera?
PEREIRA: He's got people.
CUOMO: Everybody.
PEREIRA: He's got people. He's got a crew.
CUOMO: Can you imagine getting that phone call? Who is this, Bill Clinton, the guy I was just spraying --
BOLDUAN: I'd be like, that's a joke.
(CROSSTALK)]
CUOMO: A lot of sorries and silences as you hear what the man has to say.
BOLDUAN: Awkward is the only word to describe that situation. You want to move on?
CUOMO: Yes.
BOLDUAN: I think it's time.
It's also time for our political gut check, coming straight out of Washington. Pressure building on House Republicans to get on board or do something with regard to immigration reform as House Republican leaders met Wednesday to discuss the issue behind closed doors.
CNN's chief national correspondent John King is here to break it down for us. It was a marathon meeting in the base of the capitol, John. Amongst all -- House Republicans getting together kind of try to figure out their strategy, but it seems when they left, that they really put the brakes on doing anything quickly on immigration reform. What's your take on this?
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, optimism for a sweeping bill including a path to citizenship is now fading in Washington. It doesn't mean it's over. Let me show you why the House is very different from the country at large.
We also think about this map, right, the president won re-election. He won pretty big. And he won very big in states like New Mexico and states like Nevada, in states like Florida, I could go on, places where the Latino vote matters. So you would think Republicans because of the states and because of a number like this, the Republicans would be thinking, maybe we want to improve our standing with Latino voters. The president got more than 70 percent.
So, nationally, Republicans say this is a crisis, and they think immigration reform is one of the ways to improve their standing. But when it comes to the House debate on immigration, forget this map, right? Red and blue America, forget it.
Look at this, House districts are more local. There is a lot more red America than there is blue America. When it comes to the House, most of those conservatives go home, they don't think they need to listen to the president and some of them don't think they need to listen to their own leadership when it comes to this issue.
There are only 17 Republicans across the country who are in districts carried by President Obama. Now, the same problem for Democrats, only nine Democrats go home to districts carried by Romney. So they feel safe. They don't feel pressure to compromise or vote with the other guy.
